Also 6–7 vicountie, 8 -ty. [f. VISCOUNT + -Y. Cf. OF. vis-, viconte(i, etc., F. vicomté, It. viscontado, Sp. viz-, Pg. viscondado, and med.L. vicecomitatus.]
† 1. A viscount. Obs.–1
1586. J. Hooker, Hist. Irel., in Holinshed, II. 131/2. From thense by iourneies he marched and went to Corke, being met in the waie by the vicounties of Roch and Barrie, and by sir Corman Mac Teege.
2. Hist. The office or jurisdiction of, the territory under the authority of, a viscount.
1611. Cotgr., Vice-conte, a vicountie, a vicountship.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Viscounty, the Territory of a Viscount; a sort of Lordship, or Jurisdiction in France; as The Viscounty of Turenne is very considerable.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, France, IV. 286. Caen has a provostship, a presidial, a vicounty, an office of the finances of the admiralty, and other royal tribunals.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 6. Mons. Colmar, a Jew, bought the seignory and estate, including the viscounty of Amiens, of the Duke of Chaulnes.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xviii. 288. The Viscounty of Dinan … became … the heritage of a young lady.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. viii. 252. William was now at a point in Neal’s own viscounty, at no great distance from his own castle.
1898. S. Evans, Holy Graal, 46. Five brothers shared among them the viscounty of that city [Marseilles].
3. = VISCOUNTCY.
1859. Lever, Dav. Dunn, lxxii. ‘But the title?’ ‘The Viscounty goes with the English property.’
1874. Dixon, Two Queens, XVIII. vii. III. 353. About the time when he received the viscounty of Rochford.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 9 Nov., 10/2. His Majesty has … been pleased to confer the dignity of a Viscounty upon Lord Iveagh, K.T.
