[f. WARD sb.2 + -SHIP.]
1. The office or position of guardian.
a. The guardianship of a minor; spec. in Feudal law, the guardianship and custody of the person and lands of a minor with all profits accruing during his minority.
1454. Paston Lett., I. 306. Sir, forasmych as the Kyng hathe grauntyd be hese lettres patent the wardship with the profites of the londes of T. Fastolf duryng hese nun age to you and T. H. [etc.].
1540. Act 32 Hen. VIII., c. 46. Personnes, to whom the kinges highnes shall graunt the custodye and wardeship of any of his graces wardes.
1543. trans. Act 3 Edw. I., c. 47. And yf an other wardeyne than the chiefe lorde do it, he shall lese the wardshyp of all togyther.
1586. T. Randolph, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. III. 123. The Master of Glames and the Secretarye have gotten of the King the wardshippe and marriage of the Erle Mongomeris sonne, being but two yeares of age.
1641. Earl Monm., trans. Biondi’s Civ. Warres, V. 127. He gave him two rich wardships.
1766. Blackstone, Comm., II. v. 67. The lord was intitled to the wardship of the heir; and was called the guardian in chivalry. This wardship consisted in having the custody of the body and lands of such heir, without any account of the profits, till the age of twenty one in males, and sixteen in females.
1870. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (ed. 2), I. iv. 210. King Lewis may have already begun to entertain some dim notion that wardship over the fief of a minor vassal was a right which of necessity belonged to the Lord.
1884. Law Times, LXXVII. 399/1. Sect. 35 … assigns to the Chancery Division the wardship of infants.
b. gen. Guardianship, protection, custody. Chiefly fig.
1631. Weever, Anc. Funeral Mon., 456. [He] freed this kingdome from the wardship of the Peeres.
1635. Quarles, Embl., II. iii. 5. Thou grand Impostor, how hast thou obtain’d The wardship of the world!
1641. Milton, Reform., II. 43. This is the master-piece of a modern politician,… how the puny Law may be brought under the wardship and controul of lust and will.
1647. Clarendon, Contempl. Ps., Tracts (1727), 385. Truth itself is so much in the wardship of Almighty God,… that if all other means fail, he will by his own immediate power vindicate it.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. ix. 335. This officer is of equal antiquity with the sheriff; and was ordained together with him to keep the peace, when the earls gave up the wardship of the county.
1825. Scott, Betrothed, xxix. I pray you let me have the grace to take first possession of the Garde Doloureuse, and the wardship or foifeiture of the offending lady.
1884. Ld. Rosebery, in Pall Mall Gaz., 9 Dec., 7/2. Great Britain could have no wish for selfish annexation. She was already committed to wardship and protection of an empire such as the world had never yet seen.
1887. Hall Caine, Deemster, xxxvii. I try in these my last days to put my memory under wardship.
2. The state or condition of being a ward; spec. in Feudal law, the condition of being under guardianship as a minor.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Gal. iv. 4–5. Assone as we came out of wardeship, and wer growen vp to a ryper age.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., 66. In lamentyng the miserye of wardeshyppes, I might saie it is not for noughte so communely said, I wil handle you like a warde.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 111. The man is not out of Wardship by our Lawe till one and twenty yeere olde, from thence hee is reckoned of full age, as well as in the Romaine Lawes at fiue and twenty.
1579–80. North, Plutarch, Demosthenes (1612), 846. When he came out of his wardship, he beganne to put his guardians in suite.
1631. Massinger, Emperor East, III. i. Theod. Let it suffice My wardships out. If your designe concernes ys As a man, and not a boy, with our allowance You may deliuer it.
1641. Baker, Chron., Rich. II., 10. He was somewhat more then one and twenty; Well, then (said he) I am out of Wardship.
1780. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xvi. § 44. 266, note. In certain nations, women, whether married or not, have been placed in a state of perpetual wardship.
1874. Green, Short Hist., iii. § 5. 140. Three English earls who were in royal wardship were wedded by the King to foreigners.
b. transf. and fig.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng. (1609), 7. Lewes the xi. … was wont to glorie and say, he had brought the crowne of Fraunce, hors de page, as one would say, out of wardship.
1648. Fairfax, etc., Remonstrance, 46. To deliver His Crown once for all, from Wardship (as he counts it) to Parliamentary power.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolom., I. iii. 112. I must perforce Leave him in wardship to his innocence.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., II. xxvii. 186. We have written the origin of our country; we are now to pursue the history of its wardship.
