Sc. Obs. Also 6 fermans, firmans, 7 fermance. [ad. OF. fermance (1) an enclosure, (2) a guarantee, f. fermer to shut, confirm, secure:—L. firmāre: see FIRM v.]
1. The state or condition of being confined; confinement, imprisonment; chiefly in phrase: (to keep, put) in firmance. Also concr. An enclosure.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, XII. Prol. 176. Within fermans and parkis cloys of palys.
c. 1565. Lindsay of Pitscottie, Chron. Scot. (1728), 63. Himself to be put in sicker Firmance.
1613. Bp. Forbes, On Revel. xx. 211. The surenesse, is cleered in the person apprehender, and manner of fermance.
1679. in G. Hickes, Spirit of Popery, 64. We with advice of Our Privy-Council, do Command and Charge all Sheriffs … to Search for, Seek, Take, and Apprehend the Persons afternamed … and put them in sure Ward and Firmance, until they be brought to Justice.
1721. Wodrow, Hist. Ch. Scot. (1829), II. II. xiii. 485/2. He was thrust into the thieves’ hole, a very nasty place, and had for companions, three men there in firmance for robbery, murder, and bestiality.
1752. J. Louthian, Form of Process (ed. 2), 137. Rebels foresaid, where-ever they can or may be apprehended, within the Bounds of their respective Jurisdictions, put them in sure Ward, Firmance and Captivity.
2. Assurance, confidence; also, a source of confidence. To make firmance to: to give a pledge of faithfulness to.
1536. Bellenden, Cron. Scot., The Proheme of the Cosmographe, vi.
| So lang I swomit in hir seis deip | |
| That sad auising with hir thochtfull lance | |
| Couth find na port to ankir hir firmance. |
b. Firmly established condition, stability.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, II. (1822), 107. The Romanis … ar brocht to sic firmance, that they may, with ripe and strang pussance, sustene the plesand frute of libertie.
