Franchise sb.

Forms: 3–6 fraunchis(e, -yse, 4–6 franchis, -yse, -es, 5–6 fraunches, -schis(se, (6 franchese, fraunces, -chest, -chiese, -cis), 3– franchise. [a. OF. franchise freedom, frankness, f. franc free, FRANK a.²

  For the history of the pronunciation, see ENFRANCHISE.]

  I.  Freedom, immunity, privilege.

  † 1.  Freedom as opposed to servitude or subjection. Obs.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 142/1271. And to bi-nime þe kynge is fraunchise.

1297.  R. Glouc. (Rolls), 1091.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 378. Þe goodes of body ben hele of body, as strengthe, delivernesse, beautee, gentrye, fraunchise.

1475.  The Boke of Noblesse, 71. Arnus, a leder of peple, assemblid a gret oost ayenst the Romains to have discomfit hem and put hem in servage out of her fraunchise.

1525.  Ld. Berners, Froiss. (1812), II. xliii. 140. Ye sholde take all that we haue to ayde and to maynteyne vs and our fraunches.

1648.  D. Jenkins, Wks., 110. The House of Commons by themselves … have no power to imprison men, or put them out of Franchise.

  † b.  Moral freedom. Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 1637.

1477.  Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 27. What was the mooste difficulte in a man…. To knowe hym self, To kepe his fraunchyse or liberte.

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 28/2. For where the holy ghoost is, there is fraunchyse and lyberte.

  2.  a. A legal immunity or exemption from a particular burden or exaction, or from the jurisdiction of a particular tribunal, granted to an individual, a corporation, an order of persons, etc. In early use also collect. or in generalized sense: The immunities, freedom of government, etc., belonging to a municipality, etc.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 130.

1473.  Warkw., Chron., 2. He ratyfied and confermyd all the ffraunsches yeve to citeis and townes, &c. and graunted to many cyteis and tounes new fraunschesses.

1480.  Caxton, Chron., cxlvii. Ij. & that holy chyrch shold haue all fraunchises as ferforth as they had in seint Edwards tyme the confessour.

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., VII. 336. Thys yere the kynge seasyd the fraunchyse of the cytye of London.

1538.  Leland, Itin., II. 68. King Eadgar was crounid with much joy and honor at S. Peter’s in Bath; wherapon he bare a gret Zeale to the Towne, and gave very great Frauncheses and Privilges onto it.

1559.  in Strype, Ann. Ref., I. App. viii. 22. All Franchises and Liberties of the Bisshoppericks and Clergye deryvid from the Crowne, and sworne by Kings in their Coronations.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 92. A most famous towne … endowed by Claudius the Emperour of happie memorie, with the franchises and right of a Colonie.

1641.  Termes de la Ley, 167. Franchise is a French word, and signifies in our Law an Immunity or exemption from ordinary Jurisdiction, as for a Corporation to hold pleas within themselves to such a value, & the like.

1757.  Burke, Abridgm. Eng. Hist., III. viii. Wks. 1812, V. 684. They had strength enough to oblige him [John] to a solemn promise of restoring those liberties and franchises, which they had always claimed.

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), III. xxiii. 334. The city, having first obtained assurance of respect for all its franchises and immunities, surrendered.

  b.  In wider sense: A privilege or exceptional right granted by the sovereign power to any person or body of persons. In England now chiefly Hist. and as a technical term of law; in the U.S. applied esp. to the powers conferred on a company formed for some purpose of public utility.

1386.  Rolls of Parlt., III. 225/1. Noughtwithstondyng the same fredam or fraunchise, Nichol Brembre … was chosen Mair, in destruccion of many ryght.

1479.  Bury Wills (Camden), 53. I beqwethe to Robert myn son, my tenmentes called Calfes and Northes … w^t the fraunchyse of faldes of ijCC shepe to eche of the seyd tenmentes bylongyng.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. ccclxxxi. 640. Ther was an vsage in England, and yet is in diuerse countreys, that the noble men hath great fraunches ouer the commons, and kepeth them in seruage.

1557.  N. T. (Genev.), Luke xxiii. 17, note. For the Romains had gyuen such franches and liberties to the Iewes [to ‘let one lowse vnto them at the feast’].

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., IV. ix. 37.

1598.  Manwood, Lawes Forest, i. § 5 (1615), 24/2. A Forest … is the most highest franchise of noble, and princely pleasure, that can be insident unto the Crowne and Royall dignitie of a Prince.

1628.  Coke, On Litt., 121. A mannor whereunto the franchise of waife and stray and such like are appendant.

16[?].  Act Chas. I., c. 15 (Manley), 20. And the Lords and owners of Fairs, Markets and other Franchises.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 258, 26 Dec., ¶ 2. I do humbly propose … that another Theatre of Ease may be erected … and that the Direction thereof may be made a Franchise in Fee to me and my Heirs for ever.

1767.  Blackstone, Comm., II. 37. Franchise and liberty are used as synonymous terms: and their definition is, a royal privilege, or branch of the king’s prerogative, subsisting in the hands of a subject.

1824.  J. Marshall, Const. Opin. (1839), 324. The bill is brought, it is said, for the purpose of protecting the bank in the exercise of a franchise granted by a law of the United States, which franchise the state of Ohio asserts a right to invade, and is about to invade.

1866.  Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. ii. 33. The right of having a water-mill was a franchise, and could not be invaded without liability to action for damages or fine in the manor court.

1876.  Digby, Real Prop., 1. App. § 1. 268. The rights to have ‘waifs, wrecks, estrays, treasure-trove, royal fish, forfeitures, and deodands’ are franchises, which must rest on royal grant, or prescription which presupposes a grant.

1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. III. lxvi. 500. After the sale by the Board of Aldermen of the Broadway franchise (the right of laying down a tramway in Broadway), the Aldermanic office was much sought after. Ibid., lxvii. 521. The form which corruption usually takes in the populous cities is the sale of ‘franchises’ (especially monopolies in the use of public thoroughfares).

1893.  Pall Mall G., 30 April, 4/3. The Weights and Measures Bill … empower[s] municipal and County Councils to purchase ‘franchises’ of weights and measures.

  † 3.  Freedom from arrest, secured to fugitives in certain privileged places; right of asylum or sanctuary; privileged character, inviolability, of a place of refuge. Hence concr. an asylum, sanctuary.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 323. Here men wondren moche whi alle manquelleris shullen have þis fraunchise of þe sche [? read seintuarie].

c. 1450.  Life of St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4994.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VIII. vi. 69.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 121. They forbeare those also that flie vnto them as to a place of franchise and priuiledge.

  attrib.  1525.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. clx. 177 a. Trecte, a fraunches towne for all maner of people.

  4.  The freedom of or full membership of a body corporate or politic; citizenship.

1579.  Fulke, Refut. Rastel, 742. Our franches, freedom, or conuersation is in heauen.

1606.  Holland, Sueton., Annot. 2. Unlesse they might be donati civitate. i. enioy the Franchises and Freedome of Rome.

1838.  Thirlwall, Greece, II. 36. He [Solon] published an amnesty, or act of grace, which restored those citizens who had been deprived of their franchise for lighter offences.

1876.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. V. xxiii. 305. The men of London, for the greatness of their city, ranked with the barons of the realm, and many barons of the realm had been admitted to the franchise of their commonalty.

  † 5.  The district over which the privilege of a corporation or an individual extends; a territory, domain. Cf. LIBERTY. To go or ride the franchises: to beat the bounds. Obs.

1486.  Surtees Misc. (1888), 53. Tadcastre brige, being thextremitie of y^e fraunches.

1526.  R. Whytford, Martiloge (1893), 64. In the fraunchest of pontyne. Ibid., 174. In the fraunchest of lyngon.

1572.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 341. The francheses of this Cytie shalbe ryd according to auncient custom.

1621.  Bolton, Stat. Ireland, 36 Hen. VI., 27. This Statute shall be observed and take place as well within Franchises and liberties as without.

1680.  Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 493. That day he went the franchises with the mayor and citizens.

1774.  E. Jacob, Faversham, 27. The river, which separates the franchise of the church of Canterbury, down to a place towards the south.

1876.  Digby, Real Prop., i. i. § 2. 15. The rights were regarded as taken away from the hundred court and vested in the grantee as the owner of a franchise or liberty or district exempt from the jurisdiction of the hundred.

  attrib.  1577.  Nottingham Rec., IV. 168. Item payd for carydg of the olde fraunces crose to the towne xxd. Ibid. (1587), 215. Another hole in Wilforth Pasture next to the lodge to want frauncis stones.

  6.  The right or privilege of voting at public elections, esp. for members of the legislative body.

  (Originally a mere contextual application of 2 b; more fully, elective franchise; now the prevailing sense.)

1790.  Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks., V. 318. It would be too much to tell a man jealous of his equality, that the elector has the same franchise who votes for three members as he who votes for ten.

1819.  Mackintosh, Parl. Suffrage, Wks. 1846, III. 215. The reasons which make it important to liberty, that the elective franchise should be exercised by large bodies of the lower classes, do not in the least degree require that it should be conferred on them all.

1817.  Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xiii. 36. New boroughs, however, as being grown into importance, or from some private motive, acquired the franchise of election.

1845.  McCulloch, Taxation, I. ii. (1852), 66. The occupier of a 10l. house have been intrusted with the elective franchise.

1869.  Rawlinson, Anc. Hist., 128. The Periœci, or free inhabitants of the country-towns and villages, citizens in a certain sense, but without franchise; possessors of the poorer lands, and the only class engaged in trade, commerce, and handicrafts.

  b.  In recent use: One of the various principles of qualification by which the bestowal of the elective franchise may be regulated. Fancy franchise: see FANCY C.

1884.  Gladstone, in Daily News, 29 Feb., 2/4. We propose to establish a new franchise, which I should call—till a better phrase be discovered—the service franchise.

  II.  As an attribute of character or action.

  † 7.  Nobility of mind; liberality, generosity, magnanimity. Obs.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 750. Ȝif I for-loyne as a fol þy fraunchyse may serue.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Frankl. T., 796.

c. 1450.  Merlin, 280. And ther-fore remembre vs of pitee and of youre grete fraunchise.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xi. 283. Telle Reynawde that he com to socour me, for he is my man, and that he take no hede to my trespase & evyll dede, but to his fraunchyse.

1658.  J. Coles, Cleopatra, 161. It might be remedied by an action of generosity and franchise,.

  † 8.  Freedom or licence of speech or manners.

1567.  Drant, Horace’s Epist., II. i. G v.