Obs. exc. Hist. Forms: see LAY a. and FEE sb.2; also 4 laifeo, 5 laife, leyfe, 6 laffye. [a. AF. lai fe.]
1. A fee or estate in land held in consideration of secular services, as distinguished from an ecclesiastical fee. † Also phr. of lay fee (cf. FEE sb.2 1 b).
c. 1290. Beket, 560, in S. Eng. Leg., 122. Ȝif ani man of holi churche halt ani-þing of lay-fe [c. 1300 (Percy Soc.) 556 holdeth eni laifeo] … he schal done here-fore Þe seruice þat to þe kinge bi-fallez.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 285. ‘Sir,’ þe bisshop said, ‘of þis we pray þe, Þat … nouht of our lay fe Be taxed with non of ȝours.’
a. 1400[?]. Plowman’s Tale, 741. Therewith they purchase hem lay fee In londe there hem liketh best.
1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 246 b. Al yt … maken holy churche Layfee, yt is halowed and blessed.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 148. An Inventory of such Goods and Chattels, as they shall finde in the Lay-fee of the party deceased.
1750. Carte, Hist. Eng., II. 283. Arrogating to his own courts the cognisance of lay-fees in the case of persons of the first quality.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. viii. 182. Besides his archbishopric, he held the county of Evreux as a lay fee.
† 2. The laity, lay people collectively. Orig. in phr. of the lay fee. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., I. (1495), 6. It suffyceth to theym whyche ben of the lay fee or state.
c. 1425. Found. St. Bartholomew’s, 19. The peple of boith ordres, the Clergie And the laife.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. i. 136. I wote not that it is worth forto talke in resonyng with eny persoon of the laife vpon eny mater of Goddis lawe.
1481. Caxton, Godfrey, xv. 43. For tamende clerkes & layefee.
a. 1529. Skelton, Replyc., 267. Why iangle you suche jestes … To the people of lay fee.
1536. Exhort. to North., in Furnivall, Ballads fr. MSS., I. 308. The intollerable exactions that longe he dyd vsse the laffye emonges, and also the spiritualtye.
1545. Primer, Injunction, To … all other of the Clergie: as also al estates and degrees of the laye fee.
1568. Grafton, Chron., II. 118. A great multitude, of the which the king pardoned a great number of the laye Fee.
1641. Prynne, Antip., 79. More of their Tenants went to the Kings warres, then of the Tenants of them of the Lay fee.
