Also 5–6 laye, laie, 6–8 ley. [? Aphetic form of ALLAY sb.] Alloy. Chiefly attrib. in lay metal, the name of a kind of pewter.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiii. (George), 402. Þi godis … Ar mad bot of handis of mene Of gold and siluir & of clay, Of stok, of stone ore of lay.
1489. Will of Wynter (Somerset Ho.). j C de fyne metall et j C de lay metall.
1503. Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 6 § 3. That no manere of person … make no holowe wares of Peauter, that is to say Saltes and Pottes that is made of Peweter called Ley Metell, but that it may be after the Assise of Peauter Ley Metell wrought within the Cite of London.
1534. in Peacock, Eng. Ch. Furniture (1866), 210. Item xxv platers of lay metall.
1538. Inv., in J. W. Clark, Barnwell, Introd. (1897), p. xxiii. Item j lauer of laye mettell.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. App. 562. Lead and tin Ley-pewter, soft sold[er].
