Also 6–7 leas(s)ee, 7 lesse. [a. AF. lessee, OF. lessé, pa. pple. of lesser, lessier, mod.F. laisser to leave: see LEASE v.3 and -EE.] A person to whom a lease is granted; a tenant under a lease.
[a. 1481. Littleton, Inst., § 57. Il y ad le Feoffor, & le Feoffee, le Donor & le Donee, le Lessor & le Lessee.]
1495. Act 11 Hen. VII., c. 9 § 2. Lessees … [shall] fynde goode and suffycient suertie.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 8. The lessees … shall defalke, abate, and reteine … as muche of the rentes dewe to the lessours, as thei can proue, to haue expended on the same pauinge.
1587. Harrison, England, II. xii. (1877), I. 242. If the leassee be thought to be worth an hundred pounds.
1614. W. B., Philosopher’s Banquet (ed. 2), 260. The Lesse most leaudly the rent did retaine.
1683. Pettus, Fleta Min., II. 17. The Leasees of our Society did work the Mines of Consumlock and Talibont.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4), II. 1209. If executrix of lessee for years of a rectory take husband, the husband and wife may [etc.].
1884. Yates, Recoll., I. v. 187. The lessee … placed my name on his free list, and for years I went to his theatre once or twice a week.
Hence Lesseeship, the condition or position of a lessee.
1812. Holt, in Examiner, 28 Dec., 831/2. That lesseeship was worth nothing.
1884. Yates, Recoll., I. v. 186. Mr. E. T. Smith … in his time entered on theatrical lesseeship on a large and varied scale.
