Also less correctly lieutenantcy. [f. LIEUTENANT: see -ANCY.] The office of a lieutenant.
† 1. Delegated authority or command. Obs.
a. 1631. Donne, in Select. (1840), 255. He that resists his [God’s] commission, his lieutenancy, his authority, in law-makers appointed by him, resists himself.
2. The office of a lieutenant, in various senses; e.g., that of deputy governor of a kingdom, etc., of LORD-LIEUTENANT of a county; also, the commission of lieutenant in the army or navy.
1450. Rolls of Parlt., V. 186/2. Graunte to hym made, of eny Revenuez … for his seid Lieutenauncie there.
1675. Ogilby, Brit., Introd. 3. The Regiments … upon a Commission of Lieutenancy … were settled.
1703. Lond. Gaz., No. 3886/4. The Earl of Rochester having desired to be discharged from the Lieutenancy of Ireland.
1711. Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 4 April. Her husband bought a lieutenancy of foot, and is gone to Portugal. Ibid. (1712), Lett. to Whig Lord, Wks. 1824, IV. 108. All your lordship can hope for, is only the lieutenancy of a county.
1799. Washington, Lett., Writ. (1893), XIV. 177. A lieutenancy was considered a handsome appointment for him.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xiii. When I was intrusted with the lieutenancy of the kingdom.
1841. J. T. Hewlett, Parish Clerk, III. 7. All he could obtain as a reward for his services was the appointment to a coast-guard lieutenancy.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 423. The Earl of Abingdon … had recently been turned out of the lieutenancy of the county.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. xviii. 140. Edmund Beaufort was ordered to undertake the lieutenancy in France and Normandy.
3. The term of a lieutenant’s office.
1632. Le Grys, trans. Velleius Paterc., 109. In his Lievetenancie under Marius in France … hee [Sylla] had routed some of the most esteemed Captaines.
1673. Essex Papers (Camden), I. 108. In ye time of my Lord Berkeley’s Lieutenancy.
1842. De Quincey, Cicero, Wks. VI. 226. The prolongation of these lieutenantcies beyond the legitimate year was one source of enormous evil.
† 4. The district or province governed by a lieutenant. Obs.
1588. Q. Eliz., in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. III. 138. The preparinge of our Subjectes within your Lievetennauncies to be in readines for defence againste any attempte.
1687. in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 258. The list of Deputie Lievetenants … throughout the said Lievetenancie.
1726. Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 266. I mention’d the surprisal of that place [Iquique], it being but a small Lieutenancy.
5. The body of deputy-lieutenants in a county. Also, in the city of London, the body of commissioners (sometimes incorrectly called ‘deputy-lieutenants’), now usually appointed annually, who perform the duties of a Lord-lieutenant with regard to the militia and volunteers.
1679. in Proceed. Guildhall Sept. 13th, 3. He would cause the Lieutenancy to meet on Thursday next.
1683. in Lond. Gaz., No. 1859/1. The late Addresses from the Lieutenancy, Grand-Juries, and Corporations in our County.
1708. Q. Anne, ibid., No. 4496/1. I Thank the Lieutenancy for their Address.
1709. H. Felton, Classics (1718), 115. The List of Undisputed Masters, is hardly so long as the List of the Court of Aldermen and Lieutenancy of our famous Metropolis.
1727. Boyer, Fr. Dict., s.v., The Lieutenancy of London (the Officers of the Artillery-Men).
1873. Act 36 & 37 Vict., c. 84 § 2. The commissioners of lieutenancy of the city of London.
b. pl. The bodies of troops under the command of the Lord-lieutenants and commissioners of lieutenancy.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 28, ¶ 5. Our Militia and Lieutenancies, the most ancient Corps of Soldiers, perhaps in the Universe.
