a. and sb. [ad. L. beneficiārius: cf. F. bénéficiaire and see -ARY.]
A. adj.
1. Holding, held as, or pertaining to the holding of, a benefice: spec. to the holding of land by feudal tenure: feudatory.
1624. Bacon, Consid. War w. Spain, Wks. 1826, V. 266 (J.). By no less promise than to be made a feudatory, or beneficiary king of England, under the seignory, in chief, of the pope.
a. 1641. Spelman, Feudes & Tenures, xxv. (R.). Beneficiary services … done by the middling or lesser Thanes to the King and the greater Thanes.
1682. Burnet, Rights Princes, vi. 218. Not so ancient as their Beneficiary Tenures.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., II. 51. As if they had received their lands from his bounty … as pure, proper, beneficiary feudatories.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 147. Alodial lands are commonly opposed to beneficiary or feudal.
2. Of a kind by which one benefits or profits. rare.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., viii. (1852), 244. His justice … is not to be considered as the prosecutor of a beneficiary claim, but as an exactor from himself.
B. sb.
1. The holder of a feudal ‘benefice’; a feudatory.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. vii. 138. Wee (being their Beneficiaries or Free-holders for such Countries as wee held in France).
1654. L’Estrange, King Chas. I., 121. He demanded from the Prince … that he … should repute himself as his Beneficiary and Vassal.
1754. Erskine, Princ. Sc. Law (1809), 199. The legislature, looking upon vassals as proprietors, and not merely as beneficiaries.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), I. 131. The great beneficiaries, the most wealthy and potent families in Neustria or France.
2. The holder of an ecclesiastical living.
1641. Milton, Animadv., Wks. 1738, I. 77. Your Beneficiaries the Priests.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 112. If it [a benefice] be annex’d to another Benefice, the Beneficiary is obliged to serve the Parish Church in his own proper Person.
1846. Prescott, Ferd. & Is., I. Introd. 39. The subordinate beneficiaries of his Church.
3. One who receives benefits or favors; a debtor to another’s bounty.
1662. W. Sclater, Exp. 2 Thess. (1627), Ep. Ded. 3. I rest, your thankfull, and most obseruant Beneficiary.
1663. Baxter, Div. Life, 14. We are his Children as he is our Father; or his obliged Beneficiaries as he is our Benefactor.
1856. Olmsted, Slave States, 66. Another young man, who looked like a beneficiary of the Education Society.
1858. Holland, Titcomb’s Lett., vii. 65. Content to be a beneficiary of society—to receive favors and confer none.
