[f. SQUIRE sb. + -SHIP. Cf. ESQUIRESHIP.]
1. The state, position or dignity of a squire or esquire; squirehood.
1613. Overbury, Charact., Common Lawyer, Wks. (1856), 85. Then he begins to sticke his letters in his ground chamber-window; so that the superscription may make his squire-ship transparent.
1620. Shelton, Quix., II. IV. xxv. What profit hast thou reaped by this thy Squireship?
1698. Farquhar, Love & a Bottle, V. iii. I had only a mind to convince you of your squireship.
1730. Swift, Lett., Wks. 1841, II. 633. By the terror of squireship frighting my agent to take what you graciously thought fit to give.
1799. Spirit Pub. Jrnls., III. 279. Is not this enough to sicken us of Squireship.
1868. Lanier, Poems, Jacquerie, ii. 137. Thou art first Squire to that most puissant knight, Lord Satan, who thy faithful squireship long Hath watched.
b. The estate of a squire.
1824. R. Pollok, in D. Pollok, Life, 236. He was more like an heir to a country squireship than a student in theology.
2. The personality of a squire. Chiefly with possessive pronouns.
1786. Burns, On dining with Ld. Daer, ii. When mighty Squireships of the quorum, Their hydra-drouth did sloken!
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxiv. And now, Buncle,… your valiant squireship knows your charge.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 July, 6/1. The waggonette of Squire Calthorpe … is driven up, bearing his squireship’s butler, gardener, and groom.
