[f. STADHOLDER + -SHIP.]
1. The office or dignity of a stadholder.
1668. Lond. Gaz., No. 238/3. The Deputies from the States General sent into Vriesland about the business of the Stateholdership.
1673. H. Stubbe, Further Vind. Dutch War, To Rdr. 7. The Election of Great Maurice to the said Stateholdership was purely a provincial act.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1724), I. 273. To try what offices the king would do in order to his advancement to the Stadtholdership.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6153/1. The Stadtholdership of that Province.
1837. Foreign Q. Rev., XIX. 173. The maintenance of the stadtholdership in the Netherlands.
1913. Willcock, Sir H. Vane, xii. 203. During the time of his minority the Statthaltership was in abeyance.
† 2. A district ruled by a stadholder. Obs.
1811. Pinkerton, Mod. Geogr. (ed. 3), 142. Of these twenty-three provinces [of Russia], forty-two stadtholderships were formed.
