Forms: 4 Sc. teneindri, 4–6 Sc. ten(n)andry, -endry, 5–6 tenentry, 5– tenantry. [f. TENANT sb. + -RY.]
1. The state or condition of being a tenant; occupancy as a tenant; tenancy; tenantship.
1391. in Fraser, Lennox (1874), II. 43. Murthow … sal indow hir in the barony of the Redehall with the apportenantis in tenandry and in demayn.
1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Manus, The King may be thereby prejudged in his tennendrie, dewtie and service.
1606. Warner, Alb. Eng., XVI. ciii. 406. To take the foyson Lords haue skill, On Tainters setting Tenentries, oft for Expences ill.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), I. p. xxi. It was only by the tenantry of the peaceful monks that the land was even tolerably tilled.
1889. Cornh. Mag., Dec., 563. The Miss Tremenheeres had almost come to an end of their tenantry at Elm Place.
2. Land held of a superior; land let out to tenants; also, the profits of such land.
1385. in 3rd Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., 410/1. Somonde at the chef plaz of the teneindri of Lytilton.
1438. St. Andrews Regr. (Bann. Cl.), 430. Ovirmalgask is fundin a tenandry in yhour awyn court of þe fornemmyt lordschip.
c. 1460. Oseney Regr., 20. With all churchis and chapells londis rentis tenauntries and tithes possessions and other thynges to þe saide church of seynte George perteynyng.
1584. Reg. Privy Council Scot., III. 673. Thair saidis tennendreis salbe annext to the Kingis Majesteis propirtie as his propir rent.
1597. Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Recognition, Lands … annalied, and sauld be them heritably, to be halden of themselues and their aires, ceasis to be propertie to them, and becomes tennendry immediately halden of them and their aires.
† b. The holding of a tenant; a piece of land, a dwelling-house, or the like, held by a tenant under the landlord. Also transf. Obs.
c. 1450. Godstow Regr., 149. To lete to oony man the foresayde tenantry ne no perte of hit with-owte speciall licence of þe foresayde abbesse.
1465. Marg. Paston, in P. Lett., II. 176. Ther be dyvers of your tenantrys at Mauteby that had gret ned for to be reparyed.
1521. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. The wyndowes of the tenauntry in Doklane.
1528. Tindale, Obed. Chr. Man, 50 b. Let Christen londlordes be contente with their rent and olde customes not … lettinge ij. or iij. tenauntryes vnto one man.
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 3 § 9. Tenauntries cotages or other convenient howses to be lodged in.
1613–1. Taxt Roll, 20 Jan., in Glasgow Daily Herald (1864), 24 Sept. Cruixsfie propertie and tennandrie, 100 lib.
c. A set of houses owned by tenants collectively.
1905. Westm. Gaz., 23 Aug., 8/3. It is here sought to prove as a sound economical principle … the collective ownership of a house with individual responsibility. No one tenant owns any distinct house in any ‘tenantry,’ but the profits that accrue from that particular ‘tenantry,’ after the deduction of interest on the money, cost of repairs, &c., are shared amongst the tenants.
3. spec. That part of a manor or estate under common or open-field husbandry (Tusser’s ‘champion countrie,’ Husb., lxiii.) occupied by tenants, as distinct from the lord’s demesne (as in Domesday Survey, ‘terra in dominio’ and ‘terra in villenagio’). Hence, locally applied to the condition or system of tenancy under open-field husbandry. See also tenantry acre, field, flock, land, in 5.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts., 14. The abolition of common-field husbandry (or as it is called in Wiltshire ‘Tenantry’). Ibid. Modern improvements … cannot be adopted to any extent, in lands lying in a state of tenantry. Ibid. Tenantry yard-lands (or customary tenements) … are still subject to the rights of common.
1844. Little, in Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. Eng., V. I. 178. Most of these commons are now enclosed;… some still remain in pasture, and the common field husbandry, or ‘tenantry,’ as it is called, is abolished.
4. The body of tenants on an estate or estates. (Now the most usual sense.).
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., VII. 752. That they have begger’d halfe their Tenantry.
1781. Cowper, Hope, 252. Kind souls! to teach their tenantry to prize What they themselves, without remorse, despise.
1868. Mill, Eng. & Irel., 37. Those landlords who are the least useful in Ireland, and on the worst terms with their tenantry.
1875. Mrs. Randolph, W. Hyacinth, I. 46. I shall introduce you to the tenantry as their future mistress.
b. transf. A set of occupants or inhabitants.
1798. H. Melville, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxix. 18. The tiny tenantry [of a drop of water] are carrying on their usual concerns.
1880. E. Kirke, Garfield, 44. Under the sway of terrestrial laws, winds blow, waters flow, and all the tenantries of the planet live and move.
5. attrib. and Comb., as, in sense 3, tenantry acre, down, field, flock, land, road; tenantry dinner, a dinner given to the tenants on an estate.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts., 61. In the common fields … the usual rule is, to allow one thousand sheep to fold what they call a *tenantry acre (about three-fourths of a statute acre) per night.
1903. Westm. Gaz., 9. Jan., 7/2. The *tenantry dinner.
1794. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts., 58. The old custom of the *tenantry fields of Wiltshire was … to give a year’s fallow previous to wheat. Ibid. (1813), Gloss., Tenantry Fields and Downs, fields and downs in a state of commonage on the ancient feudal system of copyhold tenancy.
1793. A. Young, Agric. Sussex, 69. A *tenantry flock [of sheep] (the joint property of several people) belonging to the parish of Denton.
1853. W. D. Cooper, Sussex Gloss., 65, note. The proportion between the tenantry and the statute acre is very uncertain. The *tenantry land was divided first into laines, of several acres in extent, with good roads … between them; at right angles with these were formed … *tenantry roads … dividing the laines into furlongs.
