a. (sb.) [ad. late L. territōriāl-is, f. territōri-um TERRITORY1. Cf. F. territorial (18th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. Of, belonging or relating to territory or land, or to the territory of any state, sovereign, or ruler.
1768. R. Wood, Ess. Homer (1769), 22. Three other litigated cases with regard to territorial property and dominion.
1798. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1893, XIV. 20. An actual Invasion of our territorial rights.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. iv. II. 135. Freeing themselves from the territorial jurisdiction of the temporal and spiritual princes.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., vi. (ed. 2), 231. ‘Territorial water,’ in its essence means any water over which, or over the entrance to which, the Power possessing the coast can throw shot. Custom has given an arbitrary range of three miles.
1906. Daily News, 28 May, 9/1. The Jewish Territorial Organization, whose aim is to secure an autonomous home for the Jews in territory under the British flag.
b. Of or pertaining to landed property.
1773. Gentl. Mag., XLIII. 199. It will be more beneficial to the public and the East India Company, to let the territorial acquisitions remain in the possession of the Company for a limited time.
1800. Proc. Parl., in Asiat. Ann. Reg., 49/2. That the dead stock and territorial revenue of India were enlarged very much, he was ready to allow.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. 492. A plan … for keeping the territorial and commercial accounts distinct in future.
1855. Delamer, Kitch. Gard. (1861), 1. Territorial possessions are too highly prized in England for men lightly to yield even a fraction of such property at a fair value.
c. Possessed of land, owning or having an estate in land; landed.
1832. Sir F. Palgrave, Rise Eng. Commw., I. i. 15. The territorial aristocracy.
1867. R. Congreve, Ess. (1874), 173. The territorial and moneyed aristocracy … is being brought daily into more direct … opposition to the people which it has governed.
1884. Manch. Exam., 25 March, 5/1. The preservation of that ascendency which the territorial class now enjoys.
2. Of or pertaining to a particular territory, district, or locality; local.
1625. Bp. Mountagu, App. Cæsar, i. 8. Each particular and private Church, for speciall and particular and territoriall questions & quærees.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), II. 131. The gods … were local and territorial divinities.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 4. ‘The Parish,’ whether as a mere territorial division or an active Institution, is not ecclesiastical either in origin or in purpose.
1868. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, iv. (1869), 111. Phthie itself is … the only territorial name [etc.] … which we find in the Greece of Homer.
b. Sc. Law. Of jurisdiction: Extending over and restricted to a defined territory: see TERRITORY1 1 c.
1765–8. Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., I. ii. § 11. Because this kind of jurisdiction was incident to, and followed the lands or territory to which it was annexed,… it got the name of territorial.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., s.v., Territorial Jurisdiction was at one time universal; but, becoming formidable, was repeatedly discouraged by different acts,… and by 20 Geo. II. C. 43, all heritable jurisdictions … were abolished or annexed to the Crown, with the exception [etc.].
c. Sc. Of or pertaining to an ecclesiastical district, not a parish. Territorial church, one organized to serve a particular district, esp. a poor and thickly populated one, without regard to the existing parish boundaries. So territorial minister. Now little used. (Introduced by Dr. Chalmers.)
1822. Chalmers, Sp. Gen. Assembly, 24 May, Notes, 52. The assignation of a territorial district to each chapel.
1863. A. H. Charteris, J. Robertson, viii. 231. A territorial church furnishes the best of all means for leavening the people.
1863. W. G. Blaikie, Better Days for Working People, v. (1864), 119. They are the heart-breaks of the city missionary, the territorial minister and the district visitor.
1873. T. Cochrane, Home Mission Work, vi. (1885), 144. A humble labourer in the territorial field.
3. Of or belonging to one of the ‘territories’ of the United States: see TERRITORY1 4.
1812. Brackenridge, Views Louisiania (1814), 99. The territorial governor [of Missouri] acts as well in the capacity of a general agent for the United States, as in that of civil magistrate. Ibid., 142. In 1805, it was erected into a territorial government … by the name of the Territory of Louisiana.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., I. I. xiii. 167. There are also eight Territorial delegates, one from each of the Territories … not yet formed into States.
4. Mil. a. Territorial Regiments, the regiments of infantry of the line of the British Army, under the scheme of Army reorganization of 1881, by which each regiment is associated in name, depot, etc., with a particular county or locality.
1881. Queen’s Regul., 1. Precedence of Corps…. The Territorial Regiments.
1885. Whitaker’s Alm., 158. Territorial Regiments of the Line…. Arranged alphabetically by the titles directed to be used in official correspondence.
b. Territorial Army or Force, the British Army of Home Defence instituted (on a territorial or local basis) in 1908. Also Territorial as sb. a member of the Territorial Army.
1907. Outlook, 30 Nov., 76/2. There is no evident reason why any old Volunteer should hesitate about joining the Territorial Army. Ibid. There is nothing to deter the ex-Volunteer from becoming a Territorial.
1908. Westm. Gaz., 23 March, 7/3. So soon as the Reserves of the Regular Army were called out, the Territorial Force, the second line, should be mobilised to go into war training.
1908. Daily Chron., 1 April, 7/4. Yesterday the existence of the Volunteers as such terminated, and to-day the Territorial Army comes into being.
