[f. as prec. + -SHIP.] The condition or position of being a tribe; the members of a tribe collectively, or their territory. Free tribeship, sceptre t., the position of being a free tribe or the ‘sceptre-tribe.’
1782. J. Brown, Comp. View Nat. & Rev. Relig., IV. i. 291. The Sceptre Tribeship, or power of Supreme Government … is now long ago departed.
1840. J. Wilson, Our Israelitish Origin, vi. (1865), 69. The greater part of the tribeship of Judah lay South of Jerusalem.
1862. W. Barnes, in Macm. Mag., March, 412/1. Trial by Jury seems… to have been practised by the Celtic people … in their times of free tribeship.
