Meanings
- pluralplural onlymedieval English lawTenants who held land by the service of repairing or defending a church or monument and were therefore exempt from feudal and military duties; specifically, the caretakers of the body of St Cuthbert.
More curious still is the position of certain tenants of the bishopric who called themselves Holyworkfolk, who claimed that their only duty was to pray
1877, The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, Art, and Finance, volume 44, page 5252 more examples
This they naturally considered an indignity, and made a party against on the ground that were Holyworkfolk and held their lands for the defence of the body of St. Cuthbert, and not at the bishop's pleasure
1878, Thomas Duffus Hardy, “Preface”, in Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense: The Register of Richard de Kellawe, Lord Palatine and Bishop of Durham, page viiiRecord made before justices in eyre by elder men of the Holyworkfolk (Durham) and Northumberland of a sworn inquest held in the time of King Henry I concerning fishery rights in the Tyne
1991, R. C. van Caenegem, English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I: Henry II and Richard I, page 437
Origin
Cite this entry
Holyworkfolk. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Holyworkfolk
“Holyworkfolk.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Holyworkfolk. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Holyworkfolk,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Holyworkfolk.
Source: Holyworkfolk on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.