Meanings
- EnglandWaleshistoricalrareuncountablelawThe medieval English governmental office that recorded escheated property.
In view of Clement’s advanced age and busy legal practice, the demands of the escheatery must have been onerous for him.
2014, Christopher Starr, “Escheator”, in Medieval Lawyer: Clement Spice of Essex, Essex Society for Archaeology and History, →ISBN, page 852 more examples
Thomas Singleton, bailiff of the escheatery of the town of Lancaster, rendered account in 1441 of £8 4s. 7d. due from ancient rents and various burgages and plats of land which had escheated to the king as duke from various causes.
1914, “Lonsdale Hundred (North of the Sands)”, in William Farrer, J. Brownbill, editors, Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, volume 8, Constable and Company, page 39Most importantly, the administrative “experiments” of the Despensers—the home staple, escheatery restructuring, and the designation of “chamber lands”—were brought to an end or modified.
2008 October 27, J. S. Bothwell, “The More Things Change: Isabella and Mortimer, Edward III, and the Painful Delay of a Royal Majority (1327-1330)”, in Charles Beem, editor, The Royal Minorities of Medieval and Early Modern England, Palgrave Macmillan US, →ISBN, page 85
Origin
A calque from Middle English or Anglo-Norman escheterie; equivalent to escheat + -ery.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
escheatery. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/escheatery
“escheatery.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/escheatery. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “escheatery,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/escheatery.
Source: escheatery on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.