patroonship

plural patroonships

1. UScountablehistoricaluncountableThe position or office of a patroon; landownership (originally of a Dutch colony).

   His patroonship of Rensellaerwick lay immediately below Fort Aurania, and extended for several miles on each side of the Hudson, beside embracing the mountainous region of the Helderberg.

   1809, Washington Irving, A History of New York

   1 more example

   It was a protest against the patroonship system, which went back to the 1600s when the Dutch ruled New York, a system where […] ‘a few families, intricately intermarried, controlled the destinies of three hundred thousand people and ruled in almost kingly splendor near two million acres of land.’

   2003 (revised), Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, HarperCollins 2005, p. 211

2. UScountablehistoricaluncountableAn estate run by a patroon, or under a similar system.First known use 19th c.