▪ I. manse, n.
(mæns)
[ad. med.L. (Law and Eccl.) mansus, mansum, mansa dwelling, house; also, a quantity of land considered sufficient for the support of a family (cf. hide n.2), f. L. mans-, ppl. stem of manēre to dwell, remain. Cf. mod.F. (Hist.) manse; the popular representatives of the Latin word in Rom. are OF. mes, Pr., Catal. mas.]
† 1. A mansion house or ‘capital messuage’. (Cf. manor 1.) Obs.
| 1490 Acta Dom. Concil. (1839) 149/1 Þe auld mansioune þat William Inglis has in tak & twa akeris liand besid þe said manss. 1513 Douglas æneis viii. vi. 118 At thir ilk ȝettis heyr The conquerour entrit, douchty Hercules, This sobyr mans ressauit hym, but les. 1781 Warton Hist. Kiddington (1783) 30 This lady died at her capital manse at Fencot near Bicester in 1111. [1848 Lytton Harold vi. i, And I shall be at his own favourite manse over the water at sunset.] |
2. A measure of land regarded as sufficient for the support of a family. Obs. exc. Hist.
In this sense the Eng. form of the word appears to occur only with reference to ecclesiastical endowments.
| 1597 Skene De Verb. Sign. s.v. Mansus, Carolus Magnus, to the effect that the Ministers of the worde of God suld not perish be hunger or povertie, gaue to ilke Kirke ane manse. 1625 in Cramond Ann. Banff (1893) II. 24 Anent the ministers mans being now desolat of building, and he excusing his inhabilitie to repair the samyn. 1794 W. Tindal Evesham 4 The names of those Manses or farms next follow which the founder acquired for the first endowment of his monastery. 1844 Lingard Anglo-Sax. Ch. I. iv. 162 Let an entire manse..be assigned to each church. 1855 Milman Lat. Chr. iv. iii. (1864) II. 253 A monastery founded at Ripon and endowed with xxx manses of land. 1860 Hook Lives Abps. (1869) I. v. 287 That there be given to the servants of God..a certain hereditary portion of the lands possessed by persons of every degree, that is to say, the tenth manse. |
3. An ecclesiastical residence, whether parochial or collegiate; now esp. the house allocated to or occupied by the minister of a parish in Scotland; sometimes applied to the residences provided for ministers of the congregational, presbyterian, and other denominations in Britain and the U. S. Also in phr. son (bairn, child, daughter) of the manse: the son (daughter) of a Protestant minister, esp. in the Church of Scotland.
| 1534 Act 25 Hen. VIII in Stat. Irel. (1621) 77 To have and to hold the same mance, glebe lands, altereges,..and all other the premisses. 1583 in Munim. Irvine (1890) I. 222 To provyd ane sufficient manse and yard to the said minister. 1683 G. Martin Reliq. Divi Andreæ vii. §3 (1797) 104 The castle of St. Andrews..had been the Bishop of St. Andrews his manse. 1710 Chamberlayne Pres. St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. 435 They [Scottish Presbyterian ministers] are provided with convenient Manses (i.e. Parsonage Houses). 1754 Erskine Princ. Sc. Law i. (1809) 56 Under a manse are comprehended stable, barn, and byre, with a garden. 1791 Boswell Johnson 20 Aug. an. 1773, The manse, as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by. 1805 T. D. Whitaker Hist. Craven 5, I would ask, whether..it were possible to devise a method of supporting an incumbent equally wise and proper with that of a manse, glebe, and tithes. 1816 Scott Old Mort. xxvii, Poundtext bade adieu to his companions, and travelled forward alone to his own manse. 1855 Mrs. Oliphant Lilliesleaf III. ix. 116 To think that this was our Mary, a bairn of the Manse. 1860 G. H. Kingsley Vac. Tour 121 If the Sutherland inn is full..you can always get a bed somewhere, often at the manse. 1903 G. W. Balfour in M. C. Balfour From Saranac to Marquesas p. xix, One of the few survivors left of the happy company of ‘children of the manse’. 1962 Glasgow Herald 8 Oct. 7 Dr McIntyre..is a son of the manse, always a good step on the high road to fortune in Scotland. 1965 Listener 9 Sept. 372/2 Albert Schweitzer, a son of the manse, was born an Alsatian and brought up in the village of Günsbach. 1976 A. Richards Former Miss Merthyr Tydfil 52 Dorothea was a daughter of the manse, a history graduate. |
¶ 4. Confused with F. mense [ad. L. mensa table], sometimes written manse (Littré): The revenue of an abbey or of an ecclesiastic. Obs.
| 1710 T. Goodwin Life Bp. Stillingfl. 101 He gives a learned account of the Manse and Maintenance settled upon each parish-priest. 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. I. 245 The monasteries, whose abbatial manse, or the revenue of the abbot was annexed to the bishoprick. |
▪ II. † manse, v. Obs.
Also 4 mance, monse.
[Short for amanse v.]
trans. To excommunicate, to curse. Hence mansed ppl. a.
| c 1200 Ormin 10522 Aᵹᵹ whannse preostess mannsenn her & shædenn þa fra Criste Þat opennlike onnᵹæness Crist All þeᵹᵹre þannkess wiþþrenn. c 1275 XI Pains of Hell 259 in O.E. Misc. 154 Oþer weren Mansed bi nome. 13.. S.E. Leg. (MS. Bodl. 779) in Herrig Archiv LXXXII. 347/75 To mancy him was swyþe loþ..Þerfore he tauȝt cristin to hate mansinge. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 774 He syttez þer in Sodomis, þy servaunt so pouere Among þo mansed men þat han þe much greued. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 39 And now worth þis Mede ymaried al to a mansed schrewe. 1399 ― Rich. Redeles iii. 105 Þe[y] monside þe marchall ffor his myssedede. 14.. Sege Jerusalem 154 For þat mansed man [sc. Judas] Mathie þey chossyn. |