manumission Obs. exc. Hist.
(mænjuːˈmɪʃən)
[a. F. manumission, ad. L. manūmissiōn-em, noun of action f. L. manūmittĕre: see manumit v.]
1. The action of manumitting, or the fact of being manumitted; formal release from slavery or servitude; an act or instance of this.
charter, deed, letter, writ of manumission: a written grant of personal freedom by a feudal superior; also fig.
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 89 The peple of Parthia..amonge whom seruauntes be habundante, for thei haue not their manumission. 1523 Fitzherb. Surv. 26 Many noble men..haue made to dyuers of the sayd bonde men manumissions. 1591 Lambarde Archeion (1635) 108 That Great Charter of the Liberties of England, (which I may call the first Letters of Manumission of the people of this Realme [etc.]). 1610 Willet Hexapla Dan. 178 The manumission and deliuerance of the Iewes. 1625 Massinger New Way Epil., Nor we, Nor he that wrote the Comedie, can be free Without your Mannumission. 1628 Coke On Litt. §204. 137 Manumission is properly when the Lord makes a deed to his villeine to enfranchise him by this word (Manumittere) which is the same as to put him out of the hands and power of another. 1658 Cleveland Rustic Rampant Wks. (1687) 480 Lister sends on Embassy..the Lord Morley..to obtain Charters of Manumission, and Pardon. 1737 J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. v. 182 Servants in the Saxon Times were properly Slaves, and very many Instances of their Manumissions are still extant. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. vi. 94 Villeins might be enfranchised by manumission, which is either express or implied: express, as where a man granted to the villein a deed of manumission. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 231 Societies for the manumission of slaves. 1827 Pollok Course T. vii, The writ of manumission, signed By God's own signature. 1862 Trollope Orley F. x. (ed. 4) 69 He had been no Old Bailey lawyer, devoting himself to the manumission of murderers. |
| attrib. 1894 H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 97 When the manumission papers came, Katherine sent LeRoy..to tell the negroes to come to the ‘big house’. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1549 Coverdale, etc. Erasm. Par. 1 Tim. 16 They are set at lybertye by manumission from the lordeshyp of synne. c 1645 Howell Lett. (1655) IV. xix. 45 Languages by a regardless adoption of som new words, and manumission of old do often vary. 1779–81 Johnson L.P., Addison Wks. III. 82 It is not unlikely that Addison was first seduced to excess by the manumission he obtained from the servile timidity of his sober hours. |
¶ c. Misused for ‘initiation.’
| 1596 Nashe Saffron-walden K 4 b Vpon his first manumission in the mysterie of Logique, because he obseru'd Ergo was the..driu'n home stab of the Syllogisme, hee [etc.]. |
† 2. Graduation, laureation.
Sc. Obs.| 1604 in Craufurd Hist. Univ. Edin. 62 The Primar calling the candidates before him,..performeth the ceremony, by imposition of an bonnet (the badge of manumission) upon the head of every one of the candidats. |