† ˈfrithborh Law. Only OE. and Hist.
Also frithborg, -burg, frichborgh, fridburgh, friborg(h, -burg(h, -bourg, freoborg, freeborgh.
[OE. *friðborh lit. ‘peace-pledge’: see frith n.1 and borrow n.; the word, though found in no document earlier than the spurious ‘Laws of Edward the Confessor’ (app. the source of all the later statements on the subject), is certainly genuine. A mistranslation of the corrupt form friborg, freoborg gave rise to the later name frankpledge.]
The Old English name for frankpledge.
| a 1200 Laws of Edw. Conf. c. 20 Preamble (Schmid) Alia pax maxima est, per quam omnes firmiori statu sustentantur; scilicet fidejussionis stabilitate, quam Angli vocant frið⁓borgas, præter Eboracenses, qui vocant eam tenmanne tale. Ibid. c. 20. §3 and caps. 21, 29 [other texts read fri-, freo-]. c 1290 Fleta i. xlvii. §10 (1647) 62 Frichborgh. 1607 [see decener 2]. a 1641 Spelman Anc. Govt. Eng., Reliq. (1723) 51 Every Hundred was divided into many Freeborgs or Tithings..which stood all bound one for the other. 1747 Carte Hist. Eng. I. 311 Appeals from the decisions of particular friborghs. 1754 Hume Hist. Eng. (1761) I. ii. 49 A tithing, decennary, or fribourg. 1874 Stubbs Const. Hist. §41 I. 87 The association of ten men in common responsibility legally embodied in the frithborh or frankpledge. |