deanery
(ˈdiːnərɪ)
Also 5 denerye, deynrye, 6 denry, 6–9 deanry.
[f. dean1 + -ery: the AFr. form denrie was prob. from Eng.]
1. The office or position of a dean.
| [1292 Britton ii. xvii. §6 Dené [v.rr. denee, denrie], ou thresorie, ou chaunterie.] c 1440 Promp. Parv. 118 Denerye, decanatus. 1483 Cath. Angl. 95 A Deynrye, decania. 1534 Act 26 Hen. VIII, c. 3 §9 Any..Priorie, Arch-deaconry, Deanry..or any other benefice or promocion spirituall. 1588 J. Udall Diotrephes (Arb.) 26 To beg the Byshoppricks, Deanries, and such great places. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. (1843) 37/2 When he could no longer keep the deanery of the chappel royal. 1706 Hearne Collect. 25 Dec., Upon quitting his Deanery in the College [St. John's Oxford]. 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. vii, The deanries all..are in the donation of the crown. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. vi. 87 The Deanery of Christ-church became vacant. |
2. The group of parishes, forming a division of a diocese, over which a rural dean presides; formerly, also, the jurisdiction of a dean.
| a 1440 Found. St. Bartholomew's xii. 47 A Preiste..that gouerynd the Chirche of seynt Martyn..had receyuyd one hym..the deynrye of nygh chirches for maters ecclesiasticall to discusse. 1587 Harrison Engl. ii. i. (1877) i. 15 Vnto these deanerie churches also the cleargie in old time of the same deanrie were appointed to repaire at sundrie seasons, there to receiue wholesome ordinances, and to consult. 1642 Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 91 Appeale may be to the rurall Deanery. 1695 Kennett Par. Antiq. (1818) II. 338 The bishops divided each diocese into deaneries or tithings, each of which was the district of ten parishes or churches. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Arches, The judge of the court of arches, is called the dean of the arches..with which officialty is commonly joined a peculiar jurisdiction over thirteen parishes in London, termed a deanry. 1835 W. Dansey Horæ Dec. Rur. I. 19 The division of dioceses at that time into decennaries or deanries. 1837 Penny Cycl. VIII. 340/1 The report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, 1835, recommends that each parish shall be assigned to a deanery, and each deanery to an archdeaconry. 1890 Bp. Westcott in Durham Dioc. Gaz. IV. 34 Some improvements will, I trust, be made in the assignment of parishes to the several Deaneries. |
3. The official residence of a dean.
| 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. vi. 31 And at the Deanry, where a Priest attends, Strait marry her. 1727 Earl of Oxford in Swift's Lett. 12 Oct., I was in hopes..that you would not have gone to your deanery till the Spring. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. 251 Late at night he was brought to Westminster, and was suffered to sleep at his deanery. |
4. Comb., as † deanery church (the church of a rural dean), deanery house.
| 1587 Harrison England ii. i. (1877) i. 15 But as the number of christians increased, so first monasteries, then finallie parish churches, were builded in euery iurisdiction: from whence I take our deanerie churches to haue their originale, now called mother churches, and their incumbents archpreests. 1720 Swift Poems, Apollo to Dean, That traitor Delany..seditiously came..To the deanery house. |