Meaning of butlerage | Babel Free

Definitions

A duty formerly paid to the king's butler on every ton of wine imported into England by foreign merchants.

archaic, countable, historical, uncountable

Examples

“There is also another very antient hereditary duty belonging to the crown, called the prisage or butlerage of wines; which is considerably older than the customs, being taken notice of in the great roll of the exchequer, 8 Ric. I. still extant. Prisage was a right of taking two tons of wine from every ship importing into England twenty tons or more; which by Edward I. was exchanged into a duty of 2s for every ton imported by merchant-strangers, and called butlerage, because paid to the king's butler.”

CEFR level