Meaning of Holyworkfolk | Babel Free

Definitions

Tenants who held land by the service of repairing or defending a church or monument and were therefore exempt from feudal and military duties; specifically, the caretakers of the body of St Cuthbert.

plural, plural-only

Examples

“More curious still is the position of certain tenants of the bishopric who called themselves Holyworkfolk, who claimed that their only duty was to pray”

“This they naturally considered an indignity, and made a party against on the ground that were Holyworkfolk and held their lands for the defence of the body of St. Cuthbert, and not at the bishop's pleasure”

“Record made before justices in eyre by elder men of the Holyworkfolk (Durham) and Northumberland of a sworn inquest held in the time of King Henry I concerning fishery rights in the Tyne”

CEFR level