Meaning of patroonship | Babel Free

Definitions

1. The position or office of a patroon; landownership (originally of a Dutch colony).
   US, countable, historical, uncountable
2. An estate run by a patroon, or under a similar system.
   US, countable, historical, uncountable

Examples

“His patroonship of Rensellaerwick lay⟳ immediately below Fort Aurania, and extended for several miles on each side of the Hudson, beside embracing the mountainous region of the Helderberg.”

“It was a protest⟳ against the patroonship system, which went back to the 1600s when the Dutch ruled New York, a system where […] ‘a few families, intricately intermarried, controlled the destinies of three hundred thousand people and ruled in almost kingly splendor near two million acres of land⟳.’”

CEFR level