glebe farm

See also: glebe-farm

English

WOTD – 7 January 2025

Etymology

From glebe (“plot of parish land assigned to a clergy member as part of a benefice”) +‎ farm.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡliːb ˌfɑːm/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡlib ˌfɑɹm/

Noun

glebe farm (plural glebe farms)

(chiefly UK, Christianity) A home farm owned by a parish, assigned as part of a benefice to a parish priest, pastor, rector, or vicar to provide them with income.
- 1801, Charles Coote, “Barony of Balliboy”, in General View of the Agriculture and Manufactures of the King’s County, with Observations on the Means of Their Improvement, Drawn Up in the Year 1801. […], Dublin: […] Graisberry & Campbell, […], →OCLC, section IV (General Subjects), page 88:
  On the glebe farms the country is very populous, and but for the liberality of the few reſident gentry, the poor would have literally ſtarved this diſtreſſing ſeaſon.
- 1812, Joshua Kirby Trimmer, Further Observations on the Present State of Agriculture, and Condition of the Lower Classes of the People, in the Southern Parts of Ireland: […], London: F[rancis] C[harles] & J[ohn] Rivington, […], and J. Harding, […], →OCLC, page 71:
  The immediate renters of the glebe farms, instead of being hostile to the incumbents of livings, would hold the same relation to them which other tenants do to landlords.
- 1835 May 20 (date decided), [David] Boyle, Lord Justice Clerk, “Rev. John Stewart, Pursuer.—D. F. Hope—More. Lord Glenlyon, Defender.—Keay. [No. 243]”, in Patrick Shaw [et al.], reporters, Cases Decided in the Court of Session, from Nov. 12, 1834, to Sept. 30, 1835, volume XIII, Edinburgh: […] [Ballantyne and Co.] for Thomas Clark, […]; and Saunders and Benning, […], published 1835, →OCLC, page 797:
  One of the Earls of Eglinton, in 1734, had made an excambion with the minister of Beith, and the glebe farm thus acquired by the minister was said to have been at one time worth £200 per annum, and to be still worth £150, besides the full size of an ordinary glebe.
- 1848, Samuel Lewis, “FRODINGHAM, NORTH (St. Elgin)”, in A Topographical Dictionary of England, […], 7th edition, volume II, London: S[amuel] Lewis and Co., […], →OCLC, page 268, column 2:
  A silver coin of Edward the Confessor was found on the glebe-farm, in digging a well, in 1833.
- 1873, Charlotte M[ary] Yonge, “The Old Squire and the New”, in The Pillars of the House; or, Under Wode, under Rode. […], volume IV, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 17:
  I must not reckon on more than two thousand three hundred at present, and of that nine hundred and fifty is the great tithe, and the rent of the Glebe farm is three hundred and seventy.
- 1880, H[enry] C. Barkley, chapter XVI, in My Boyhood: A Story Book for Boys, New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Company, →OCLC, page 205:
  Part of my father's income, as rector of the parish, was derived from a pretty little glebe-farm, on which was a neat old-fashioned farmhouse, surrounded with small but well-arranged buildings. All was let, years before I could remember, to a man named John Ashmeade, one of the most respectable men in the parish, […]
- 1891, Charles Gide, “The Man who Lives on His Income”, in Edward Percy Jacobsen, transl., Principles of Political Economy, Boston, Mass.: D[aniel] C[ollamore] Heath & Co., →OCLC, page 529:
  We cannot easily admit that land has been distributed amongst a few men, like the benefices or glebe-farms in the king's gift, merely that it may yield them a certain income.
- 1989, Nathan O[rr] Hatch, “Storming Heaven by the Back Door”, in The Democratization of American Christianity, New Haven, Conn.; London: Yale University Press, →ISBN, part II (Mass Movements), page 60:
  At the turn of the century, the Episcopalian church in the South found itself in even worse straits. […] In 1802, an act of the General Assembly declared that the title of the colonial property of the church belonged to the state at large and directed that even the glebe farms be seized for public benefit. This created a financial collapse of the diocese at a time when very few young men were willing to serve the church.
- 2016, Bruce M[ortimer] S[tanley] Campbell, “Efflorescence: The Enabling Environment and the Rise of Latin Christendom”, in The Great Transition: Climate, Disease and Society in the Late-Medieval World: The 2013 Ellen McArthur Lectures, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 97:
  The numerous small manors without servile tenants had no alternative but to hire labour and on many demesnes the supply of labour services was inadequate to the requirements of cultivation. The same usually applied to the thousands of modest glebe farms belonging to rectors.

Alternative forms

glebe-farm

Related terms

Translations

home farm owned by a parish, assigned as part of a benefice

Finnish: mensaalitila, mensaltalo (obsolete)
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

Anagrams

flamberge