VILLEINAGE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Villeinage

... such condition, he forfeited his rights. During the mayoralty of John Blount, Thomas le Bedelle, Robert le Bedelle, Alan Undirwoode, and Edmund May, butchers, lost their franchises, because they acknowledged that they held land in villeinage of the Bishop of London and dwelt outside the liberty. On July 18, 11 Rich. II., it was ordained that no one should be enrolled as an apprentice or received into the freedom of the city by way of apprenticeship unless he first swore that he was a freeman and not a native, ...

— The Customs of Old England • F. J. Snell