Definitions for "Merchet"
In old English and in Scots law, a fine paid to the lord of the soil by a tenant upon the marriage of one the tenant's daughters.
Payment due to a manorial lord upon marriage. (Bennett, Judith M. Women in the Medieval English Countryside, 234) A payment by unfree tenants for the right to marry off daughters or other female relatives. (Waugh, Scott. England in the Reign of Edward III, 238) A fine paid by a servile tenant to his lord for liberty to give his daughter in marriage. (Bennett, H.S. Life on the English Manor: A Study of Peasant Conditions, 1150-1400, 338) Related terms: Formariage / Marriage
payment made for obtaining permission for a daughter to marry