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HENED-PENNY

Volume 10 · 56 words · 1815 Edition

in our old writers, a customary payment of money, instead of hens at Christmas. It is mentioned in a charter of King Edward III. Mon. Angl. tom. ii. p. 327. Du Cange is of opinion it may be hen-penny, gallinagium, or a composition for eggs; but Cowell thinks it is misprinted hened-penny for hveden-penny or head-penny.