CHEVAGE

chevage (chee-vij). [fr. French chef “head”] Hist. An annual tribute payment from a villein to a lord. • Chevage was commonly exacted from villeins for permission to marry or permission to work outside a lord’s domain. — Also spelled chivage; chiefage.

“Chevage, (chevagium) commeth of the French (chef. i. caput). It signifieth with us, a summe of money paid by villeins to their Lords, in acknowledgment of their slaverie…. It seemeth also to be used, for a summe of a mony, yearely given by a man to another of might & power, for his avowement, maintenance, and protection, as to their head or leader.” John Cowell, The Interpreter (1607). [Blacks Law 8th]