noun
- fixed rents paid by tenants to feudal lords in lieu of services; nominal rents paid to acknowledge ownership
Usage: historical; legal
Examples
- Colonial landowners were required to pay annual quitrents to the Crown.
- The quitrents were typically small amounts paid to maintain legal title to the land.
- Many American colonists resented having to pay quitrents to distant landlords.
- The feudal system included quitrents as a way to maintain the lord-tenant relationship.
- After the Revolution, most quitrents in America were abolished.
- The quitrents served as acknowledgment of the superior’s ownership rights.