1483 Rolls of Parl. VI. 241/1 Oone Dame Elianor Butteler,..with whome the same King Edward had made a precontracte of matrimonie.

1540 Act 32 Hen. VIII c. 38 (title) An act concernyng precontractes of mariages.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iv. i. 70 Nor gentle daughter, feare you not at all: He is your husband on a pre-contract . View more context for this quotation

1658 T. Burton Diary (1828) II. 337 The law lies very loose as to things that are naturally essential to marriages, as to pre-contracts and dissolving of marriages.

1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. I. xv. 434 Of this nature are pre-contract; consanguinity, or relation by blood; and affinity, or relation by marriage.

1823 Times 15 Nov. 3/4 It might have been good in raising the presumption of precontract, in binding the husband, in restraining him from a second marriage, [etc.].

1899 G. Smith United Kingdom: Polit. Hist. I. xvi. 318 The dissolution of marriages with liberty of marrying again on pretended grounds of affinity or precontract had been common.

1948 H. Maynard Smith Henry VIII & Reformation ii. 40 Wriothesley..says the divorce was granted because of Anne's precontract with the Earl of Northumberland.

1996 Hist. Jrnl. 39 350 The automatic disallowance of claims of impediment..to marriage by contract or pre-contract..had sometimes been upheld by the courts against later regular marriages.

1563 Abp. M. Parker Let. 20 Nov. in Corr. (1853) (modernized text) 198 The precontract..alleged for one Leonard's son, a pronotary.

1607 J. Harington tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso (new ed.) xlv. 392 Thus pleaded he against that precontract, The which to breake was his determination.

1610 J. Donne Pseudo-martyr iv. 125 The King of Spaine had very many subiects in that Order, to whom no other Prince pretended any such precontract or interest.

a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry IV ccclxxiii, in Poems (1878) IV. 94 They are never safe Who weare their Titles by a Præ-contract In Treason.

a1708 R. Kidder Life R. Kidder (1924) xv. 111 If that Election flowed..from a precontract made long agoe, those dignitaries were not passed by for their unfitness.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. v. 108 Lawyers..to draw his contracts—his pre-contracts, and his post-contracts, and to find the way to make the most of grants of church-lands, and commons, and licenses for monopoly.

1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. xvi. 704 The Presbyterian nonjurors..held that their country was under a precontract to the Most High, and could never..enter into any engagement inconsistent with that precontract.

1917 Times 1 Sept. 4/2 Foremost among them [sc. antiquated methods] is the fiction of the precontract, entered into at the booking office between the railway and its passenger.

1986 Oil & Gas Jrnl. (Nexis) 27 Oct. 93 He first joined Parsons in 1973 as general manager of European precontracts.

2001 World Soccer Mar. 60/4 According to the pre-contract already signed by the Galatasaray striker, Benfica will pay £17.5 million to take him to Lisbon in the summer.

1926 A. Moret & G. Davy From Tribe to Empire ii. 36 Their precontractual system and their system of transmitting names, crests, and privileges are explained as transitional institutions between [etc.].

1975 J. R. Murdoch Law Estate Agency & Auctions xiii. 385 Since the principle underlying rescission is ‘restitutio in integrum’ it will only be allowed where both parties can be substantially returned to their pre-contractual positions.

2004 Birmingham Evening Mail (Nexis) 24 Dec. 50 The Argentinian has returned to his homeland for Christmas..hopeful he will sign a precontractual agreement within the next few days.

1576 in Parish Docs. York (1998) I. i. 5 Item whether is there any in your parishe..maried without bannes asking thre tymes, any maried that is precontracted..and who they be.

1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 818 This Lepida had been precontracted unto Metellus Scipio.

1689 E. Stillingfleet Disc. conc. Unreasonableness of New Separation 31 The whole Succession both of York and Lancaster might be questioned; for both derive from H. 3. whose Mother was believed at that Time to have been precontracted at least to Hugh le Brun, before She was married to K. Iohn.

1737 ‘C. Dodd’ Church Hist. Eng. I. i. 123 The first pretence was, that she had been pre-contracted to the prince of Lorain.

1808 C. Lamb Specimens Eng. Dramatic Poets 253 Made miserable by a Match, into which he forced her with Bassanes, when she was precontracted by her dead Father's Will.

1856 J. A. Froude Hist. Eng. I. ii. 167 Nor could a contract with Percy have invalidated her marriage with the king..Percy having been pre-contracted to another person.

1971 Times 5 June 11/7 Edward IV was pre-contracted to Lady Eleanor Butler, before his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville.

1996 Capital (Annapolis, Maryland) (Nexis) 28 Aug. 10 Little time elapses before Anne and Henry (Harry) Percy, heir to the Earl of Northumberland, become an item. There is a big problem with this—both have been precontracted by their parents for marriages to other people.

1631 J. Vicars Eng. Hallelu-jah Ps. cv. sig. E6 That Cou'nant-good, once, præ-contracted, To Abraham and Isaacs Seed.

1638 T. Herbert Some Yeares Trav. (rev. ed.) 88 Having precontracted with Beyrambeg and Darab-chawn, to seize him.

1659 W. Prynne Historiarchos 275 Prince Edward was called out of Normandy, and elected King, principally by the help and counsel of Earle Godwin himself, who..perswaded him to accept the Crown, and precontracted with him before he came into England.

1984 Financial Times (Nexis) 14 Feb. 27 Ramsay said that the fiscal result was to be no different if the several steps were pre-ordained rather than pre-contracted.

2005 Nelson (N.Z.) Mail (Nexis) 22 Mar. 12 Most of the crop is pre-contracted but the high dollar is causing some buyer resistance.