a1325 (2011) xxi. 80 Of purprestures ant of occupaciouns, anie imade ope þe lord kinge..te king sulde of plein nimen aȝen þe þing so ioccupied.
c1436 Domesday Ipswich (BL Add. 25011) in T. Twiss (1873) II. 131 (MED) Also the leete be holdyn in the forseid toun of Geppiswich..and the purprestures presentyd in the same toun shul ben redressed and amendyd be sighte of the ballyves.
?a1450 in W. G. Benham (1907) 2 Ye shall enfourme us..of all pourprestures made upon land or watyr, or [perh. read as] reylyng up of dowles, streityng of the Kyng's hieth way, pitchyng or plankyng in the comon or in the comen way, to the noyance of the Kyngs people.
a1525 30 Allso þat no man make noo purpresture ne stoppyng with trees ne stones ne with no othur filthe in the forseid Ryver up the peyn aforsaid.
1598 J. Stow 64 Purprestures, or incrochmentes on the high wayes, lanes, and common grounds, in and about this citie.
1609 J. Skene tr. ii. lxxiv. §1 Purpresture is, quhen ane man occupies vnjustlie anie thing against the King, as in the Kings domain..or in stoppin the Kings publick wayis, or passages, as in waters turned fra the richt course.
a1634 E. Coke Courts Forest lxxiii, in (1648) 291 To be quit of asserts, and purprestures.
1754 J. Erskine I. ii. v. 165 Purpresture draws likewise a forfeiture of the whole feu after it, and is incurred by the vassal's incroaching upon any part of his superiour's property.
1857 J. K. Angell & T. Durfee i. vii. 21 A railway in a city is not per se a nuisance or a purpresture.
1879 E. Robertson in IX. 409/2 The offence of ‘purpresture’..was an encroachment on the forest rights, by building a house within the forest, and it made no difference whether the land belonged to the builder or not.
1933 10 May 2/2 The commission also contended the breakwater is an illegal structure and a purpresture.
1961 V. Pearl i. 22 Although this Charter settled the dispute concerning the City wastes and purprestures, it by no means reconciled the City to Charles' policy of compounding for houses built on new foundations.
2002 D. H. Cole ii. 34 Purpresture is more like trespass than nuisance in that damages need not be proved but are presumed from the interference with existing property rights.