> as lemmas

?c1225 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 274 Þeos is understonden biþe earste marie..& bigood richte [a1300 Caius mid god richt] for heo inmuche bireousunge..lefde hire sunnen.

a1325 St. Gregory (Corpus Cambr.) l. 29 in C. D'Evelyn & A. J. Mill S. Eng. Legendary (1956) 82 Hy beoþ englise iliche Ȝif þe lond is such as þe men, name it haþ by [c1300 Laud with] riȝte Engliss lond it aȝte be[o].

c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 3738 A king þer com; ‘of an hundred kniȝtes’ His name was cleped bi riȝtes.

a1500 (?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) 439 Therfore I may say by riȝt, And therof make no lesyng, That on a Sonoday at nyȝt born was Ihesu heuen kyng.

1549 R. Crowley Voyce Laste Trumpet sig. Bvi Then shal no laye man say by ryghte That he learneth hys mysse of the.

1557 Earl of Surrey et al. Songes & Sonettes sig. E.iii [Some] find contrary of it, that they intend. Alas, of that sort may I be, by right.

1738 J. Miller Art & Nature i. 13 You shou'd have a Skreen here by rights, for too much Care can't be taken of a Health that is so precious to all Mankind.

1817 H. C. B. Campbell Jrnl. 27 July in G. R. de Beer Journey to Florence (1951) 19 This Journal ought by rights to have been begun last Friday the 25th as on that day we left London.

1818 J. Keats Let. in Wks. (1889) III. 159 I should not, by rights, speak in this tone to you.

1853 W. Whewell in J. M. Douglas Life & Corr. W. Whewell (1881) 429 By rights he ought to leave his work and go play.

1884 H. R. Haggard Dawn I. vii. 101 I suppose that I should not by rights have told you.

1951 R. Harling Paper Palace (1952) 237 An aged character who should by rights have been dozing out his days in an olde-worlde almshouse.

1990 P. Bailey Immaculate Mistake 3 ‘You were our mistake,’ said my mother. ‘You ought not to be here, by rights.’

2007 A. Enright Gathering (2008) xx. 202 Val is a bachelor farmer in his seventies, so he should, by rights, be half-mad. But he looks chipper enough.

c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 990 He it [sc. a child] cristned... Þe fende þerof hadde grame, For þai lese þer þe miȝt Þat þai wende to haue bi riȝt.

c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. x. 343 (MED) Þei [sc. the poor] han heritage in heuene, and bi trewe riȝte.

c1466 in Archaeologia (1887) 50 52 Askynge..their Casuallys and other thynges þ^t long to hem be right ameabully.

1531 T. Elyot Bk. named Gouernour i. xxiv. sig. M^v Whiche praise with the honour therevnto due, as inheritaunce discendeth by righte vnto his most noble sonne.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. lxxviij [He] affirmed the kyngdome to be his by good right.

1597 W. Shakespeare Richard III i. iii. 169 The sorrow that I haue by right is yours. View more context for this quotation

c1616 W. Mure Misc. Poems xx. 10 Pretending tytyls..By ry[ch]t hereditar to serve thy grace.

1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd ii. 325 Owe not all Creatures by just right to thee Duty and Service? View more context for this quotation

1707 H. Sloane Voy. Islands I. Introd. 87 The Turtle-fishery..thought..to be ours by right... The Turtle-fishing..pretended to by the French of the Island Tortugas.

1789 J. Bentham Introd. Princ. Morals & Legisl. xvi. 271 One man then is guardian by right: another man comes and makes himself so by usurpation.

1855 C. Kingsley Westward Ho! I. ii. 32 Days when the gentry of England were by due right the leaders of the people.

1863 C. Dickens Uncommerc. Traveller in All Year Round 24 Oct. 207/1 Any little matters which ought to be ours by rights.

1901 Times 3 July 5/6 They..enter a protestation ‘saving to themselves and their successors all such rights in judicature as they have by law and by right ought to have’.

1960 R. Davies Voice from Attic iv. 137 Many servants had no holiday by right, except the middle Sunday of Lent, called Mothering Sunday.

1994 Amer. Spectator June 30/2 Such employees are permanent staff only by tradition, not by right, and the Clintons apparently think nothing of..replacing White House ushers, telephone operators, correspondence clerks, and chefs.