# Merchet
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{{Short description|Fine paid on a marriage during the Middle Ages in England}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Merchet''' (also: -ett, -ete, -eit, -eat, -iett, -i(e)te, -iatte, mershet(e), '''marchet''', -eit, market)[{{cite web|title=Merchet|url=http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/merchet|website=Dictionary of the Scots Language, Dictionar o the Scots Leid|accessdate=23 January 2018}}] ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ər|tʃ|ə|t}}[{{cite encyclopedia | encyclopedia=[Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary) third edition |title=merchet |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/116674 |access-date=13 January 2019| date=September 2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}]) was a fine paid on a [marriage](/source/marriage) during the [Middle Ages](/source/Middle_Ages) in [England](/source/England). The word derives from the [Welsh](/source/Welsh_language) plural form of daughter, ''merched''. Merchet was payment to a peasant's lord, whether by the persons marrying, or by a father for his son or daughter, or by a brother for his sister.[{{cite book|title=Rolls Series, Volume 31, Issue 2, Part 6; Volume 31, Issue 11|date=1891|publisher=[Longman & Company](/source/Longman_%26_Company)|location=Great Britain. [Public Record Office](/source/Public_Record_Office)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VL9KAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=23 January 2018}}] There are also records of young Medieval women working in service away from home having saved money to pay a merchet fee for the right to choose their marriage partner.[{{cite journal |last1=Fiona Shapland, Mary Lewis, and Rebecca Watts |title=The Lives and Deaths of Young Medieval Women: The Osteological Evidence |journal=Medieval Archaeology |date=2015 |issue=59 |pages=272–289}}] Theories regarding the practice include recompense for the loss of a worker.[{{cite web|title=merchet|url=http://www.yourdictionary.com/merchet|website=Your Dictionary|accessdate=23 January 2018}}] The [etymology](/source/etymology) of the term may be sought not in the root of any word having reference to maids or daughters in particular, but in the root of an unknown word having reference to blood, to purchase, to redemption or enfranchisement, or the price paid for it, or to a particular kind of tax, fine, impost, or exaction.