governeress

Noun

governeress (plural governeresses)

1. A governess (woman employed to educate children).
   • Hee wrote likewiſe to yͤ L. Iohn the infante, yͤ L. of Biſkey, and to yͤ Lady Mary of Biſkey, gouernereſſe of yͤ K. of Caſtile and Leon, and to Iames K. of Aragon, requeſting them to aid him with men of warre, as well horſemẽ as footemen againſt his aduerſarie yͤ Frẽch K. that moſt vniuſtly went...1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “Edward the second”, in The Laste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume II, London: […] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, page 875, column 1
2. A woman who rules or governs.
   • 5. If i died wᵗout issu, and ther were none heire masle, then the L Fraunces to be (gouuernres) regẽt. For lakke of her, the her eldest daughters, and for lakke of them the L Marget to be gouuernres after as is aforsaid, til sume heire masle be borne, and then the mother of that child to be...1553, Edward VI, “King Edward’s devise, entirely autograph. (MS. Petyt 47, f. 317.) My deuise for the succession.”, in John Gough Nichols, editor, The Chronicle of Queen Jane, and of Two Years of...
   • To Iupiter alſo thei Sacrificed, & did honour as to yᵉ principall of life. To Vulcan for fire, to Pallas, as Lady of the ſkie, to Ceres as gouernereſſe of the arth, and to ſondry other for other ſondry conſiderations.1555, William Watreman, The Fardle of Facions Conteining the Aunciente Maners, Customes, and Lawes, of the Peoples Enhabiting the Two Partes of the Earth, Called Affrike and Asie, London: […] Ihon...