Barony
the lordship or fee of a baron, either temporal or spiritual. Originally every peer of superior rank had also a barony annexed to his other titles.
But now the rule is not universal. Baronies in their first creation emanated from the King. Baronies appertain also to bishops, as they formerly did to abbots, William the Conqueror having changed the spiritual tenure of frankalmoyn, or free alms, by which they held their lands under the Saxon government, to the Norman or feudal tenure by barony. It was in virtue of this that they obtained seats in the House of Lords. The word is common in Ireland for a subdivision of a country.