Chapter Frangipani Pudding to French Cream of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Fraticellians [Little Brethren ]. A sect of the Middle Ages, who claimed to be the only true Church, and threw off all subjection to the Pope, whom they denounced as an apostate. They wholly disappeared in the fifteenth century.

Fre'a The Anglo-Saxon form of Frigga, wife of Odin. Our Friday is Frea's daeg.

Free A free and easy. A social gathering where persons meet together without formality to chat and smoke.

Free Bench (francus bancus). The widow's right to a copyhold. It is not a dower or gift, but a free right independent of the will of the husband. Called bench because, upon acceding to the estate, she becomes a tenant of the manor, and one of the benchers, i.e. persons who sit on the bench occupied by the pares curiæ.

Free Coup (in Scotland) means a piece of waste land where rubbish may be deposited free of charge.

Free Lances Roving companies of knights, etc., who wandered from place to place, after the Crusades, selling their services to anyone who would pay for them. In Italy they were termed Condottieri.

Free Lances of Life (The). The Aspasias of fashion. The fair frail demi-monde.

Free Spirit Brethren of the Free Spirit. A fanatical sect, between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, diffused through Italy, France, and Germany. They claimed "freedom of spirit," and based their claims on Romans viii. 2-14, "The law of the Spirit hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

Free Trade The Apostle of Free Trade. Richard Cobden (1804-65).

Freebooter means a free rover. (Dutch, buiten, to rove, whence vrijbuiter; German, freibeuter, etc.)

"His forces consisted mostly of base people and freebooters." - Bacon.

Freeholds Estates which owe no duty or service to any lord but the sovereign. (See Copyhold.)

Freeman (Mrs.). A name assumed by the Duchess of Marlborough in her correspondence with Queen Anne. The queen called herself Mrs. Morley.

Freeman of Bucks A cuckold. The allusion is to the buck's horn. (See Horns.)

Freeman's Quay Drinking at Freeman's Quay. (See Drinking .)

Freemasons In the Middle Ages a guild of masons specially employed in building churches. Called "free" because exempted by several papal bulls from the laws which bore upon common craftsmen, and exempt from the burdens thrown on the working classes.
    St. Paul's, London, in 604, and St. Peter's, Westminster, in 605, were built by Freemasons. Gundulph (bishop of Rochester), who built the White Tower, was a "Grand Master;" so was Peter of Colechurch, architect of Old London Bridge. Henry VII.'s chapel, Westminster, was the work of a Master Mason; so were Sir Thomas Gresham (who planned the Royal Exchange), Inigo Jones, and Sir Christopher Wren. Covent Garden theatre was founded in 1808 by the Prince of Wales in his capacity of "Grand Master."

"Before the beginning of the 13th century the corporation of freemasons was not sufficiently organised to have had much influence on art." - J. Fergusson: Historic Archaeology, vol. i. part ii. chap. viii. p. 527.

   The lady Freemason was the Hon. Miss. Elizabeth St. Leger, daughter of Lord Doneraile, who (says the tale) hid herself in an empty clock-case when the lodge was held in her father's house, and witnessed the proceedings. She was discovered, and compelled to submit to initiation as a member of the craft.