Definition
A Latin term from old English law meaning "fellow-barons" or "fellow-citizens." The term appears in medieval records to designate the citizens and freemen of the Cinque Ports — the confederation of Channel coast towns (originally Hastings, New Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich) whose members held the honorific title of "baron" by royal grant. Combarones thus referred to those sharing that baronial status collectively, roughly equivalent to "fellow members" or "commonalty" of the Cinque Ports community.
The term is attested in a grant of Henry III to the barons of the port of Faversham, where combarones is used to describe the freemen as a collective body sharing equivalent standing.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is encountered almost exclusively in medieval English records, charters, and grants relating to the Cinque Ports. Researchers working with primary sources from the 13th through 15th centuries may encounter it in royal grants, port charters, and records of the Brodhull (the assembly of Cinque Ports representatives). Its significance is institutional rather than doctrinal: it marks membership in a privileged legal and commercial community that enjoyed distinct jurisdictions, tax exemptions, and obligations to the Crown (chiefly the provision of ships).
The key research trap is the word "baron." In this context, baron carries none of its ordinary feudal or peerage meaning — it is a title of municipal dignity attached to Cinque Ports freemen, not a rank in the peerage hierarchy. Researchers unfamiliar with this usage may misread the social or legal status of the individuals described. Cross-reference against the broader Cinque Ports legal corpus is essential before drawing conclusions about the standing of persons described as barons or combarones in these documents.
The historical dictionaries all trace to Cowell's Interpreter as the underlying source, meaning the chain of authority for this term runs through a single early modern glossary. Researchers needing to verify usage in primary sources should consult the original Cinque Ports charters rather than relying solely on the Cowell-derived dictionary chain.
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries are in close agreement and essentially reproduce the same entry, tracing through Cowell. Black's (both editions) and Burrill add the specific reference to Henry III's grant to the barons of Faversham, giving the term its best-documented usage context. Rapalje & Lawrence is the most compressed, defining combarones simply as "the fellow-barons or commonalty of the Cinque Ports" without the illustrative grant reference.
Burrill's entry is the most complete of the historical sources, explicitly cross-referencing "Baron" and flagging the honorific rather than feudal character of the title. None of the historical dictionaries explore the jurisdictional implications of Cinque Ports status in depth, limiting their utility beyond identification of the term itself. Researchers should treat these entries as starting points, not endpoints.
Jurisdictional Note
Strictly an English legal-historical term with no counterpart in American law. Relevant only to research involving medieval and early modern English port law, Cinque Ports charters, or the constitutional history of English municipal liberties.