F I T 
children ; and by the vulgar for the epilepfy.—Mrs. Bull 
was fo much enraged, that (lie fell downright into a fit. 
Arbuthnot's John Bull. —It was anciently ufed for any recom¬ 
mencement after intermifiion. The parts of a fong, or 
cantos of a poem, were called fits. 
FIT, adj. [vittcn, Flemifh, Junius.] Qualified; proper: 
with for before the noun, and to before the verb.—Men of 
valour,yit to go out for war and battle, i Chron. 
He lends him vain Goliah’s facred fword, 
The fitteji help juft fortune could afford. Cowley. 
This fury fit for her intent (lie chofe, 
One who delights in wars and human woes. Dryden. 
Convenient; meet; proper; right.—It is fit for a man to 
know his own abilities and weaknelfes, and not think 
himfelf obliged to imitate all that he thinks fit to praife. 
Boyle. 
To FIT, v. a. [vittcn, Flemiffi, Junius.'] To accommo¬ 
date to any thing; to fuit one thing to another.—The 
carpenter marketh it out with a line : he fittctk it with 
planes. Ifa. xliv. 13. 
Would fate permit 
To my defires I might my fortune ft, 
Troy I would raife. Denham. 
To accommodate a perfon with any thing: as, The tailor 
fits his cuftomer.—A truffmaker fitted the child with a pair 
of boddice, ftift'ened on the lame fide. Wfeman. —To be 
adapted to ; to fuit any thing.—As much of the (lone as 
was contiguous to the marcafite, fitted the marcafite fo 
clofe as if it had been formerly liquid. Boyle. 
To Fit out. To furniffi ; to equip ; to fupply with 
neceffaries or decoration.—The Englilh fleet could not 
be paid and manned, and fitted out, unlefs we encouraged 
trade and navigation. Addifon. 
To Fit up. To furniffi ; to make proper for the ufe or 
reception of any.—He has fitted up his farm. Pope. 
To FIT, v. n. To be proper; to be becoming : 
Nor fits it to prolong the feaft, 
Timelefs, indecent, but retire to reft. Pope. 
FITCH, /. [A colloquial corruption of vetch.] A 
fmall kind of wild pea : 
Now is the feafon 
For fowing of fitches , of beans, and of peafon. Tajfer. 
FIT'CFIAT, or Fitchew,^ [ fifau,Fr. fife, Dut.] 
A little animal that robs hen-roofts and warrens. 
Skinner calls him the finking ferret ; a fpecies of weafel. 
See the article Mustela. —The fitchat, the fulimart, 
and the like creatures, live upon the face and within the 
bowels of the earth. Walton. 
FITCH'BURGH, a poll-town of the American States, 
in Malfachufletts, Worcefter county : twenty-three miles 
north of Worcefter, twenty-four from Concord, and forty- 
two north-weft of Bofton, containing 1131 inhabitants. 
FIT'FIL HEAD, a cape of Scotland, on the weft 
coaft, near the fouth extremity of Mainland, one of the 
Shetlandlilands. Lat. 59.50. N. Ion. 1.29. E. Edinburgh. 
FIT'FUL, adj. Varied by paroxyfms; dibordered by 
change of maladies : 
Duncan is in his grave ; 
After life’s fitfuniever lie fleeps well. Shahfpeare. 
FIT'LY, adv. Properly ; juftly ; reafonably.—The 
whole of our duty may be expretfed moll fitly by departing 
from evil. Tillotfon. —Commodioufly ; meetly.—An ani¬ 
mal, in order to be moveable muff: be flexible ; and there¬ 
fore is fitly made of feparate and fmall folid parts, re¬ 
plete with proper fluids. Arbuthnot. 
To take a latitude, 
Sun dr liars are fitlief view’d 
At their brightelL; but to conclude 
Of longitudes, what other way have we 
But to mark when, and where, the dark tclipfesbe. Dtnne, 
Vol. VII. No. 439. 
FIT 433 
FIT'MENT, f. Something adapted to a particular 
purpofe. Not ufed. 
Poor befeeming ; ’twas a fitment for 
The purpofe I then follow’d. Shakcfpcare. 
FIT'NESS, f. Propriety; meetnefs ; juftnefs; reafon- 
ablenefs: 
Wer’t my fitnfs 
To let thefe hands obey my boiling blood, 
They’re apt enough to di.flocate and tear 
Thy flefti and bones. Shakefpeare. 
Convenience ; commodify ; the ftate of being fit: 
Nor time nor place 
Did then cohere, and yet you would make both : 
They’ve made themfelves, and that their fitncfs now 
Does unmake you. Shakefpeare. 
FIT'TER, f. The perfon or thing that confers fitnefs 
for any thing.—Sowing the fandy gravelly land in De- 
vonfhire and Cornwall with French furze feed, they 
reckon a great improver of their land, and a fitter of it 
for corn. Mortimer. —[From fetta, Ital. fetzeyi, Ger.] A 
fmall piece : as, To cut into fitters. Skinner. 
FITT-WEED, f. in botany. See Eryngium. 
FITZ , f. [Norman, from fils, a fon, Fr.] A fon. It 
is ufed in law and genealogy ; as Fitzherbert, the fon of 
Herbert ; Fitzjamcs, the fon of James ; Fitzthomas, the fon 
of Thomas; Fitzroy, the Ion of the king. It was ori¬ 
ginally applied to illegitimate children. 
FITZHER'BERT (Anthony), a learned Englilh 
lawyer, youngeft fon of Ralph Fitzherbert, elq. of Nor- 
bury, in the county of Derby. He ftudied at the uni- 
verfity of Oxford, and afterwards entered at one of the 
inns of court, where he purfued the (ludy of the lavr 
with great diligence and fuccefs. In 1311, he attained 
degree of ferjeant at law, and received the honour ot the 
knighthood from Henry VIII. That king, in 1523, ap¬ 
pointed him one of the juftices of the court of common- 
pleas, in which office he palled the remainder ol his life 9 
with great reputation for his legal knowledge, and inte¬ 
grity. It is mentioned to his honour, that he ventured to 
oppofe the arbitrary proceedings of Wolfey, in the height 
of his favour. Either through a prudential forefight of 
changes, or from a confcientious motive, he exacted a 
promife from his children on his death-bed that they 
w'ould neither accept grants, nor make purchafes, of lands 
of the diffolved religious foundations; to which, it is 
faid, they conftantly adhered. Sir Anthony died, at an. 
advanced age, in 1538, leaving a numerous pofterity, who 
became the founders of leveral confiderable families in 
Derbyfhire, particularly to that of the fecond hufband 
of the prefent celebrious Mrs. Fitzherbert; and who, in. 
general, adhered to the Roman catholic religion. This 
judge is principally know'n by his works on the laws of 
England, which have been much valued for their learning 
and method. They are: 1. The Grand Abridgment, 
1319; a.colleflion of cafes abridged. 2. The Office and 
Authority of Juftices of Peace, 1538. 3. The Office of 
Sheriffs, Bailiffs of Liberties, Efcheaters, Conftables, 
Coroners, &c. 1338. 4. Of the Diverfity of Courts. 
3. Natura Brevium novel, 1534. The above are moftly 
written in law French, but have been tranftated into 
Englilh. 
FITZJ A'MES (James), duke of Berwick, a general of 
great worth and ability, natural Ion of our James II. by 
Arabella Churchill, fiffer to the great duke of Marl¬ 
borough. He was born in 1671, at Moulins in France, 
where his mother Ilopt on returning from the baths of 
Bourbon. He was early initiated in arms, and was prefent 
at the fiege of Buda and battle of Mohatz in 1686 and 
s687. On his return, his father conferred upon him the 
title of baron Bofworth, earl of Tinmouth, and duke of 
Berwick, with the order of the garter. He accompanied 
James in his retreat to France at the Revolution, and 
afterwards went ever to Ireland to command in the ab- 
5 S fence 
