From the O.E. "gafol" = "rent," or "tribute." The name of a Writ anciently used in the Court of Hustings, to which the parties, tenant and demandant, appeared by "Scire facias" to show cause why the one should not have his tenement again on payment of his rent, or the other recover his lands on default thereof (Lib. Albus III. 323).
A messuage in St. Dunstan's in the East was to be held "as a gavelett" on account of non-payment of rent, 4 Ed. III. (Anc. Deeds, A. 1713).