Both Uses

encumber
in
Jane Eyre
(Auto-generated)

The carriage stopped, as I had expected, at the hotel door; my flame (that is the very word for an opera inamorata) alighted: though muffed in a cloak — an unnecessary encumbrance, by-the-bye, on so warm a June evening — I knew her instantly by her little foot, seen peeping from the skirt of her dress, as she skipped from the carriage-step.
p. 166.5 *

encumbrance = hindrance or impediment
Firm, faithful, and devoted, full of energy, and zeal, and truth, he labours for his race; he clears their painful way to improvement; he hews down like a giant the prejudices of creed and caste that encumber it.†
p. 521.1

Definitions:

(1) (encumber)
hinder (make more difficult, or less valuable, hold back, or weigh down)

In real estate/business/law, to encumber is to specifically burden with a legal claim, e.g., a home might be encumbered with a mortgage.
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)