In the words 'ownership', 'township' and leadership' it doesn't mean anything in itself, but it is used to form nouns of various sorts. See here for more details.
It has Germanic origins, (so you won't find a real equivalent in French) and exists in modern Dutch as the suffix 'schap' with the same usage as in English.
This is from the Online Etymology Dictionary. The suffix "ship" denotes a state or condition of being.
-shipword-forming element meaning "quality, condition; act, power, skill; office, position; relation between," Middle English -schipe, from Old English -sciepe, Anglian -scip "state, condition of being," from Proto-Germanic *-skapaz (cognates: Old Norse -skapr, Danish -skab, Old Frisian -skip, Dutch -schap, German -schaft), from *skap- "to create, ordain, appoint," from PIE root *(s)kep- (see shape (v.)).