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1 © Celia Heritage Ancestryprogenealogists® 2020 1 Manorial Records. How Can They Help my English Research? Syllabus The Advantage of Using Manorial Records Contrary to popular belief manorial records are not just useful for early research but can potentially cover dates from the 13th century right through until 1922 when the Law of Property Act abolished the last form of land tenure associated with the manorial system - copyhold land. They are also an excellent source to turn to if the parish registers you need do not survive and may well pre-date the earliest parish register by many years if not centuries, while one of the delights of manorial records is that they concentrate on the everyday person who lived on the manor rather than the lord who ran it. Early manorial records are challenging with highly abbreviated Latin and to decipher them requires much practice but there is plenty of material that you will be able to cope with from the seventeenth century onwards and gaining experience in this will help prepare you for the early records if you wish to take it further. Another advantage in using manorial records is that while a reference to an ancestor in parish records may not identify him beyond all doubt as the ancestor you seek, continued tenure of land or a house by a family can eliminate that doubt and identify your family with certainty. The Manorial System - What was it and when was it Introduced? Simply speaking a manor was an administrative land unit under the charge of a “Lord of The Manor”. A "lord" was not necessarily of noble birth and the term is not the same as a "Lord" who has a peerage. From the time of the first Norman king William 1 all land was deemed to be the property of the king and he therefore had the authority to grant lands and the profits from them to his vassals in return for the provision of military service and fealty. While the idea of serfdom and bondage existed in England before Norman times the Normans added to this a system of military obligations and seigniorial powers. The first lords of the manor occasionally held their manor in return for personal service in the king's household but in most cases the lord held his manor from the king in return for military service. He would be bound to provide a certain number of trained armed men for 40 days a year to fight in the king's army. After the mid 13th century the need for heavily armed knights and the need for infantry was © Celia Heritage AncestryProGenealogists® 2020 2 greatly reduced and so knight's service as it was known became obsolete - the service being replaced by a payment known as scutage. Alternatively a manor could be held by an ecclesiastical lord who provided the king with ecclesiastical services in return. A lord who held his land directly from the king was known as a “tenant in chief”. The tenants in chief in turn granted land to other men who were also lords of the manor but who are referred to as “mesne lords” to indicate that they held their land from another lord rather than the king. Mesne derives from a word meaning intermediate or middle On each manor were tenants who worked the manorial land and in turn owed service in the form of labour on the lord's land and fealty to their lord. The lord offered protection and justice to his tenants in return through his manorial court. With the passing of time service in labour was also gradually replaced by monetary payments. The feudal system (the system of people owing service to their "superiors") had largely died out by the 16th century and was officially abolished in 1660 but the accompanying system of manorial administration dealing mainly with land holdings and tenancies carried on. Manors varied greatly in size from just a few acres to well over a hundred acres, while one lord might hold just one manor or hold manors in various locations throughout the country. Manors occasionally matched the boundaries of a parish but more often you will find several manors in one parish or that a manor might spread over the boundaries of more than one parish. Although in some cases the manor may have been a compact village often portrayed in school history books this was not always the situation and in some cases a manor would consist of scattered farms interspersed with land belonging to other manors and waste land. The Manorial Courts Just as his vassals owed services to him, the Lord was bound to provide justice and protection to his tenants through his court. Just like the parish each manor was unique and was run according to the customs of the individual manor. These customs were unique to each manor and had developed over time as firstly unwritten agreements between the lord and the villeins until by the 13th century they had usually been written down. The court was not just a means of administering justice in the manor primarily in fact dealt with everyday administrative matters too. The court rolls (on which all © Celia Heritage AncestryProGenealogists® 2020 3 court proceedings were recorded) are often the place where the most interesting records of estate administration will be found. The manor courts were also an important source of income for the lord as he received income from many aspects of the courts' proceedings, particularly in the form of amercements (fines) of people infringing byelaws and the lord's rights and entry fines when tenancies changed hands. Attendance at court was compulsory for all manorial tenants. The power of manorial courts varied greatly- some dealt solely with villeins and the administration of the manor while others had the power to deal with freeman as well and also deal with criminal matters - i.e. breaches of the king's peace - the latter only if special permission had been granted by the king and only to deal with crimes committed within the manorial boundary. Generally speaking there were three types of manorial court. The Court Leet and View of Frankpledge - The former was a court which the Lord held on behalf of the Crown and which dealt with criminal matters. Not every Lord had the king's permission to hold a Court Leet and most of Court Leets had died out by the seventeenth century. View of Frankpledge - originally a court held periodically to examine the effective working of the system of Frankpledge - dates back to Saxon times where each area divided into groups of 10 or 12 households known as tithings, whose members were held corporately responsible for the behaviour of each other - matters being regulated by the View of Frankpledge. Court Leet and View of Frankpledge held together as time passed. The Court Customary and the Court Baron. Two separate courts although in practice the two courts were usually combined under the title Court Baron. The former dealt with business arising from customary tenants while the latter dealt with freeholders. The court met on average every six weeks although this varied according to the manor. Bear in mind that other types of court did exist as well on some manors such as Court of Dimissions which you will find in Northumberland and Western Cumberland. They were separate courts to which customary or copyhold tenants came to surrender their tenancies and be admitted tenant. Who lived on the manor? Under the original feudal organisation there was a hierarchy of inhabitants with varying rights and privileges! The basic division on the medieval manor was between free and the unfree tenants. The former - the freemen chose to live on the manor while the villein or bondsman was born as such - inheriting his status from his father. But this is a very simplistic division Villeins, bondsmen, (serfs) later customary tenants and copyholders. © Celia Heritage AncestryProGenealogists® 2020 4 Villeins or bondsmen held land from the lord and paid him rent, but they were also subject to other obligations including regular agricultural work on the land that the lord kept to farm himself (demesne land) and a variety of other obligations that differed according to the custom of each manor. On most manors the villeins would be expected to give the Lord a set number of days work on the demesne land each week (week work) and be expected to provide extra help at harvest time (boon work). They also paid rents and in some cases they owed other services such as carrying/carting. too. Most importantly though, the villein was not allowed to leave the manor, nor could he marry without the lord’s permission. He also had to make a payment known as a heriot when he succeeded to his land holding - usually his best beast or later a monetary payment. Contrary to popular belief villeins could actually be fairly well - off people depending on how much land they held. Until the 14th century however life for the majority of villeins could be very hard as they had no bargaining powers. As a result of the Black Death which decimated the population and led to a desperate labour shortage this began to change. Villeins could begin to make demands and by the 16th century the life of the villein was much improved. Whereas the 14th century villein could have his land taken away on the whim of the lord, his 16th century counterpart had the security of knowing that his land holdings were confirmed in writing with full hereditary rights. His rent was fixed and the terms and conditions his tenure were also set down in writing while the restrictions on his freedom of movement and marriage had all but died out.
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