These records are a greatly underused resource in the research into our Ancestors, particularly in the period before Parish Registers. They provide a most vivid account of the daily lives of ordinary people in the English villages. If you are puzzling which of your 2 possible Ancestors is the correct one they can often help by proving the descent of property.
Caroline’s talk covered: An Overview of the records, the Nature of the records, Categories, examples, survival and location and research aids.
The King was at the head of the system with tenants in chief below him. They in turn had the Lords of the Manor who were responsible to them with the manorial tenants below them.
The size of the Manor varied greatly and was not the same size as the Parish. They had a wide variety of local Customs.
Types of Tenants include:
Freemen who paid rent and were free to move.
Serfs, who were tied to the Manor by service and dues, service was changed to rent in about the 14th Century
Copyhold tenants. They were given a copy of the Court roll and typically held the land for a period of 3 lives. A widow could often interspace the 3 lives.
Demesne Tenants, who held the property for a fixed term, this term could be anything from a few years to thousands.
Tenants at Will, much like the modern system,
What were the records like? Originally they were on Parchment rolls and officially in Latin until 1733 but in practice they were often in English well before this date. They had a specialised vocabulary and were very formulaic, so even if they were in Latin it could be fairly easy to pick out the relevant names etc. There were lots of Office Holders so your Ancestors could be named in that way.
The Steward was the Lord’s Deputy and under him were the Bailiffs who were responsible for the day to day running of the Manor. Then came the Reeves, who oversaw things, the Hayward who was responsible for the crops and boundaries, the Waywarden who looked after paths and bridges, the Pinder, responsible for Strays, the Catchpole, a debt collector, the Aletaster, looking after quality and price of Ale. The Affeeror collected money due to the Court and the Constable or tithingman was responsible for law and order. So many of these roles have become surnames.
There are 3 main Categories of records: Estate, Financial and Legal
Estate dealt with the properties in the Manor and gave a snapshot view. There would be a survey to show what the properties were and the rental details may indicate when your Ancestor arrived in the Manor. Caroline showed many examples in this category and how they could help work out a family tree.
The Financial Records include the Lord’s income, and accounts of both incomes and expenditures. Also included are rent rolls and inventories. The Stewards Records also come into this category.
Court (Legal) Records cover the various Courts and the various Rolls include lots of names
The Court Leet dealt with Landholding, Services, Trespasses, Debts and dispute etc., this was held every 3 weeks.
The Court Baron dealt with petty crimes, standards, public order, appointments of Officers etc and was held twice yearly.
Caroline gave lots of examples of what we could expect to see in these records.
Most importantly for us was the survival of the records. This could be very patchy but if lucky they would go back to the 12th century. In 1926 Copyhold ceased to exist and most of the Courts died out however there are still about 20 in existence. The Records can be found in both Public and Private Archives and are often not together in one place. The Manorial Documents Register is a good source for finding out where those that do exist will be found. Every County in England and Wales is now Computerised.
The Register can be searched on the National Archives Website In most cases it would best to search by Parish as sometimes this was covered by more than 1 Manor.
The National Archives also has a very good research guide as does the University of Nottingham
Caroline also suggested some useful books, the latest of which is:
Manorial Records for Family Historians by Geoffrey Barber (published by UTP, 2017)
Overall Caroline enlightened us to the benefits of using this resource and not letting the fear of not being able to read or understand the documents deter us.
Report by Sheila Harris