England Finding and Using Manor Court Records (National Institute)

Manor Courts (cont.)
Chart: Format of a Court Roll or Record There is some variation in the order of items after the first two.

Chart: A Whole Court Record 1770 Manor of Chipping Barnet and East Barnet, Hertfordshire

Some examples of presentations are shown next:

Records, where they survive, continue until 1922 on the demise of copyhold land, or to the date of enfranchisement of all copyhold land in that manor if earlier. There are a very few courts that still survive, mainly to supervise remaining common lands.

Manorial and Medieval Records
McLaughlin (Manorial Records. The author, 1996) and Overton (A Guide to the Medieval Manor. Local History Publications, Streatham, London, 1994) both have readable accounts of the manor, its customs and records, but the latter is more substantial. Palgrave-Moore (How to Locate and Use Manorial Documents. Elvery Dowers Publications, Norwich, Norfolk, 1985), Harvey (Manorial Court Rolls. #47 in Short Guides to Records edited by Kathryn M. Thompson. Historical Association, London. and on  and Park (My Ancestors Were Manorial Tenants. How Can I Find out More about Them. Society of Genealogists, 1990) are short useful guides to the records but outdated on finding aids. Ellis (Using Manorial Records. Public Record Office Publications in association with the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1997) concentrates on the records at TNA, and Stuart (Manorial Records: An Introduction to Their Transcription and Translation. Phillimore, Chichester, Sussex, 1992) is ideal for those wanting practice in deciphering the older material as it is superbly illustrated with originals and transcripts. Morley (Writing a Family History: Some Problems and Solutions: Manorial Records. Family Tree Magazine Vol 9 #4, page 27-29) shows how persistence, even with Latin text pays off in putting your ancestors in context amongst their neighbours.

Manorial Documents Register
TNA research guides L1 and L9 deal mainly with their holdings, whilst L25 describes the MDR (Manorial Documents Register) which is the finding aid for all extant manorial documents.

This is online at National Archives and identifies the location of original manorial records and refers to any published edition, transcription or translation. The MDR is available online for counties in England: Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Lancashire North of the Sands (the Furness area, now part of Cumbria), Middlesex, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Surrey, Westmorland, the three Ridings of Yorkshire; and all of Wales.

Court Leet and Court Roll Records
The many manorial records that have been filmed can be found on the FamilySearch Catalog under MANORS, MANORS—COURTS and COURTS for the county and place. Examples of filmed originals include:


 * Court Leet books for Newport, Hampshire 1617-1848 on three films commencing at.


 * Court Leet records for the Liberty of St. Peter, York on.


 * Court Rolls of Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey 1434-1835 on four films starting at.

Manor Court Records
There are many translated, transcribed and published manor court records as well, which are noted in the MDR (Manorial Documents Register), such as:


 * Court Rolls of the manor of Chilham, Kent 1654-1656 by Jessup who provides a learned introduction.
 * Court Rolls of the Honor of Clitheroe, Lancashire 1568-1571 by Simpson.
 * Court Rolls of Chalgrave Manor, Bedfordshire 1278-1313 by Dale.

Strugnell (The Family of Strugnell - Manorial Tenants. East Surrey Family History Society Journal Vol 17 #1, page 17-21) describes the manorial tenants in his family, and Franklin tells of mediaeval life in Gloucestershire seen through court rolls. Jessel (The Law of the Manor. Bary Rose Law Publishers, Chichester, West Sussex) has a text for lawyers interested in the development of the law of the manor. The farcical situation of the sale of manorial lordships is explored by Knight (Me Experience of Buying a Manorial Lordship. Hampshire Family Historian Vol 30 #1, page 51).

Manor Records are sometimes found in amongst a mixture of other items, for example when solicitors deposit their papers at an archive. An example is the material relating to Tonbridge 1689-1946 from Walker, Templer and Thomson at Kent County Archives on fiche 6074026(2); this includes manorial records, probates of wills and admons, marriage settlements, a bankruptcy petition, deeds of separation, releases and other deeds of personal estate, agreements and bonds for employments and maps.

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Court Records-Criminal, Civil and Ecclesiastical offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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