England Land Records Glossary P to T (National Institute)
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The original content for this article was contributed by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies in June 2012. It is an excerpt from their course English: Land and Property Records including Manorial Documents and Maps by Dr. Penelope Christensen. The Institute offers over 200 comprehensive genealogy courses for a fee ($). |
Glossary (cont.)[edit | edit source]
Parish | An ecclesiastical division of land with a mother Anglican church (and perhaps subsidiary chapels-of-ease), run by a vestry and from which the incumbent could claim tithes for support.In 1894 civil parishes were instituted and the new parish councils took over administration of some business. |
Parish constable | Manorial court appointee; forerunner of policeman |
Parliamentary Enclosure | Enclosures done by act of parliament when the land-owners could not agree amongst themselves. The new fields typically had straight edges and the landscape acquired a more rectangular aspect. |
Parliamentary Survey | Surveys of the nature and value of crown, bishops' and dean and chapter lands and perquisites taken during the Inter-regnum period prior to their sale for the benefit of the Commonwealth. |
Partition | Division of a property between two or more interested parties |
Patent Rolls | Records housed at TNA dealing with borough charters, grants of land and privileges, presentation to benefices, alienation, wardship and the appointment of officers. 1201-1920. |
Patrimony | An estate coming from a father or ancestor |
Peculiar | An area within an archdeaconry but outside his jurisdiction, and usually that of the bishop as well. There were over 200 of them. |
Peppercorn rent | A very low one just to acknowledge ownership by the person to whom the peppercorn is paid. A pepper-berry was almost valueless. |
Perch | Area of land being 1/40th of a rood; roughly 30 square yards. Also called a pole or rod. |
Personalty | The personal property bequeathed by testament, not necessarily to the principal heir of the estate. |
Pinfold | Small enclosure, usually walled, wherein stray animals were impounded until claimed (for a fee) |
Pipe Rolls | Accounts rendered by county sheriffs to the Exchequer including details of rent and farm, from which the succession of tenants-in-chief can be traced. So called because when rolled they resemble pipes. Include the Black Book of the Exchequer (Liber Niger Scaccarii) a survey of England conducted in 1166. 1120-1831 and a number have been published by the Pipe Roll society. |
Pie Powder Court | Market courts from pieds poudreux = dusty feet. |
Plea Rolls | Records of actions brought under the Common Law |
Plight | A holding of land |
Pole | Area of land being 1/40th of a rood; roughly 30 square yards. Also called a perch or rod. |
Portmote | Port court |
Pound | Another term for pinfold |
Premises | (a) First part of a deed which gives the date and names of the [parties]
(b) House or building with appurtenances and grounds |
Primer Seisin | The right of the crown to one full year's profit of the estate of an of-age heir of a tenant-in-chief. |
Primogeniture | Inheritance by eldest son |
Purpresture | Illegal encroachment on crown lands, could be punished by forfeiture of encroacher's land, but usually just noted and a rental levied. |
Quality book | Record of survey of quality and quantity of land during the process of enclosure. |
Quarter | Eight bushels capacity, often used for grain. |
Quarter Days | The 4 days of the year when rent was due: Lady Day 25th March, Midsummer 6th July until 1752 then 24th June; Michaelmas 29th September; and Christmas 25th December. |
Querent | Purchaser in a Final Accord |
Quicksets | Young hawthorn plants used for hedging. |
Quit claim | A deed renouncing any right to a property. |
Quit rent | A fixed annual rent releasing a manorial or burgage (copyhold) tenant from all service to his lord. |
Rack rent | A very high rent, nearly the full annual value of the land. |
Rack-rent | The highest yearly rent that a tenement will fetch, or at least two-thirds of this. |
Rape | A subdivision of the county of Sussex |
Rates | Taxes, hence rateable value |
Recital | The repetition of a previous transaction bearing on the present deed; it came immediately after the date and names of the parties and commenced, Whereas..... |
Recognizance | Bond |
Recoverer | Purchaser in a Common Recovery |
Recovery Rolls | Enrolled records of common recoveries |
Redemption of Land Tax | A large lump sum payment to end annual payment of land tax. |
Regnal year | Method of dating by the year of the monarch's reign e.g. IV Geo 6 |
Regrant | Term used in manor court when a lord gives back land to the heirs of a deceased tenant, normally after payment of a fee such as a relief. |
Relief | The fee paid to the lord by an incoming tenant to succeed to his inheritance. The fee varied with the size of the estate and was regulated by Magna Carta (1215), but abolished in 1661. |
Remainder | Entitlement to an estate after another ownership or tenancy. A future interest in property. Can refer to land in a will or personalty in a testament |
Rent | Payment due for use of property; a chief rent or quit rent is a fixed rent due from a freehold property; a fee-farm or reserved rent is similar, set up on the sale of property by a grant in fee farm. See also rack rent. |
Rental | a register of rents due |
Reserved rent | Rent set up on the sale of property by a grant in fee farm. |
Respited | Reprieved or forgiven e.g. fealty respited. |
Return of Owners of Land | 1871-1876 listings of holders of one acre or more of land arranged by county and derived primarily from rate books. |
Reversion | The granting of a property sometimes following the termination of a former lease. |
Reversionary Interes | A future interest in a lease |
Ridings | A Viking word meaning a third used from the time of the Danelaw to divide Yorkshire into three parts, East, North and West. Lindsey, the northern part of Lincolnshire was also formerly divided into North, South and West Ridings. |
Right of estover | To collect wood for fuel or building |
Right of pannage | To allow pigs to feed on fallen acorns and beech mast in woods |
Right of pasture | To graze sheep or cattle on common pasture |
Right of piscary | To fish, usually from the river bank |
Right of soil | Mineral rights, usually retained by the lord of the manor |
Right of turbary | To dig peat or turf from wastes to use as fuel |
Right of warren | To hunt rabbits, usually retained by the lord of the manor |
Rod | (a) see perch, an area of land.
(b) By the rod - a manorial custom of grasping a stick when transferring land |
Roll | Document consisting of a number of membranes sewn together then rolled up. |
Rood | Land area of 1/4 acre, or forty perches |
Scite | Site of a former cottage or homestead, now derelict and perhaps grazed |
Seisin or seizin | Possession (rather than ownership) of land. When granting land at first an incoming tenant was seised in law then a symbolic gift, such as a lump of turf from the land, was given him so he was now seised in deed and the grant was now valid. Dispossession was known as disseisin. |
Serjeanty | a tenure given in exchange for a variety of different services to the lord, such as gamekeeper, physician, tailor. |
Settlement | Transfer of property to trustees for a particular purpose, for example a marriage or family settlement. Not to be confused with pauper settlements under the Poor Law. |
Severalty | Method of holding land where each farmer alone occupies his own land, and can make decisions on agriculture independent of the manor court. |
Sheep gate/gait | Right to graze sheep on common pasture |
Sign manual | Hand written signature |
Socage | A free tenure with no military obligations and which could be alienated by the tenant and inherited without restriction (primogeniture being common mode), but the heir paid a fee to enter the land. There were two kinds: free socage where the services were honourable and fixed; and villain socage with humbler fixed services. Abolished in 1660. |
Soiled land | Land converted from freehold to copyhold tenure |
Soke | An administrative division of a county formerly in the Danelaw |
Stint | The maximum number of animals allowed to graze on the common pasture. |
Strict settlement | Entailing family estates |
Sub-infeud | Grant a fee to a favoured subtenant. |
Surrender | Return of a copyhold or leased property to the lord of the manor or lessor. |
Survivorship | Lease for lives |
Swainmote | Forest court which met three times a year to arrange pannage of forest. See Rights |
TDR | Tithe Documents register at TNA |
Tenancy at will | A tenure granted by the lord and at his disposal, usually to reward crown servants. |
Tenancy by copy | Copyhold tenant |
Tenancy by the verge | Copyhold tenant |
Tenant for life | The current holder of entailed land |
Tenant in common | Shared ownership whilst alive, with heirs inheriting respective shares (see joint tenants) |
Tenant in tail | Next heir to an entail. |
Tenant-in-chief | One who held land directly from the king; also known as tenant-in-capite. |
Tenement | Any holding of land with at least one building; a roweless (roofless) tenement was one with no building on it. |
Tenure | The nature of the title to land or property e.g. copyhold, freehold, knight service, leasehold. |
Termor | A tenant for a term of years |
Terre tenant | A lord of the manor or freeholder in actual occupation of the land, as distinct from his superior lord. |
Terrier | Detailed list of all a farmer's lands in the open fields. |
Time immemorial | Also Time out of mind; beyond legal memory i.e. before 1189. |
Tied cottage | One that is tied to a job. If the husband died or was fired, then the family had to move out. |
Tithe Agreement | A tithe commutation agreed on by all parties. |
Tithe apportionments | The book accompanying the tithe survey which listed the names of the owners and occupiers. |
Tithe Award | A tithe commutation adjudicated by the commissioners. |
Tithe commutation | The process whereby tithes paid in kind were made payable in money |
Tithe maps | The map produced when tithes were commuted to monetary payments |
Tithe owner | The person or organization that received tithes on a certain piece of land. |
Tithe rent charge | Annual payments in lieu of tithes, also called corn rents as they were based on the price of corn (wheat) |
Title | The means by which the owner of land has the just possession of his property. |
Title deed | Legal document providing evidence of title to land or property, necessary when a transfer of ownership is made. |
Toft | A farmstead with some land |
Township | A village or manor with a self-contained farming system |
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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Land and Property Records including Manorial Documents and Maps 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 wiki@genealogicalstudies.com
We welcome updates and additions to this Wiki page.