MANOR AND COURT ROLLS.
The oldest account of an estate is to be obtained, not from deeds of
purchase and mortgage, but from its own private records, called court
rolls, a most curious class of documents, puzzling to the antiquary
because they contain local words obsolete and not recognisable through
derivation. Manor rolls are a study in themselves, a subject hitherto
overlooked. They give us an insight into the most primitive form of
local government, showing the manner in which lawlessness and disregard
of laws were kept under before a regular magisterial jurisdiction
came into existence. The local manor court occupied the position and
did the work now undertaken by the magistrates, County Court judges,
and County Councils. When complaints are raised as to an excessive
imposition of fines for trivial misdemeanours by any of these modern
means of justice, I would advise the complainants to study some old
court rolls, wherein may be read the fines imposed for offences no
longer punishable. The villager was fined if he kept dogs or pigeons,
for trespass in the woods, stealing brushwood, for illegal fishing,
for fighting, for allowing animals to stray and become impounded. Nor,
unless he was a freedman, was he allowed to marry or give in marriage
without his lord’s permission. All this sounds very arbitrary and
severe; in reality it probably was not so. The bond between landlord
and tenant must have been a very close one. They were drawn into near
connection one with another; the well-being of one meant the welfare
of the other. Nor was the meting forth of justice left solely in the
hands of the lord of the manor, but rather to the twelve jurymen who
formed the court itself. Certainly this self-government opened a means
for unfair influence and revenge of petty quarrels. This was guarded
against as far as possible. A very common item brought before the court
was the accusation of wrongful information laid by a man against his
neighbour in direct opposition to the ninth commandment.
There were two sections of manor courts--the Court Leet and the Court
Baron. The former dealt with offences committed by the tenantry, and
contained much that is entertaining and curious; the other was occupied
with the tenants and their holdings, of which they had every year to
give account to the lord of the manor. Upon the death of a tenant, or
the expiration of the lease, new presentments were made to the landlord
for admission to the premises, or a fresh life added to the lease from
time to time. In these rolls we find notices of heriots and other old
services due from the tenants of certain lands; indeed, these old
customs are not yet wholly extinct, though they have frequently fallen
into abeyance. On some estates heriots are still due, but, as a rule,
have for many generations been compounded for by a money payment, just
in the same way that feudal service passed into small sums of money and
finally died out, or eventually took the form of money rent.
On many farms it was part of the rent to give the landlord yearly,
geese or cheese. In a small farm of ours in Cheshire the tenant had to
give a cheese yearly, cart coals, keep a dog and a fighting-cock for
his landlord.
The manorial history of England would carry us back very far did we
attempt to trace it to its earliest beginnings. Perhaps the very
first step towards it was the settlement of the Saxon tribes, who,
in appropriating and distributing the land, laid the foundation of
hereditary ownership. There is no rule or limit as to how many manors
there might be in each parish. Clearly the parish was the older
division of the two; nor can the creation of a manor be dated in any
way, for many of the old manors were subsequently split up into two
or more lesser ones. The affixes or manorial names are known to have,
in some instances, varied with the family who held the land. Almost
without exception these manorial names were directly derived from
the possessors. Few are older than the Norman period, perhaps having
supplanted those in existence previously. Where double parochial
names are used, the first is usually Saxon, the affix being a Norman
addition, showing the fusion of the two races, which, though living in
close proximity, were yet totally distinct from each other.
During the Middle Ages manors were further subdivided, easily to be
accounted for in this way: The owner of a manor was at first start the
tenant of some wealthy and powerful nobleman, who, owning vast tracts
of land, sublet it out in manors, which were after some generations
bought outright, or looked upon almost as freehold. The tenant was the
resident squire of the place, living on the land, and farming it with
the assistance of his children and dependents. After a time the family
grew up, the sons married and needed homes of their own. In those days
no one moved far away from the birthplace. What was more natural than
that the squire should provide homes for his children close around
the old manor-house, and, dividing off the property by the manorial
boundaries, give to each a portion for self-maintenance? This accounts
for the large, old-fashioned farmhouses to be found in most country
parishes. The history of each farm, if investigated, will furnish a
curious proof of the conservatism with which certain boundaries were
preserved, and the manors regarded as sections seldom subdivided except
into recognised lesser manors.
Society was very primitive two or three hundred years ago. It was
then possible to live comfortably and make a living out of the land.
No foreign grain was imported to affect the prices of corn in country
places. Competition was unknown, and the people led a quiet, uneventful
existence, following in the footsteps of their forefathers. Gradually
changes have come about. The old race of yeomen has died out; the few
that are left make us forcibly regret that this should be the case.
The yeoman was a man of good education and long pedigree; he belonged
to the largest section of English society, called ‘middle class.’
Agriculture was his profession; he seldom left home, consequently had
few opportunities of spending money; the character and personal history
of every human being on the place was intimately known to him, for
the villagers lived and died in their native villages. The roads were
bad, therefore traffic from place to place was restricted to what was
absolutely necessary. Posts and passenger coaches were rarities, and
when first started met with little patronage from the majority of the
people.
To return to the manorial courts. These were held but once during the
year. It was the annual audit of the freemen on the estate, the ‘Visus
franciplegii,’ as the opening words of the court roll states.
Quarter sessions were held four times in the year, while the sheriff’s
tourn took place half-yearly. These inquired into matters of public
interest and public expense, whereas the manor court dealt with trivial
matters pertaining to the manor itself. The sheriff’s tourn and the
manorial court were almost identical in object; the first was the
representative of the Crown dispensing justice to the King’s subjects;
in a lesser radius and degree the lord of the manor had a similar
office to fulfil.
[Illustration: COURT ROLL. (_See page 75._)]
Manors were ruled by custom, and customs varied in different places.
The general aspect of a court roll will always be found to be
identical. The older rolls are in Latin, but, like the deeds, the later
ones are written in English. The earliest ones are literally ‘rolls’
closely written on parchment in the handwriting called by the French
‘minuscule.’
Every court roll has at its commencement the name of the manor written
either above or on the margin. The opening words read thus: ‘Visus
franciplegii cum curia.’ After this is the name of the lord of the
manor, the date of the day and month, followed by the King’s name and
the number of years since he ascended the throne.
_Esson._, on the margin, is the abbreviation for _essonium_,
an excuse--namely, the jurymen who pleaded absence from the court.
Following this are the names of the twelve jurymen present, and then
the work begins.
In the older rolls the presentment of offences are the principal items;
latterly only the tenants and their leases employed the attention of
the court at its annual sitting.
The first thing to consider was usually the assize--licensing, so to
speak, of bread and ale. By this means fraud and adulteration were held
in check. The right of brewing ale was a privilege not to be infringed
without penalty; the fine imposed was at the rate of 1_d._ for
each illegal brewing; the offenders are generally women.
Any damage to crops or fences, highways needing repair, quarrels ending
in bloodshed, neglect by which animals were permitted to stray and
become seized by the hayward or pinder--all such offences are found
chronicled in the court roll. Last of all is the sum total received
in fines, signed by the names of the two officers appointed to
superintend the assize.
A court roll is always written throughout in one handwriting, without
any private marks or signatures. From the writing, they are generally
the work of a professional scribe or clerk who must have had a regular
education--first as a Latin scholar, secondly as an accountant, and
thirdly probably learnt to write before he learnt Latin. Mistakes or
erasures are seldom to be detected; therefore the rolls must have
been carefully copied at leisure from rough notes made at the time;
moreover, the spelling of the surnames is fairly constant, which would
not be if written from dictation.
Up to the Reformation period the court rolls were cherished as being
valuable records, providing standards for future reference; hence we
find, until then, a fairly perfect sequence of these yearly rolls,
after which a break occurs, and only a casual roll here and there is
preserved. No guide to court rolls would be complete unless the oldest
form of the Arabic numerals is given and explained.
The Roman numerals are the oldest method of writing figures in Europe,
but gradually the so-called Arabic figures (really of Indian origin)
were introduced, superseding the former style. To Gerbert, otherwise
known as Pope Silvester II. (he died in 1003), is attributed their
introduction
[Illustration: xiith century. xiiith century. xivth century. xvth
century.]
from the East to the West; anyway, from the twelfth century, the Arabic
numerals rapidly came into use. The 0 was not invented before the
twelfth century. A curious resemblance is traceable between the figures
of the alternate centuries. Our present style of figures has grown out
of the older ones, but is bolder in outline and curve. The figure
5 has passed through most variation, while 6, 8 and 9 have scarcely
altered at all.
It must be remembered that before 1752 the Old Style was still used
in England. The year therefore commenced on March 25th instead of, as
it does at present, on January 1st. When the calendar was corrected
in 1752 eleven days were omitted, and September 2nd was followed by
September 14th. The people bewailed it, and contemporary skits are
numerous, echoing the popular cry of ‘Give us back our lost eleven
days.’ On the Continent the alteration had taken place long before. In
some English parish church registers we find confusion as to the actual
year date to be used for the months between Christmas and Lady Day.
This uncertainty may be observed before 1750. In many country places
the old style was maintained long after the year 1752.
I have a very curious old calendar of 1483; in it the saints’ days are
veritable red-letter days. Many of the saints named are unknown to us
either by name or legend, but in court rolls only the principal saints’
days are mentioned as those on which the court sat.
Some months seem to have been more favoured with saints’ days than
others. The following list, though by no means complete, gives the
chief English saints:
_January._
1. Circumcisio Domini.
13. St. Veronica.
13. St. Hilary.
25. Conversion of St. Paul.
_February._
1. St. Bride, or Bridget.
2. Purification of the Virgin, or Candlemas Day.
24. St. Matthias the Apostle.
_March._
1. St. David.
2. St. Chad.
4. St. Lucius, Pope and Martyr, A.D. 253.
14. St. Benet, or Benedict.
18. St. Edward.
19. St. Joseph, the Virgin’s husband.
20. St. Cuthbert.
25. Annunciation of the Virgin. Lady-Day.
_April._
23. St. George.
25. St. Mark the Evangelist.
_May._
1. St. Philip and St. James the Less, Apostles.
2. St. Athanasius.
3. Invention (or discovery) of the Holy Cross.
5. St. Hilary, Bishop of Arles. The two saints of this name are
confusing, but this St. Hilary is rarely mentioned in English
documents.
26. St. Augustine.
_June._
11. St. Barnabas, Apostle.
13. St. Anthony of Padua.
22. St. Alban.
24. Nativity of St. John the Baptist. Midsummer Day.
29. Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.
30. St. Paul, Apostle.
_July._
2. Visitation of the Blessed Virgin.
15. St. Swithin.
22. St. Mary Magdalen.
25. St. James the Great, Apostle.
25. St. Christopher. Lammastide.
_August._
1. St. Peter ad Vincula, or St. Peter in chains.
5. St. Oswald.
6. The Transfiguration of our Lord.
15. The Assumption of the Virgin.
21. St. Bernard.
24. St. Bartholomew, Apostle.
28. St. Austin, or Augustine.
29. Beheading of St. John the Baptist.
_September._
1. St. Egidius, or Giles.
8. The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.
14. Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
21. St. Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist.
29. St. Michael and All Angels. Michaelmas.
_October._
4. St. Francis of Assisi.
9. St. Denis, or Dionysius of Paris.
17. St. Audry, or Etheldreda.
18. St. Luke the Evangelist.
21. St. Ursula, and 11,000 virgins.
25. St. Crispin.
28. St. Simon the Canaanite, Apostle.
_November._
1. All Saints’ Day.
2. All Souls’ Day.
11. St. Martin. Martinmas.
16. St. Edmund.
21. Presentation of the Blessed Virgin.
22. St. Cecilia.
25. St. Catherine.
30. St. Andrew, Apostle.
_December._
6. St. Nicholas.
8. The Conception of the Blessed Virgin.
13. St. Lucy.
21. St. Thomas, Apostle.
25. The Nativity of our Blessed Lord. Christmas.
26. St. Stephen.
27. St. John, Evangelist and Apostle.
28. The Holy Innocents.
29. St. Thomas à Beckett.
The saints’ days were brought before the people in many ways--in the
village feasts, or the dedication of churches, in the mural paintings
which covered the church walls, and in the Christian names given at
baptism. In the old rolls the date of the month is never mentioned,
the principal feast-day nearest to it being used instead.
Saints’ days, as holidays, were probably the most convenient days for
assembling together for business.
[Illustration]
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