Volunteers – Hexham

Hexham Local History Society (HLHS) have been working on a collection of ‘notices of intent to surrender’ from 1813-1818, with their focus on records for Hexham manor.

These documents give notice that at the next court a tenant will surrender their lands. Manorial copyhold land had to pass through manorial courts and even if passing from father to eldest son and heir, the previous tenant would have to attend a court, surrender their land and pay a fine, before the next heir could be admitted. These notices of intent to surrender can tell us a lot about the lands in the manor at the time, who owned them, the requirements of their tenancy and how the land passed.

The documents have certainly been fascinating for the Hexham volunteers, some of whom, on completing their transcripts, have tried to identify the current location of the lands being surrendered. This shows that these records are not only useful for family history research, they also hold a wealth of information, which can help a researcher to really understand the history of their local area.