Manorial Documents

There are several types of documents which were created by the manorial courts. Here we will focus on some of the more common manorial documents found in Northumberland Archives’ collections.

Court Rolls/Court Books

Court rolls are the most common document in our collections. These detail the court proceedings, and usually include:

• The name of the manor
• The name of the lord/lady of the manor
• The name of the steward
• The date
• A list of jurors
• The presentments – meaning the issues brought before the court.

They are called court rolls because they were often written on a rolled piece of paper or parchment.

You can also find court books, which in our collections include the same information as the court rolls, just written in a large volume.

Call Rolls/Suit Rolls

 The terms “call roll” and “suit roll” are both used for the list of tenants required to attend the manorial courts. ‘Call roll’ means those “called” to court, and “suit roll” referred to those who “owed suit” to the manor. As with the court rolls, call rolls are sometimes written into a register, called a call/suit book or can be an individual list.

A modern researcher can use the rolls to see the names of all those living in a manor at a given time. The rolls both include the names of the tenants required to attend the court, and a note as to whether they attended. This can be a bit of a challenge to work out, as the scribes tend to abbreviate the words denoting attendance. Some common examples of those are included below:

Surrenders and Admittances

These documents include the surrender of copyhold land by a tenant, and the admittance (or admission) of a new tenant to that land. This process had to go through the court baron, regardless of whether the property was passing to an heir or a completely new tenant. For example, if you can find a collection of these records for a manor in which you knew your ancestor lived, you may be able to see exactly what properties they owned over time.

The documents will include:

• The name of the individual(s) coming to court to surrender their land.
• The land in question: This would usually be the name of a property, e.g. “Moss Farm”, or the name of the land owner again, e.g. “Mr Bloggs’ land”. It was usually distinguished by the names of the surrounding properties. For example, ‘the property is bordered on the east by Mill Farm, and on the west by the land of Mr Smith, etc.” The challenge here can sometimes be working out exactly what was included in the property.
• The size of the land: This is usually given in acres, roods and perches – see the later section on measurements.
• The name of the individual(s) who will be admitted as the new tenants.
• Any fines or costs.

In our collection we have both the surrender and admittance documents for many manors, and in some cases, such as Hexham manor, we have a collection of “intents to surrender” land, which detail the same information, but were written prior to the court, stating when they intend to make their surrender of land.

You may find a surrender and admission as individual documents, or in many cases these are included in a court roll, as part of the presentments.

Some other document types:

We do also have several other types of manorial document in our collection, however, we will focus on the above documents in this resource. Other types of records available include:

• Accounts – Accounts written by the reeve or bailiff of the manor, relating to the expenditure and income of the manor.
• Enfranchisements – This is the process of a lord/lady of the manor converting copyhold land into freehold land. The process produced many documents, but the most important were deeds of enfranchisement. These became more common following the Copyhold Act of 1852, which included a clause allowing tenants to demand enfranchisement on their land. This process would extinguish the copyhold ruling on the land, which is why they’re sometimes called “extinguishments”.
• Maps/Plans – Maps of a manor can survive, but these are very rare, certainly in our collection. You may find a map or plan of part of a manor, but often these were created in response to a dispute, so will only cover the area in question. Again these are not common.
• Perambulation – Sometimes called a “perambulation of the bounds”. This is a written account of the boundaries of the manor, established by members of the court walking around the boundaries. These were sometimes completed in response to a boundary dispute, but can also be completed routinely or as annual events.
• Rentals – These list the tenants and the rent that they were due to pay.
• Steward’s Papers – Administrative documents gathered by the steward to support the running of the manor courts. These can include correspondence, the steward’s notes and copies of earlier rolls.
• Surveys – Detail the land in the manor and the customs relating to that land.
• Terriers – As above, this is a survey, but arranged field by field.