SUBJECT INDEX of Ludshott Manor Court Rolls

See also Glossary of Terms and Place Names Index

Bramshott Manor, trouble with 22/7 23/2 34/4 35 41/3

Bridges See Coopers, Hobbs & Chamberlens Bridges in Place Names Index.

Charcoal-making 49/1

Clay, digging of 32/2 54/5 84/4

Common rights 48/2 53/4 60/2 60F 73/5 125/2 178/7etc 179/2etc 181/10&11 215

Conford men, trespass by See Conford in Place Names Index.

Deeds quoted. See e.g. 24/2 39/1 46/2 63/2,3 70/3,4 93/3

Dung 179/3 180/5

Encroachment on waste 142/2 164/5 170/6,7,11 174/11 178/7–11 180/9 182/15,17 183/13–15,17 184/8–10,12

English passages in Latin Rolls eg 68/1 105/5 158 159/4 160/2 to 162/1

‘Equitable Uses’ 52F

Field names See especially 71/111012 to 112/3 Fieldwork for Lord 512-722/336/2 38F

Fishing in Lord’s waters 41/2 66/3 71/3 136/3 165/6–8

Fish Ponds 164/4 207

Hammer, ‘Bramshott’ (at Passfield); Hammerfields &c. 133/1 156/1 169/2 170/11 171/4 175/1 176/5 177/1

Hawking (falconry) 164/4&5

Headley men, trespass &c by See Headley in Place Names Index.

Homage (‘jury’ at Court), refusal to be of 169/8

Manor Officials. Bailiff – whenever ‘distraint’ is mentioned. Hayward: 179/4,5 180/7 183/7 184/5 215. Tithingman: 170/4, Woodward: 62/3 65/2 67/3 76/7 88/1 (& see ‘Trees’).

Mill (iron) See ‘Hammer’ above.

Perambulations (manor boundaries) 105/5 213 214

Pigs, damage, pannage &c 31/2 39/3 40/1 114/5 117/1 119/3–4 157/1 179/4 180/6 184/4.

Pound, Manor 22/5 31/2 39/3 73/5

Priest (Rector) 22/5 41/3 93/3

Rental lists. See especially 13/5 to 17/9, 90/4 to 91/5, 99/3 to 102/4, 110/1 to 112/3 175/1,2 177/1,2 185–203 209–212

Roads 153/4 156/5 174/9 179/6 180/8 181/8

Sheep 39/3 56/5 132/3

Stone, digging up at Hobbs Bridge 156/4.

Timber, Trees. Cutting without permission, passim, eg 7/4 18/2 119/6,120/1,2. Sale of & Trees for tenants, see Woodward (under ‘Manor Officials’). Permission to fell & root up, 160/2 to 162/1. Charcoal-making 49/1.

Villeins leaving manor 17/13 44/1

Warren 7/5 16/16 24/2

Water, diverting. For the Hammer 133/1. Streater 153/4 156/5 169/13–14 170/5,8 173/3 174/10 176/7,8 Hooke 114/2? 164/4 174/9 Others 165/3 170/5,8,11


GLOSSARY of terms used in the Ludshott Manor Court Rolls

See also Subject Index

Advowson. The right to nominate the new Rector or Vicar when a vacancy occurs.

Affeerers. Members of the homage (q.v.) chosen to fix amount of fines.

Appurtenances. Appurts. Anything .appertaining to a property. A crafty man might argue that some part of a property (eg an orchard or an out-building) hadn’t passed with the lease or sale since it wasn’t specifically mentioned in the deed; to defeat such types the phrase ‘with all appurtenances’ was included as a catch-all.

Attorn. To appear and acknowledge that one held land from the Lord.

Bailiff. The manorial official who collected Court dues (see ‘distrain’).

Campus. Latin= field. At 16/9f probably = ‘enclosed field in demesne’.

Close. A closed field, fenced or protected with say a bank and hedge.

Copyhold. copy of court (roll). A ‘villein’ tenure of land depending on the Lord & ‘custom of the manor’; title was a copy of entry in Court roll. Originally carrying obligation to various ‘services’, esp. work on the Lord’s land – commuted by 15c to (low) rents. See ‘free tenant’.

Court Baron. Manor Court when dealing with manor business, esp. the grant and transfer of tenancies. Ludshott rolls record little or nothing but Court Baron work. See Court Leet.

Court Leet. Manor Court when dealing with crime or serious civil cases. See The Manorial System & Manorial Courts.

Croft. Enclosed meadow or arable land close to the tenant’s house.

Custom, custom of the manor. ‘Services’ and dues which the Lord could exact and what tenants could count on when they wished to obtain or transfer tenancies etc were governed by the custom of the particular manor. The Lord wrote his right to ‘customary services’ into grants long after they had been commuted for money – cp. e.g. 130/1.

Customary tenant. Here in effect = one who held by copyhold.

Curtilage. The plot round the house – yard, outbuildings & garden.

Day, to have a day. “To have a day to do something” = being told by the Court to do something by a certain day, often the day of the next Court – usually with threat of a fine if you didn’t do it.

Demesne. Manor land held in Lord’s own hand; the home farm.

Demise. To transfer land, esp. to lease it to someone.

Disinheritance. “To the d. of the Lord” = to the loss of the Lord. esp. in the sense that one of his customary rights was infringed.

Distrain. The bailiff is regularly ordered to distrain on someone to pay a heriot, do fealty etc. – in the sense that, if the tenant did not comply, the bailiff would (threaten to) seize goods to compel him to do so.  But tenants, esp. men of position, often delayed for years.

Enclosure. See Close.

Enfeoffment. Putting a tenant legally in possession of a holding.

Escheat. Return of a holding to the Lord by forfeiture or lack of an heir.

Essoin, essoign. Excuse for not attending Court, as tenants should do. ‘Essoined by X’ = the absent tenant was represented by X.

Farmer’, firmarius, farm-tenant. Tenant holding by a common law lease, not a feudal/manorial one. See note at 4,1/3. Farm-let, to lease thus.

Fealty. Legally, to swear to be the Lord’s man, as a condition of tenancy.  By the mid-1400s here just = acknowledging that you held manorially.

Fee simple, to hold in. To be a free tenant (with the legal right to dispose of your land).  See also ‘free tenancy’.  The copyhold tenant had only a customary right.

Feoffment. A deed/act putting someone legally in possession of land.

Ferling, f’gate, f’land. A quarter of a virgate, say 15 acres (variable!).

Fine, Latin finis. A payment to the Lord for a grant of tenancy or for permission to sub-let, &c (it has other technical meanings not met in these Rolls).  Also used here to translate pena, a fine you will have to pay if you don’t do something.

‘Fineable land’. Granted to you on payment of a fine as 4 lines above.

Free tenancy. A tenancy of manorial land not held ‘at the will of the Lord’, ie it had never been – or was no longer reckoned as – ‘villein’ land (which was originally held by work on the demesne and other villein ‘services’).

Hayward. Man chosen to supervise fences/hedges, to prevent damage to crops from cattle.  Sometimes also organised villein labour on the demesne.

Heriot. Manorial ‘death duty’ – at a tenant’s death the Lord had right to seize ‘his best beast’ (or payment in lieu).  Became in effect an entry premium payable by the heir, on top of the ‘relief’ (q.v.)

Homage. (1) The Whole group of tenants, esp. the senior copyhold tenants acting as reporting witnesses cum jury at the Manor Court; tenants later might refuse to serve on this group, as infra dig., cp 169/8; (2) Do homage = swear fealty, as 10/2.

Mercy, in. ‘To be in mercy’, ie at the Lord’s mercy = to be found guilty (Latin is misericordia, Pity). The Rolls mark the fine imposed in the margin as ‘Mercy, 4d’, or whatever!

Messuage. A house & outbuildings.

Pain, Latin pena. ‘Sub pena 4d’ = on pain of a fine of 4d if you don’t do what you’re ordered to do.

Pannage. The Lord’s fee for allowing pigs to pasture in the manor woods.

Parcel of land. Part of a holding.

Pertinences = Appurtenances, q.v.

Pleasure, at the Lord’s (or ‘will’). As the Lord decided – but in practice normally meant ‘according to the custom of the manor’.

Ploughland (or Hide). Originally the amount of land which would support a family.  Here land was reckoned in virgates (later in acres); 4 virgates = one ploughland.  See under ‘virgates’ for note on average size.  Families seem to survive on one virgate here.

Purpresture. Land taken in from the manor ‘waste’ without permission; matter usually regularised by a small payment, cp. 191–193.

Quit-claim. Declaration by grantor of land that he & his heirs disclaimed all rights over the land granted (except as stated, eg payment of rent).

Quit Rent. Payment by tenant in lieu of customary manor services.

Relief. Entrance money payable to the Lord by the heir when taking over a tenancy.

Reversion. Future right to a tenancy, e.g. when present tenant died.

Rod, by the. Courts were usually held by the Lord’s Steward, whose badge of office was a rod – with which he touched the incoming tenant to mark the grant of tenancy.

Seized of a holding. Formally in possession of it, having been given ‘seisin’ of it.  To ‘give seisin’ was to put the tenant, formally & publicly, in possession – originally by handing him say a turf from the land [cp Puck of Pook’ s Hill. c.1].

‘Services’. All the customary dues & obligations of a tenant.  For a villein included rent, work on Lord’s farm, attending Court, paying when his daughter married or his son left the Manor etc.  See items 4/6–5/7, 10/2, 22/3 etc.  All except rent & Court soon commuted here but phrase “all customary services” retained in leases, cp 130/1.

Suit of Court. Obligation of free & copyhold tenants to attend the Manor Court [from OF suitte, cp. Modern Fr. suivre].

Tenement. Lit. a holding; often here seems = the house on the holding.

Tithing. Originally all male adults had to belong to a tithing group, the members standing surety for one another.  In the Rolls, just a legal unit smaller than the parish, the ‘Tithing of Ludshott’.

Toft. A house or the land where one had stood.

Villein. A tenant, above serf status, who held land at the Lord’s pleasure (q.v.) and was assumed to the manor (not free to leave); owed heavy ‘services’ (q.v.) to the Lord.  His position changed for better after Black Death, esp. where, as in Ludshott, Lord was usually absentee.  In most of period represented by Rolls, just = customary tenant (q.v.).

Virgate. A quarter of a ploughland, q.v.  Figures given in Table opposite p. 4.1 show that here 1 virgate was usually equivalent to about 40 acres, occasionally as much as 60 acres.  See also details under Bignolls, Chamberlayns and Priors in Main Farms Index.

Waste. Manor land not in demesne or granted to tenants; used communally.

Woodward. Manor official looking after Lord’ s woods; sold unwanted timber, allotted timber to tenants for repairs when so ordered.

Writ. Summons to a superior Court, eg the Hundred Court; men from one manor couldn’t be forced to appear before the Court of another Manor.

Yardland. Same as ‘virgate’, ie a quarter of a ploughland or hide.


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