Glossary of Terms used in past times

From assarts through heriots, messuages and tofts to virgates, etc – this is what they mean

Assart = land reclaimed from waste for agriculture [from 'to hoe, or weed']

Bondman = person bound to provide labour, etc, to the lord of the manor, or other master

Close = (generally) small area of enclosed land

Common = area of land over which certain householders had defined rights of usage — in the 1965 Common Land Registration Act, people who thought they still held common rights had to register them

Copyhold = land held by possession of a copy made by the steward of a manor from the court-roll of the manor — enfranchised [ended] in 1925 [Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]

Curtilage = a Court, Yard, Backside, or piece of Ground lying near, and belonging to, a Dwelling house [Sir Thomas Gatehouse, 1774]

Customary acre = or Saxon acre, was half a statute (normal) acre, ie. 2,420 sq yards

Customary tenant = one who has a right to occupy property continuously at a reasonable rent

Demesne = the 'home farm' of the Lord of the Manor (ie. not let out to tenants)

Enclosure (see Inclosure)

Fine = fee paid when conveying property — recorded in 'Fines Books', these form a means of tracing the changing ownership of houses and land over the years

Heriot = the best beast, given to the Lord of the Manor on the death of a tenant

Hide = area of land on which a family was supposed to be able to exist — the actual area varied according to the locality or quality of the land, but was often considered to be 4 virgates (about 120 acres) — used as a measure for collecting taxes in the Domesday Book

Hundred = administrative unit deriving from 100 'tithings'

Inclosure = land enclosed from the 'waste' — typically by an Inclosure Act of Parliament

Manor = the district over which the court of a Lord of the Manor had authority

Messuage = a dwelling and offices with the adjoining lands appropriated to the household [legal definition]

Parcel = a continuous stretch of land — typically given a reference number on 25 inch Ordnance Survey maps

Pipe Roll = the Great Roll of the Exchequer, containing yearly accounts of sheriffs, etc [named from the pipe-like appearance of the rolled documents]

Purpresture = land that has been obtained by encroachment on either common land, waste land or woodland

Tithe = a tenth of the produce of land and stock (ie. payment in kind), allotted originally for church purposes — later commuted to a rent-charge (ie. payment in money) — finally commuted to a lump-sum redeemable by instalments up to AD 2000

Tithing = derived from 'ten householders', each of whom lived on a 'hide' of land — historically there were then 100 tithings to a 'hundred'

Toft = a Messuage, or rather a Place or Piece of Ground, where an House formerly stood, but is decayed or Casually burnt, and not re-erected [Sir Thomas Gatehouse, 1774]

Virgate = area of about 30 acres [name derives from the Latin word for a rod]

Waste = an uncultivated area of land


General list of Useful Historical DatesOld Measurements – more about the compiler, John Owen Smith