![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2020\/04\/Image-1-oaths-of-the-officers-D1_OO_8-scaled-e1588330521263-663x1024.jpg\")
The courts had three functions:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Recording who held land within the manor, how much rent they paid and the terms of their tenancy: freehold, leasehold or copyhold<\/em> \u2013 holding by copy of court roll. From the fourteenth century unfree land (villein land) was gradually converted to copyhold<\/em> so the tenant had a parchment agreement which mimicked the charters and indentures of freeholders and leaseholders. Copyhold was still regulated by the customs of the manor regarding inheritance and rights to commons and woods as the unfree land had been.<\/li>\n
- Resolving minor disputes between tenants and the lord. This included trespasses on other tenants land, resolving disputes over debts or the failure to mend fences, buildings and roads.<\/li>\n
- Administering the lowest tier of royal justice. Some manor courts, as well as regulating the manor, held a franchise called a Court Leet. At the Court Leet constables and tithingmen were appointed and legislation regarding weights and measures was enforced.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Rentals, Surveys, Perambulations and Stewards\u2019 papers are often in English from the middle of the sixteenth century and usually in English from the seventeenth century. Court rolls, the official legal record of the courts, are in Latin until 1733, except during the Commonwealth, 1650-1659, when all legal documents were written in English by act of Parliament.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/files\/2020\/04\/Image-2-Hilfield-Court-720x1024.jpg\")
Court held at Hilfield 6 October 1652. The heading provides the date, names the lord of the manor, Thomas Trenchard, and his steward, Edward Vye. There follows a list of the jurors made up of the tenants and called the homage. Then a list of free hold tenants who had not attended and are each fined six pence. In he next paragraph John Burt junior is fined three shillings and four pense for allowing his pigs to wander on the common ‘neither yoked nor ringed’. The final paragraph issues a warning to Agnes Sturmy, widow, that she should repair her house by Christmas under penalty of a twenty shilling fine. D-HIL\/M\/1<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Manorial documents were kept by the lord of the manor in their private family collections. So only about half of Dorset documents are at the Dorset History Centre, another quarter are in the National Archives and the remainder are divided between other county archives and private collections. Finding manorial documents is now easy using the Manorial Documents Register.<\/a> But, more detailed descriptions of those at the Dorset History Centre are usually available on our own catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
A Guide to Dorset Manorial Documents<\/a> was published by the Dorset Record Society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manorial documents are a rich and under-used source for both local and family historians and are key to understanding life in early-modern England.\u00a0 Contrary to popular belief most manorial documents are post-medieval and written in English, although the medieval Latin documents often get more attention. Stewards, acting for manorial lords, produced a wide range of… Read more Archival Types – Manorial Documents<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58,36],"tags":[82,168,167,109],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1495"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1495\/revisions\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}