The manorial court

The manorial court was the institutional heart of the manor. It was the mechanism through which the lord administered landholding, enforced custom, collected dues, regulated agriculture, and settled disputes among tenants. The right to hold a court was the defining characteristic of a manor. A lordship without a court was not, in strict legal terms, a manor at all.

The three courts

Manorial jurisdiction was exercised through three distinct courts, though in practice they were often held together on the same day by the same steward.

The court baron was the civil court of the manor. It handled transfers of copyhold land (surrenders and admissions), enforced the payment of rents and entry fines, and settled disputes between tenants over boundaries, rights of way, and debts up to 40 shillings. All tenants owed suit of court: the obligation to attend. The court baron was the lord's own court and required no royal grant.

The court leet was a court of criminal and regulatory jurisdiction, exercised by a lord who had received a franchise from the Crown. The leet dealt with minor criminal offences (affrays, petty thefts, breaches of the assize of bread and ale), nuisances (blocked ditches, encroachments on common land, straying animals), and the appointment of manorial officers such as the hayward, the ale-taster, and the constable. The leet could impose fines (amercements) on offenders.

The view of frankpledge was the court at which the system of mutual surety was administered. Under frankpledge, every man over the age of 12 was required to belong to a tithing: a group of ten or twelve men who were collectively responsible for each other's behaviour. At the view, the tithings were checked, absentees noted, and newcomers enrolled. The view of frankpledge was often combined with the court leet, and the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably in the records.

Business of the court

The range of business was wide. A single court session might record the death of a copyholder and the admission of his heir, the amercement of a brewer for selling ale above the fixed price, an order to repair a section of the highway, the election of a new reeve, and the resolution of a dispute between two tenants over grazing rights on the common. The court managed the open fields, regulated the commons, and enforced the by-laws that governed agricultural life.

Court rolls as a historical source

The proceedings of each court were recorded on parchment rolls known as court rolls. These rolls are a primary source for English local history. They name individuals, describe landholdings, record prices and fines, and document the day-to-day regulation of rural life. For many parishes, court rolls are the earliest surviving records of ordinary people and their property.

Court rolls survive in varying quantities. Some manors have continuous runs from the thirteenth century to the nineteenth. Others have fragments. The Manorial Documents Register at the National Archives indexes surviving court rolls by manor and records their location, whether in county record offices, college libraries, private collections, or the National Archives itself.

Decline

The practical importance of the manorial court declined from the sixteenth century. The growth of the royal courts, the decline of villeinage, and the gradual enfranchisement of copyhold all reduced the court's business. The court leet's criminal jurisdiction was largely superseded by the justices of the peace. By the eighteenth century, most manorial courts met only to transact copyhold business. The abolition of copyhold by the Law of Property Act 1922 removed the last substantive reason for holding a court.