Manor Courts

Manor courts were held 'for lord and neighbourhood', their principal functions being the preservation of the rights of the lord, on the one hand, and the regulation of relations between tenants, on the other.  The latter function merged into dealing with breaches of the peace, and a third strand in the work of the court leet was their public role of dealing with criminal affairs and carrying out the various statutory obligations laid on them.  This combination of being a branch of the King's judiciary, an arm of the lord of the manor's estate administration, and a forum for the discussion of matters of concern to the community as a whole is well illustrated by the compilations of byelaws which survive for some manors.

There were two main types of manor court, the court baron and the court leet, though some early manor court records do not specify the type of court, stating simply that it was the 'court' (Latin curia) of the manor in question. On many manors by the late-medieval period courts baron, dealing largely with minor pleas, were held every three or four weeks, while agrarian business was dealt with at the 'head court' (curia capitalis), which was generally a court leet and was held twice each year, in Spring and Autumn. The pattern is described in a survey of Burgh by Sands barony in c.1589, which reads (spelling modernised):

Also there hath been accustomed to be kept within the said manor, time out of mind, every three weeks in [the] year a Court Baron, saving in the time of harvest, viz. from Lammas [1st August] to Michaelmas [29th September], and two Court Leets, the one within a month after Michaelmas and the other within a month after Easter, by reason whereof the lord of the said manor was yearly answered of all such escheats, fines, amercements, casualties and other profits as were found to be due within the time of every of the said courts. (Cumbria Record Office (Carlisle), D/Lons/L5/2/41/49).

This extract also demonstrates the importance of manor courts as a source of income for the lord. Money flowed into the lord's coffers from most aspects of the courts' proceedings, particularly in the form of amercements from people infringing byelaws and the lord's rights and entry fines when tenancies changed hands.

The three-weekly meetings of courts baron tended to decline across time. In many Cumbrian manors by the later 16th century only two courts were held, usually in April or May and in October; sometimes only one court was held each year.

The work of the manor court may be divided into three main areas:

• providing a record of changes of tenancy by recording surrenders and admittances to copyhold land.  In manors with much copyhold or customary tenantright land, although transfers of such land by death or alienation continued to be recorded on verdict sheets of the manor court, a separate court of dimissions was sometimes held to provide a more formal record of the transfer and of the entry fine paid to the lord. 
• making byelaws and punishing wrongdoers (orders and presentments).  Byelaws (pains) and more specific orders aimed to uphold the lord's privileges and 'good neighbourhood'(neighbourly relations) within the manorial community.  Those offending against the orders and byelaws made by the manor court, or breaking the King's peace or statutes which fell under the jurisdiction of a court leet were 'amerced' or fined.
• hearing pleas between tenants of the manor in cases of alleged debt, trespass, etc.  These minor civil cases often formed the bulk of business at courts held between the head courts, the customs of the manor often requiring tenants to bring such pleas to the manor court rather than any other body.

Notes:

Byelaws are laws of local or limited application made by local councils or other bodies, in specific areas using powers granted by the relevant Acts of Parliament, and so are a form of delegated legislation. Some byelaws are also made by private companies or charities that exercise public or semi-public functions, such as airport operators, water companies or the National Trust.

Formerly, because byelaws created criminal offences that can be prosecuted in magistrates' courts or Justice of the Peace Courts in Scotland, they had to be approved by central government before they came into force. However, due to the Local Government Byelaws (Wales) Act 2012 and the Byelaws (Alternative Procedure) (England) Regulations 2016, there is a simplified procedure for making new byelaws and amending byelaws, including replacing the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government’s role in confirming byelaws. This is now a matter for the local council concerned, having taken account of any representations made about a proposed byelaw. The regulations also give councils powers to revoke byelaws under an entirely local process.

Copyhold.  The form of tenure which descended from the unfree, villein tenures of the middle ages.  Copyhold land was defined legally as land held 'by copy of court roll [hence the term 'copyhold'] at the will of the lord, according to the customs of the manor.'  The precise nature of the tenure (the customs governing payment of entry fines, for example) thus varied from manor to manor.

Customary tenantright.  A form of tenure common throughout Cumbria and adjacent counties, which gave the tenant a security akin to a freehold (in that he could devise or sell his property freely) but required the payment of both an entry fine on change of tenant and a general fine on change of lord, as well as other customary dues, such as the payment of a heriot.  It was thus a variant of copyhold: tenants were admitted by the manor court and held their land by copy of court roll.  The roots of customary tenantright have been much debated: the security that the tenure gave to tenants was fiercely contested by manorial lords in the 16th and early 17th centuries but the royal courts ultimately upheld the tenants' rights.

Court Baron. The basic manorial institution, dealing largely with internal matters on the estate, including infringements of the lord's rights and prerogatives, agrarian disputes between tenants and changes of tenancy. At the heart of the court baron's work lay the customs of the manor, which varied from manor to manor and governed the details of how tenants held their land (hence the term 'customary tenure'). Courts baron also had the power to hear civil pleas involving sums of up to 40s. Some courts baron met every three weeks, particularly where pleas formed the core of their business.

Court of Dimissions. Separate courts to which customary or copyhold tenants came to surrender their tenancies and be admitted tenant.

Court Leet. Some manorial lords also had the right to hold a court leet with view of frankpledge, which was required to meet twice a year and had a wider remit as an arm of royal justice dealing with minor breaches of the peace and public order and administering the provisions of a series of Tudor statutes. The term 'view of frankpledge' (Latin: visus franciplegii) harked back to the Anglo-Saxon system of peace-keeping where groups of ten men undertook to be responsible for each other's behaviour. In the context of the court leet, the phrase 'view of frankpledge' was short-hand for the additional judicial rights held by the court. Courts leet upheld the 'assize of bread and ale' by appointing ale-tasters to ensure that standards were maintained, and also had the right to appoint township constables.

Entry fine: a sum of money paid to the lord by a tenant entering a property. These were of two types, a 'certain fine', which was a fixed sum, usually related to the ancient yearly rent of a property; and the 'arbitrary fine', which was variable and was usually calculated on the basis of the annual rental value of the property.

Heriot: a payment, usually of the best beast, which was due to the lord on the death of a tenant.

Pain(e): (Latin pena, literally 'penalty'). Used to refer to the orders and byelaws imposed by the manor court. A jury was said to 'lay a pain' (i.e. make an order).

Verdict sheet. The record of decisions made by a manor court jury. These are often the original record made at the time of the court sitting, the substance of which would later be entered in the formal record of the court in a court roll or court book.