The Manor was for centuries the main unit of local government and virtually the only source of written local records. Once the local or family historian has taken his research back to the mid-16th century, manorial records are the best hope for information. While as late as the 18th century they can provide a major source of evidence for those able to transcribe and, if necessary, translate them.
Surprisingly, this book is the first, full-length modern manual to offer a structured and comprehensive guide to their use. It is aimed at students of local history and genealogists who wish to improve their research skills and extend their ability to handle medieval documents. It explains the nature and Latin vocabulary of manorial court rolls, rental and extents, accounts and custumals. It gives guidance--and practice--in the translation of transcribed documents, with and without abbreviations, and provides more than thirty reproductions of actual manuscript documents in a variety of hands, from the mid-12th century to the 18th century. Full answers to all exercises are given, together with a glossary of all the words normally found in manorial records, plus lists of declensions and conjugations and further palaeographic aids.
In the compilation of this important and long-needed guide, the author has drawn on over thirty years’ experience in teaching Latin for local history and of research into manorial records. It breaks new ground and fills the last great gap that remained in the record user’s armoury of practical guides to the whereabouts and use of historical source material. It will be warmly welcomed by researchers in general and by local and family historians in particular.
Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Aims and Methods
Chapter 1: The Manor and Manor Court Procedure
Chapter 2: Rentals and Extents
Chapter 3: Manorial Accounts
Chapter 4: Custumals
Answers to Exercises and Examples
Select Dictionary
Appendix A: Tables and Declensions, Adjectives and Conjugations
Appendix B: A General Alphabet of the Old Law Hands
Appendix C: Types of Abbreviations found in Manorial Records, with detailed discussion of three previous examples
Index
