Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (75 page)

•  Before haring off into the distant past, you should first try to consolidate your family tree. Complete as many branches as you can with official sources, so that if you get stuck working back down one line, you can return to a known ancestor and start again.

•  When working backwards prior to civil registration and census returns, it's better if you choose a branch of the family that has an unusual name as they will be easier to spot in earlier records such as parish registers, where there are fewer sources against which to corroborate.

•  The social status or occupation of your chosen family will be important as well. The reason we can track back using certificates and censuses is that they included everyone; further back in time, it's much easier to trace people with land or money, or both. Skilled professions based in towns also help.

•  Since the majority of our ancestors were largely country dwellers and without much in the way of wealth, the only time they tend to appear in records is when they fall foul of authority, or are on the margins of society through poverty or illness. These were the exceptions rather than the norm, so don't be surprised if you can't find your relatives listed in official sources.

•  Geography becomes even more important, since the majority of people didn't move around much outside their local area. On average, someone born in a rural community would never move more than ten miles away from their place of birth. Therefore if you are searching for records online, it becomes more important than ever to focus on local matches.

•  The survival of records becomes much less likely the further back in time you go. Very few personal documents will exist in archives, aside from estate and family papers deposited by landed gentry and aristocracy, whilst prior to parish registers the records diminish dramatically. This means that you are unlikely to get much further back than the sixteenth century.

•  Where documents do survive, official sources are likely to be written in Latin prior to 1732. Similarly, handwriting may also be hard to read – which is why you should follow the advice provided in Section One and enrol on a palaeography course, and invest in a Latin dictionary.

•  Finally dash; and it should hardly need repeating at this stage of the book – never assume a link between sources.

With these points in mind, it's time to examine some of the key sources for tracing your family prior to 1800. They are grouped into four main areas, starting with the records of one of the most important medieval and early modern administrative units – the manor. After that, various government sources are examined, followed by a look at some of the civil courts in which our ancestors regularly disputed with one another, with a final look at the records that survive for higher ranks of society.

Yet there's a compelling desire to work further back in time, to break through the nineteenth-century record barrier and explore the lost world of the past that lies beyond. Many thousands of people have done this, though it is tricky, and it will take far longer to construct a family tree prior to 1800 than after. Moreover, unless you are very lucky, it will be much harder to work out what these people were like, since records for occupation, residence and lifestyle rarely exist. Nevertheless, it is well worth carrying on regardless – you never know, you might strike lucky and make a connection to a branch of the family that were of sufficient status to leave records, or maybe even prove a link to aristocracy or blue blood!

If you strip away the towns and cities of modern life, and return to the days of the early 1700s, you'll find that there are no major population centres apart from London, which, with its population of 1 million in
1800, was the largest city in Europe. Most cities were on the coast, or acted as provincial centres; throughout the medieval and early modern period, none could rival London in terms of population size. For example, by 1700 just over half a million people lived in the capital, which represented about 10 per cent of the overall population; the next largest city at the time was Bristol with about 30,000 inhabitants, having finally outgrown Norwich, previously England's second city in terms of population density. Provincial centres such as York, Nottingham, Exeter and Worcester made up the next tier, averaging about 10,000 residents. By way of contrast, Manchester was home to 6,000 people, Liverpool and Birmingham 4,000 each.

Essentially, England was a rural country until the commercial boom of the mid-eighteenth century, followed by the industrial expansion of the late eighteenth century onwards. The majority of its population lived in villages and hamlets clustered around market towns, with the provincial towns and cities acting as hubs for the local economy and providing a base for commerce and industry. Within these rural communities, there were two main administrative units. From an
ecclesiastical perspective, the parish was the key binding force that kept everyone together, providing the spiritual heart to life. Yet equally important, and dating back to the late eleventh century and the Norman Conquest, was the secular manor; and the records generated by the manorial system can be used to trace your relatives, potentially even further back in time than the earliest parish registers.

A full discussion of the medieval and early modern social hierarchy and methods of local government would fill a book in its own right, but a brief discussion of the manorial system is required to understand the records generated as a result, and how you can use them to trace your ancestors.

You may be familiar with the manorial system from history lessons, with simplified diagrams of the ‘feudal pyramid' showing how all land was owned by the King, who granted it to a few tenants-in-chief, who in turn passed some of this land to their sub-tenants, and so on. Leaving the Church out of the equation, this picture is essentially accurate, with the process known as ‘subinfeudation' leaving everyone who held land, apart from the Crown, as the tenant of an overlord.

The basic unit of land that was passed down via subinfeudation was a manor. The origins of manors are unclear, but the actual division of land would appear to be based on old Anglo-Saxon allocations or holdings prior to 1066. One common misconception is that a manor was a compact and easily defined geographical entity. This is not the case; land belonging to a manor was often scattered amongst the lands of other nearby manors, although most were centred on a core portion of land. What defined a manor was the unifying bonds of allegiance owed to a single lord, and as such it was more of a social and economic unit than a block of territory. This isn't easy to grasp, and it's made a bit more confusing by another common misconception: that manors shared the same boundaries as parishes. On occasion this may have been the case, but some parishes may contain more than one manor, whilst a large manor may straddle the borders of several parishes.

The way land was held in a manor was very important, and would vary from place to place depending upon the ‘customs' of the manor. In theory, every manor had a ‘lord', who would grant strips of land within the manor in return for service, which usually comprised any combination of rent, military obligation or work on the lord's land according to custom. Anything not granted to manorial tenants but
held by the lord was known as his ‘demesne', which could be farmed by him, or leased out to individuals on negotiable terms. The way in which land was granted by the lord and held in the manor was known as ‘tenure', and it would determine whether a tenant was ‘free' or ‘unfree'. Free tenants were required to perform a fixed amount and type of work on their lord's land each year, whereas unfree or ‘customary' tenants, often referred to as ‘villeins', had only the amount of work set, and would be told the nature of the work at the time it was due. At the lower end of the social scale, ‘cottagers' worked the lord's land but owned no land of their own, residing in a cottage with a small garden to cultivate; whilst ‘slaves' did not even enjoy these privileges, working exclusively for the lord and eking out a living working ‘waste' land that no one else wanted.

‘
Records of the manorial system revolve around the manorial court
.'

The records generated by the manorial system revolve around the main source of administration – the manorial court. There were two main types that would be held during the course of a year. Twice a year, a ‘view of frankpledge' and ‘court leet' were held to try minor offences that had occurred within the manor, as well as to inspect ‘tithings', groups of ten men who were mutually responsible for each other's behaviour – effectively a form of self-policing. However, the main type of manorial court was the ‘court baron'.

The court baron was held on a regular basis, and was presided over by the lord of the manor's steward or deputy. The aim was to conduct the routine business of the manor, which would include financial penalties for offences against the customs and rules of the manor; general manorial administration; announcements of the deaths of any manorial tenants since the last court; and the admission of new customary tenants into copyhold land – so called because they were given a ‘copy' of the record of the court to prove they had been admitted. All free tenants were expected to attend the court baron and acted as jurors; customary tenants were also required to attend, and unless they provided an ‘essoin' or excuse (usually with an accompanying payment) they were given a financial penalty.

The records generated by the court baron are known as court rolls, even though the later documents were usually written in bound volumes. Hand-written by the steward, or most likely his clerk, they were in English after 1732 and Latin before that date. The composition may vary from manor to manor, but tended to contain the following items:

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Heading, including the type of court held, the name of the manor, the names of the lord of the manor and his steward, plus the date on which the session was held.

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The names of the jurors are provided next, followed by the essoins of the customary tenants who paid not to attend.

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The first section usually relates to routine administrative matters brought before the court, including offences against the customs of the manor, the judgment of the court and any ensuing financial penalties. Sometimes disputes between tenants are recorded here.

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The next section relates to the regulation of copyhold land. The names of deceased customary tenants were presented to court, followed by ‘admissions' of new tenants. Many manors practised primogeniture, or the succession of the first male heir, though this was subject to the customs of the manor and the discretion of the lord.

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Sometimes tenants ‘surrendered' land back to the lord, to be regranted on more favourable terms. This would often include a named series of successors within the family, or a ‘surrender to the use of a will' so that the tenant could pass the land freely to his nominated successor. The terms of the will would be recorded in the roll for reference.

Clearly, for those of us whose ancestors were customary tenants, court rolls are a potential goldmine of genealogical information. There are several other bonuses as well:

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Many court rolls contain internal alphabetical name indexes, particularly from the eighteenth century onwards; indeed, separate index books, registers of admission and surrender and other supplementary documentation survive.

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Once you've found an ancestor in a court roll, you will be able to follow a chain back in time, possibly over several generations. If a marriage agreement or will formed part of the initial admission, the relevant section will be entered in the court roll, providing you with a copy if the original no longer survives.

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Most court rolls continue into the nineteenth century, so you should be able to connect with some of the main official sources, parish registers and wills – any of which may indicate you have an ancestor who was a customary tenant. It is well worth checking the tithe apportionments for signs of landholding too.

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Since manorial courts were held since the inception of the system after the Norman Conquest, there may be court rolls extending back
into the medieval period. Some manors have surviving records as far back as the thirteenth century.

Court rolls are particularly useful if you have an ancestor who was a customary tenant, but there are other records generated by the regular business of the manorial court in which free tenants might appear.

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Estreat rolls
contain fines levied during a court session, so may have a list of manorial tenants included, free and customary.

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Minute books
and draft court rolls may have additional notes taken during the course of a court session, possibly relating to genealogical data for newly admitted tenants.

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Suit rolls
and
call books
, when compiled and retained, contain the names of all tenants who were due to appear at court, and were often amended and dated when a tenant died, providing important genealogical information.

During the latter stages of the nineteenth century, land was gradually converted from copyhold to freehold, a process known as enfranchisement. Most of the official records are at The National Archives, though some returns can be found in county record offices.

There is no one single repository for manorial records, since manors were owned by individuals and institutions such as the Crown. Consequently you'll need to search a variety of archives, bearing in mind that material for Crown manors is likely to have been deposited in The National Archives – along with relevant records for privately owned manors that might, for whatever reason and however long ago, have fallen into Crown hands at some point in the past. There are several research guides available on The National Archives website to help you locate and interpret manorial records amongst their holdings, at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.