Oxford LibGuides: Legal history: England & common law tradition: Manors & Manorial Courts

Manorial documents

These can survive from the 14th century through to the abolition of copyhold tenure in 1925.
Sources in print

The Selden Society has published some relevant volumes (2, 4, 5, 114): the physical volumes are shelved at Legal Hist S464.4a on Level 2. Holders of an Oxford SSO can access them below via the title links.

Select Pleas in Manorial and Other Seignoral Courts.
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Selden Society volume 2 Print copy available at Legal Hist S464.4a
The Court Baron: Precedents of Pleading in Manorial and Other Local Courts
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Selden Society v 4 Print copy available at Legal Hist S464.4a
The Leet Jurisdiction in the City of Norwich
Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Print copy available at Legal Hist S464.4a
Select Cases in Manorial Courts: Property Law and Family Law
Remote accesss requires Oxford SSO. Volume 114 Selden Society. Print copy at Legal Hist S464.4a

Guides to finding surviving archives and online resources available to anyone with access to the internet

Classes of Manorial Records
Open access. Good introduction & glossary of terms you will encounter, with links to an e Gallery section of the site, with images, detailed commentaries, translations and transcriptions.Part of the Cumbrian Manorial Records website maintained by the University of Lancaster
Manorial documents register
Free resource. Maintained by TNA at Kew. See also guide below. "They are defined in the Rules as court rolls, surveys, maps, terriers, documents and books of every description relating to the boundaries, franchises, wastes, customs or courts of a manor. Only those types of document defined in the Rules as manorial documents are noted in the Manorial Documents Register. Title deeds and other evidences of title are not defined as manorial documents and are therefore not included in the Register."
Using the Manorial Documents Register and how to find manorial lordships
Free resource. Online guide from TNA at Kew
Manors: further research
Free resource. Online guide from TNA at Kew
English Manor Rolls, 1305-1770
Free resource. In spring 2015 Harvard Law School Library began project to digitize & make available online its collection of 170 court-rolls, account-rolls, and other documents from various manors, ranging in date from 1282 to 1770. The largest concentration comes from the manor of Moulton in Cheshire. Other manors represented are Odiham Hundred, Hampshire; Herstmonceaux, Sussex; Chartley, Staffordshire; and Onehouse, Suffolk. A limited number of materials in this collection are single-sheet charters and one item is a map of the manor of Shelly, Suffolk.

Related commentary

Searches to use in SOLO to find more commentary:

Courts baron and courts leet England
Manorial courts England

Landlord and tenant -- England -- History
Real property -- England -- History
Real estate management -- England -- History

Rural Legal Culture Remote access requires Oxford SSO. Chapter in Law in Common: Legal Cultures in Late-Medieval England by Tom Johnson (2019) Print copy is at Legal Hist J69.8a
Land Law (another page on this guide)

The English Manor C. 1200 to C. 1500 selected sources by Mark Bailey (editor & translator)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 0719052289
Publication Date: 2002
If a print copy is preferred: Bod HFL Upper Gladstone Link HD594 ENG 2002
Medieval Society and the Manor Court by Zvi Razi (Editor); Richard Smith (Editor)
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this via title link
ISBN: 0198201907
Publication Date: 1996
The Decline of Serfdom in Late Medieval England by Mark Bailey
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this online via title link
ISBN: 1843838907
Publication Date: 2014
Print copy can be requested from Closed Stacks if preferred.
King, Lords, and Peasants in Medieval England: the common law of villeinage in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by Paul R. Hyams
Call Number: BHFL Upper Gladstone Link HT781 HYA 1980
ISBN: 019821880X
Publication Date: 1980
A medieval Oxfordshire village : Cuxham, 1240 to 1400 by Harvey, P. D. A
Call Number: Bod HFL Upper Gladstone Link DA690.C995 HAR 1965
Publication Date: 1965
English Seignorial Agriculture, 1250-1450 by Bruce M. S. Campbell; Alan R. H. Baker (Contribution by); Richard Dennis (Contribution by); Deryck Holdworth (Contribution by)
Call Number: Lower Gladstone Link S455 CAM 2000
ISBN: 9780521304122
Publication Date: 2000