| Advowson
|
A right of patronage, that is the right to appoint a person, to a position in a church, monastery or other ecclesiastical benefice
|
|
Amerced
|
Fined arbitrarily
|
|
Assizes
|
A trial session held periodically in specific locations by a judge
|
|
Burgage
|
A tenure in which burgesses or townsfolk held lands or tenements of the lord, usually for a fixed
rent within an ancient borough. The property could be mortgaged, sold or bequeathed. In Scotland
the term related to tenure in property in the royal burghs.
|
|
Castle guard
|
A kind of knight’s service, whereby a tenant was bound when required to defend the overlord’s castle
|
|
Chattels
|
Moveable possessions
|
|
Cinque Ports
|
An ancient association of maritime towns in south-eastern England; originally (1278) numbering five (Hastings, Romney, Hythe, Dover, and Sandwich), and later including Winchelsea, Rye, and several others, receiving special privileges for their part in the naval defence of England
|
|
Common pleas
|
Ordinary law suits involving property that did not require the presence of the King to be decided
|
|
Custody
|
Wardship or guardianship. When an underage heir inherited a tenancy, the overlord became the heir’s guardian, and was entitled to earnings from the land
|
|
Darrein presentment
|
The Assize of darrein presentment was a legal action brought to enquire who was in fact the last patron to present
a benefice to a church then vacant, of which the plaintiff complained that he was deforced or unlawfully deprived
by the defendant
|
|
Demesne
|
1) Possession of land as one’s own i.e. not as a tenant. 2) The part of an estate worked for the owner
3) Land adjoining the manor house retained by the lord.
|
|
Disparagement
|
Degradation by an unequal marriage
|
|
Disseised
|
Dispossession of land
|
|
Distrained
|
Forced
|
|
Dower
|
A wife’s interest in her husband’s property, inheritable at his death. English
probate law set this at 1/3. ‘her thirds’ was a phrase used for this. Note: dower
later became dowry and the meaning changed to ‘he property or money a bride brings to her
husband at their marriage’.
|
|
Escheat
|
Land ownership reverting to the Crown, government, or estate owner because of a lack of heirs
or forfeited because the holder committed a serious criminal offence.
|
|
Feif or Fee
|
Heritable land held in return for service to a lord
|
|
Fee farm
|
Land held in return not for a service, but for an annual payment of money
|
|
Frankpledge
|
A system where all men were divided into groups for mutual protection and to serve as keepers of the peace; view of frankpledge was a regular review of this system
|
|
Free man
|
In Magna Carta, the term free man can mean anyone holding land by free tenure, as distinct from a villein, who was bound to a lord
|
|
Free tenement
|
Land held by a free tenant
|
|
Haberject
|
Also haberget or hauberget. A type of cloth. Its texture may have superficially resembled
a ‘hauberk’ (chain mail) and a worsted wool cloth with a similar name
exists in Scandinavia today.
|
|
Hospitaller
|
A person, especially a member of a religious order, devoted to the care of the sick or needy in hospitals
|
|
Hundred
|
A principle unit of administration and local government into which most counties were divided
|
|
In chief
|
Directly from the King, as distinct from holding land through another, intermediary landlord
|
|
Inquest of life or member
|
A writ to prevent a man unjustly accused of treason or other felonry from having to face a trial by combat; the plea could be referred to 12 recognitors
|
|
Inspeximus
|
An inspeximus issue of a charter is one that inspects and confirms a charter made by a former king
|
|
Justiciar
|
The King’s chief political and judicial officer
|
|
Knight service
|
Military service, in exchange for a land tenancy
|
|
Knight’s fee
|
A fief of land or estate, held in return for military service, which provided sufficient revenue to equip
and support one knight; the amount of land for which the services of one knight were due. A tenant by
knight’s service was required to provide a fully armed and equipped knight for the King’s wars,
usually for 40 days a year
|
|
Lay fee
|
Land held in an ordinary tenancy
|
|
Letters patent
|
The King’s sealed letters generally sent to be publicly displayed or proclaimed
|
|
London quarter
|
A unit of measurement. A quarter was nine inches, or a quarter of a yard
|
|
Marriage portion
|
Land brought to a marriage from her father or other relative, for a wife’s use and upkeep during her husband’s lifetime.
|
|
Michaelmas
|
The feast of St Michael (29 September)
|
|
Mort d’ancestor
|
The Assize of mort d’ancestor was a legal action brought by an heir against someone who wrongfully took his freehold property
|
|
Novel disseisin
|
Recent dispossession or eviction. The Assize of novel disseisin was a legal action to recover lands
of which the plaintiff had been dispossessed
|
|
Open law
|
On trial
|
|
Peer
|
A person of the same civil rank or standing
|
|
Præcipe
|
A written royal command instructing that a tenant return a tenement to a claimant, or have the case heard in the King’s court
|
|
Recognisance
|
A bond entered into before court binding someone to do something
|
|
Reeve
|
An administrative officer of a town or district
|
|
Relief
|
A payment due to the King by an heir on taking up possession of his estate
|
|
Russet
|
A type of cloth, generally dyed reddish-brown
|
|
Saving his sufficiency
|
Leaving him enough to live on
|
|
Scutage
|
Money accepted by the King in lieu of knights provided for military service
|
|
Serjeanty
|
A form of feudal tenure on condition of providing some specific personal service to the King. Petty serjeanties could involve ceremonially presenting to the King annually a small weapon such as a bow or a dagger or a knife
|
|
Socage
|
Holding of land by a feudal tenant in return for fixed payment or for non-military service to the lord
|
|
Tenement
|
Permanent property such as buildings and land
|
|
Tithing
|
Taxing of a tenth part of produce
|
|
Tourn
|
The circuit made by a sheriff of a county twice a year in which he presided at each hundred-court
|
|
Vill
|
A settlement, consisting of a number of adjacent houses and land
|
|
Villein
|
A peasant occupier of land entirely subject to a lord
|