Type details for Manor

Full Description:

The Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC) defines the word manor in three ways: "a Residence", "a unit of estate administration", and "a piece of landed property with tenants over whom the landlord exercised rights of jurisdiction in a private court". The HMC applies the third definition to the manorial documents register, this definition also complies with the definition used within this gazetteer. A more detailed historical definition states this unit was contained within the medieval feudal system or the "hierarchy of property rights" which was created "by this process of subinfeudation [and] is emphasised by the structure of Domesday Book which, for this reason, has sometimes been called 'a blueprint for feudalism' "(www.domesdaybook.net/hs1620.htm). These estates did not coincide with parish boundaries. They usually included a chapelry and in area could cover one or more parishes or exist within an extra-parochial area. Governed by a lord, or a Steward, and a private court, these units controlled tenancies, local customs, local laws and land use.