Transwiki:English manors

English Manors and Lordships
History, Law & Bibliography
To speak intelligently of England’s manors and lordships is rather like speaking of automobiles: at law they are commonly defined and are regulated equally on public motor ways; but who would deny the very substantial differences of quality and value between a Rolls-Royce Corniche Convertible and a Ford Anglia? So it is among English manors and lordships; at law they are commonly defined and are subjected equally to property laws; but among them there are great differences of quality and value.
In fact, some never existed and were created by a statutory declaration by a con artist to make big money with a fake or counterfeited title. Let the buyer beware. Never part with your money without absolute verifiable proof that it is the real thing and not a clever forgery. Far too many have been duped into buying worthless deeds just to discover too late that they have been cheated. (see www.baronage.co.uk/2006a/Manorial-SD.pdf or www.kevinboone.com/thetitlesgame.html)
History
Following the Conquest in 1066, Duke William of Normandy, called “The Conqueror”, became King of England and imposed the Iron Canons of feudal law, Nulle terre sans seigneur; Nulle seigneur sans terre (No land without a lord; No lord without land), the traditional policy of Norman dukes. He gave lands which were large enough to be divided into smaller manors, and tenants-in-chief were called “lords paramount” and their manors were also known as land baronies or Honours. Subordinate tenants of lords paramount given smaller manors were also called “lords”, but as a class they were inferior or mesne lords.
In this way, the Feudal Pyramid was constructed from the top downwards. The king was at the apex; his tenants-in-chief beneath him rendered military, spiritual, and certain Honourable personal services called “grand serjeanty” to him. In turn, tenants-in-chief in turn received minor military, administrative, farming, and skilled trade services from other occupants of their lands, the mesne lords, and freemen at the base of the Feudal Pyramid. All of England became a unified structure; its bricks were land and its mortar a tangle of greater and lesser manors and lordships.
When a certain territory was recognized as an Honour and Barony, it retained that identity through all its fortunes. When a tenant-in-chief in right of the Crown’s Land Barony fell into the king’s hands through wardship or forfeiture because of attainder for treason, the estate continued as an Honour or Barony. Important legal meaning attached to a manor that was named an Honour and Barony: they owed exceptional feudal duties and burdens.
Law
These burdens became a source of irritation, hence the Abolition of Tenure Act of 1660 was passed by Parliament. The most important part of this law is how it impacts the feudal baronies, not manorial lordships, but baronies by tenure. After this time all baronies that were not converted into honorific titles, where the title is no longer connected to the land, by either letters patent or by a writ to sit in Parliament, cease to exist on legal basis. This fact has been supported every time it has been challenged. For example, the Privy Council ruled in the Fitzwalter case in 1670 “baronies by tenure had been discontinued for many years and were not to be revived, nor any right of succession based on them” and in the Berkeley case in 1861 the House of Lords ruled that “whatever might have been the case in the past, baronies by tenure no longer existed, and any which had existed were converted into Baronies by Writ by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660”. The Redesdale Reports is also authoritative in proclaiming the same thing. Hence, the Law of Property Acts 1922-1926 never mention feudal baronies as incorporeal hereditament, because they were legally abolished centuries ago, but manorial lordships are mentioned because they are still legal entities and can be bought and sold.

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