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Manors information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy
- General information about manors.
- At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the manor was the basic unit of local government. The manor court evolved as the forum where all matters relating to the manor were dealt with, including property transactions, byelaws and local disputes. Records of these courts, surviving from the mid thirteenth century, tell us much about how society was organised at a local level. They can reflect the impact of national events and movements like the Great Plague or Tudor enclosure. They are arguably at their most informative in the medieval period, when the power of the manor was at its height. It was later supplanted by the parish vestry and local magistrate. However, the manorial court system survived officially until 1922 when the Law of Property Act abolished both the courts and the manorial land tenure called copyhold. Manorial records can be a great way to find out information on individuals beyond their birth, marriage and death dates. Going back in time much before census, electoral register and civil registration, manorial records can fill in where other records are patchy or non-existent, with so many interesting notes of family relationships, abodes, occupations and life events. Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is published by TNA and most of the records of the 350 Berkshire manors are at the RBA, with others at TNA and in public and private repositories.
- For manor houses, see Dwellings.
- The National Archives' project to update the Manorial Documents Register is now complete. Note particularly the links on that page to the TNA guide and to the A-Z list of manors. Quoting the TNA guide: The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is maintained by The National Archives, on behalf of the Master of the Rolls, as a record of the whereabouts of manorial documents. It is not a register of title to manorial lordships and we do not collect or record this type of information.
- Primary Sources: English Manorial Documents "From English Manorial Documents, Translations and Reprints from the original Sources of European History, E. P. Cheyney, tr., vol. 3, no. 5 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1907), pp. 3-32". This includes examples from several parts of the country, including Essex, Durham and Norfolk.
