England Land and Property: Difference between revisions

Following the Norman Conquest in 1066 all the land of England was technically owned by the Crown. Under the feudal manorial system which subsequently developed, the Crown made grants of land to earls and barons who in turn granted smaller areas to knights in return for the provision of a set period of active military service in the field called ‘knight service’. Over the years this service was slowly commuted to a money payment called ‘scutage’ and it had practically disappeared by the end of the thirteenth century, though feudal tenure was not finally abolished until 1660. These people were not Knights in the modern sense and would remain esquires unless they paid the heavy fees for knighthood (something that they were supposedly obliged to do after 1306 if their property was worth more than £40 a year).  

Freehold land, that can be bought, sold or bequeathed at any time, may appear alongside land that is leasehold or rented for a fixed number of years (usually a multiple of seven, or for a fixed number of stated lives) and alongside copyhold land held from the lord of a manor by a copy of the entry on the court roll. The nature of these holdings should always be noted as in each case they may lead to other records.  

== Domesday Book  ==

The first general survey of the land of England, known as Domesday Book, was compiled by order of William the Conqueror in 1086. The entries were arranged by county in two books under the name of the manor, and show the names of the tenants-in chief and their sub-tenants (the names of the tenants before the Conquest also being noted). They record the number of hides of land in the manor (a hide was about 120 acres); the number of ploughs on the demesne (that part of the manor reserved for the lord’s use) and the number of ploughs available to the tenants; the number, but not names, of homagers (jurors on the manor court), villeins (unfree men who held their land by agricultural service to the lord), cottars (cottagers), serving men or slaves, free tenants, and tenants in soccage (renters); the extent of the woodland, meadows, and pasture; the number of mills and fish ponds; how much land had been added or taken away; and the gross value of the manor in 1086 and in the time of Edward the Confessor.  

The survey is not entirely complete and lacks coverage in the City of London and some other major towns as well as the counties of Cumberland, Durham, Northumberland and Westmorland. Some other counties are incomplete. The many problems of the survey’s interpretation are discussed in David Roffe, ''Domesday: the inquest and the book'' (2000).  

== Record Indexes and Transcripts 1090-1600  ==

The TNA Guide ''[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/land-conveyances-deeds-title.htm ‘Legal Records Information 7’]'' provides links to the many classes of record in The National Archives that contain enrolments of deeds from 1227 to c.1930 and there are other Research Guides in the ''Legal Records Information'' series.  

== Patent and Close Rolls  ==

The record of those to whom the Crown granted property and who thus became tenants-in-chief commences only in the thirteenth century. Grants and confirmations of lands by the Crown to private individuals and public bodies were from 1201 to 1702 recorded, with much other matter, on the great series of Patent Rolls (C 66). At the same time, and particularly after 1381, large numbers of deeds between private persons were enrolled on the payment of fees on the backs of the Close Rolls (C 54), a practice that continued into the twentieth century though the numbers reduced greatly after 1862. Both series are at The National Archives where the main calendars and indexes are on open access.  

== Feet of Fines and Recoveries  ==

There were two principal methods by which this was done. In the first, called the Final Concord or Fine, the purchaser (who was the plaintiff or querient) alleged that the seller (the vendor or deforciant) had agreed to sell the property in question but had failed to do so. Before the court could reach a judgment the parties came to an out of court settlement (the Final Concord) and an order was then made which gave the purchaser the freehold of the property. The final judgment was recorded three times on a sheet of parchment which was then cut into three pieces with wavy cuts. The top left and right pieces were given to the seller and the purchaser and the bottom piece, or foot, was retained by the Court and enrolled. The resulting records in the Court of Common Pleas, called Feet of Fines, run from 1182 to 1834 (CP 25), but the later ones are little used by genealogists. They give the names of the parties, who may include a husband and wife or father and son, and provide a very brief description of the land being sold.  

The obligation to register deeds was not a great success, and as time went by fewer and fewer land transactions were recorded, though the 1535 Act was not repealed until 1924. An Act of Parliament in 1706 described it as ‘of little or no use’. Of the deeds that were registered most were recorded, as mentioned above, in Chancery on the Close Rolls, but there are others in the Exchequer and in the Court of King’s Bench. In many cases there are good lists and indexes of them at The National Archives (see the links provided in the above mentioned online ''‘Legal Records Information 7’''). Those on the Close Rolls, for instance, are clearly written, give the full names of the parties and show the county. The deeds themselves were registered in full.  

== Lease and Release  ==

The seventeenth century lawyers were adept at finding other ways around the requirement to register and although the Statute of Frauds in 1677 required that the transfer of freehold land (‘by enfeoffment’) be evidenced in writing, lack of reliable evidence was often so prevalent that it became difficult to borrow money on the security of land.  

== Commons and Encroachment  ==

Because of the scattered nature and uncertain tenure of so many of their holdings small local farmers naturally looked for ways in which to consolidate them and to make them more productive.  

== Enclosure  ==

The later enclosures, with all the detailed work required, might take several years to complete. Their mark on the landscape is the characteristic square or rectangular field.  

== Hearth Tax 1662-89  ==

In 1662 every occupier was required to pay a tax of two shillings a year for each hearth or stove in his property. Many people were exempt: those who received poor relief, those who occupied houses worth less than twenty shillings a year and had an annual income of less than £10 a year, and those who paid neither church nor poor rate. However, the assessments generally include even the exempted hearths. Where they survive they give some idea of the relative wealth of the people in the parish, though the exact location of the houses may be more problematical.  

== Trends from 1680s to 1870s  ==

Leases for three lives are said to have been popular in the west of England and leases for twenty-one years in the east. Those for three lives, in which three living people (not necessarily related) were named, were cancelled or ‘determined’ at the end of 99 years, fresh names being added to the original three on payment of a fine. Although it was unwise to include the names of children who might die young this form of lease was generally considered more favourable than those for a fixed term of years.  

Many estate and family papers contain printed advertising material about properties which have been sold in the past and many advertisements about farms in particular have appeared in local newspapers. These may relate to sale, at the end of a tenancy, of farm equipment (both for cultivation and the making of cheese) and of livestock, showing their numbers and breed.