Land ownership/tenants

[meles]

OK, I've got to the late 1700's and it's getting difficult now. My Gx4 grandfather was a farmer (it is alleged), so I thought as I can't find his birth, marriage or death, I might try to find out where he farmed. What records are there of land ownership? And, assuming that he did not own land but rented it (his children are all Ag Labs and none are farmers), are tenants recorded somewhere?

He is in the Denton, Depwade area.

All suggestions welcomed.

meles

[Geoffers]

You will be familiar with leasehold and freehold as form of landholding. Until 1922 there was another, more common means of holding property, this was known as Copyhold.

Copyhold was originally a form of tenure depending on custom and providing service to the lord of the manor. Following the black death, this form of service was commuted to payment of money and the right of the tenant to hold land was recorded in Manor court rolls. The tenant was given a copy of this record, hence the name copyhold.

The tenant could transfer the copyhold property by will. Upon the death of a copyhold tenant, the title was surrendered to the lord of the manor and the person inheriting the land applied within a certain period of time to be admitted to the tenancy. All this was recorded in the Manor Court Records and these are what you need to check.

The location of Manorial Documents can be found using the Manorial Documents Register, one of a series of links on The National Archives web-site http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm
from this URL, click on 'Search the Archives' scroll down to the Manorial Documents Register', select this and carry out a basic search.

Another basic catalogue for finding Norfolk records - and anyone with an interest in Norfolk history should make themselves familiar with it - is NROCAT. From the NRO home page http://archives.norfolk.gov.uk/nroindex.htm
scroll down to 'Summary of Collections' and select NROCAT; then select 'search'

Take Denton as an example. Enter that parish name in field 1 'Any Text' and in the 'Category Ref' field enter PD - then search. You'll get a list of hits. Ignore the first one which relates to East Ruston. The remaining hits should all have a reference beginning with PD 136.

Look to the left of the list and click on the number [2], or 3, 4, etc.
Then select 'Click here to see this record in its hierarchical context' (Large parishes may take a while to open, especially if you don't have broadband).

You should now have a list of all parish records relating to Denton, held by the NRO. If the list does not give you ideas as to places to research, then you are following the wrong hobby and need to take up a different past-time.

Geoffers
Charlbury, Oxfordshire

[meles]

Thanks, Geoffers. I could not have asked for a more helpful reply.

meles

[Geoffers]

One last point I should have made is that on NROCAT, there is an index to NCC probate records. If your chap was a farmer and left his property to a son. You may well locate information on that in a will.

On the NROCAT search page, just enter a surname in the 'Any Text' field and in 'Category' select 'Probate' then search.

If your chap has a very common surname, in the 'Any Text' field enter surname and place name, category 'Proabte' and in the 'Options' at the bottom of the screen, where you see 'Combine words in field' select 'And'.

If you get stuck, ask

Geoffers