Medieval source material on the internet: Manorial records

Manorial records

For a brief guide to manorial records, click here

For some medieval records in Ancestry's UK and Ireland Collection, click here

• Manorial Documents Register (National Archives)
  The online version of the Register is now complete for England and Wales.
• Examples of English Manorial Documents (Nicholas Pappas, Sam Houston State University, Texas) [not available, 29 November 2023; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page]
  A selection of English translations, from the 11th to the 14th centuries, from E.P. Cheyney, ed., English Manorial Documents (1907)
• English Manor Rolls (Harvard Law School Library)
  Handlist to a collection of 170 parchment rolls, including records of the manors of Moulton (Cheshire), Odiham Hundred (Hampshire), Herstmonceaux (Sussex), Chartley (Staffordshire) and Onhouse (Suffolk); the descriptions include some names of lords of the manors and manorial officials.
• Manors of the Abbey of Bec: 1246-1247, 1248, 1249, 3,4 Edward I 1280-1281 (Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University)
  The manors include Wantage [Berkshire], Bledlow [Buckinghamshire], Povington [Dorset], Ruislip [Middlesex], Weedon Beck [Northamptonshire], Cottisford, Swincombe [Oxfordshire], Blakenham [Suffolk], Tooting [Surrey], Preston [Sussex], Atherstone [Warwick], Deverill, Ogbourne [Wiltshire]
  English translations, from F.W. Maitland, ed., Select Pleas in Manorial and Other Seignorial Courts: Volume 1--Reigns of Henry III and Edward I (1889).
• Marie Clough, ed., The Book of Bartholomew Bolney (1964) (Sussex Record Society)
  Sussex Record Society, volume 63. Translation of the fifteenth-century record of an estate at Bolney, Sussex, and elsewhere, including surveys and charters.
• Survey of Brydithfield, in the manor of Brandon, Suffolk (University of Kansas) [see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from April 2003]
  Latin text of a 16th-century survey, from Kenneth Spencer Research Library MS E112
• Manorial and franchisal courts: Extracts from court rolls: Brigstock [Northamptonshire] court rolls (David Postles, Leicester University) [not available, 11 December 2018; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from September 2015]
  Extracts from Latin text, 26 Edward I
• Survey of the manor of Brinkworth [Wiltshire] 1587 (Clive Henly, GENUKI)
  Transcript; later manorial documents are also available.
• Arthur Sabin, editor, Some Manorial Accounts of St. Augustine's Abbey, Bristol. (1960) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
  Bristol Record Society Publications, 22. Latin transcript of the Computa of the manors for 1491-2, a note of the differences in that for 1496-7 and extracts from other documents of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
• The Abbot of Battle's Court at Brithwaltham [Berkshire] (1293-1296) (Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University)
  English translation from F.W. Maitland, ed., Select Pleas in Manorial and Other Seignorial Courts: Volume 1--Reigns of Henry III and Edward I (1889)
• Ernest Straker, ed., The Buckhurst [Sussex] Terrier 1597-1598 (1929) (Sussex Record Society)
  Sussex Record Society, volume 39. Survey of the manors of Alchornes, Birchden, Blackham, Bolebrooke, Broome, Buckhurst, Collingherst, Fiskeridge, Framfield, Imberhorne, Lavertie, Munckloe, Sheffield, Tableherst and Torringe Peverell, and the fraternity of St Katherine's and the chantry of St Mary.
• Bridgett Jones, The Kilwardby survey of the archbishop's manors in south-east England, 1273-4 (2007) (Kent Archaeological Society)
  PDF file (1.5 MB). Parallel Latin transcript and translation.
• [List of names from] Court Rolls of the manor of Curry Rivel 1348-9 (Paul Mansfield) [not available, 4 November 2007; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from February 2007]
  From Rev. J. F. Chanter, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (1910)
• Court rolls and rentals of the manors of Ulveston and Sackville, in Debenham, Suffolk [Tudor] (Historical Manuscripts, Kenneth Jacob)
  Images of original documents in Latin, in PDF format.
• Sample manorial account: Deverill [Wiltshire] (David Postles, Leicester University) [not available, 11 December 2018; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from January 2018]
  Brief extract, Latin text and English translation
• Estate Records (The Records of Earls Colne; Cambridge University)
  Transcripts and abstracts of accounts, surveys, and records of copyhold and freehold tenure, relating to the manors of Earls Colne and Colne Priory, Essex, 14th century and later
• Emmison's Elizabethan Life [Essex]: Home, Work and Land (Mike Foster, GENUKI)
  Index to names from F. G. Emmison's Elizabethan life: Home, work & land: from Essex wills and sessions and manorial records (1976).
• C. J. Elton, ed., Rentalia et Custumaria Michaelis de Ambresbury, 1235-1252, et Rogeri de Ford, 1252-1261, Abbatum Monasterii Beatae Mariae Glastoniae ... (1891) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
  Somerset Record Society, volume 5. Latin transcripts.
• Joan Thirsk, ed., Hadlow [Kent]: Life, Land and People in a Wealden Parish, 1460-1600 (2006) (Kent Archaeological Society)
  PDF files (13 and 0.8 MB). Study of the manor, based on a recently discovered survey of 1460. The Latin text of the survey and a translation are available in a separate file.
• Harleston [Northamptonshire]: Dorothy Willis, editor, The Estate Book of Henry de Bray of Harleston, co. Northants (c. 1289-1340) (1916) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
  Camden Society, third series, volume 27. Latin transcript of an account compiled by a small landowner of his estate. Includes a section of pedigrees.
• A.T. Bannister, ed., A transcript of "The Red Book", a detailed account of the Hereford Bishopric estates in the thirteenth century. (Mel Lockie)
  Transcript of edition published in Camden Miscellany, volume 15 (1929). Introduction, Latin text and index.
• Hinderclay [Suffolk] court roll: frames and non-frames versions (David Postles, Leicester University) [not available, 11 December 2018; see the Internet Archive's copies from September 2015 (frames and non-frames)]
  Short extract; Latin text and English translation
• William Farrer, ed., Some court rolls of the lordships, wapentakes, and demesne manors of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, in the county of Lancaster, ... A.D. 1323-4. (1901) (Internet Archive - Text Archive)
  Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, volume 41. English translations.
• Geoffrey Copus, transcriber, Sixteenth and seventeenth century records of the Manor of Mayfield or Little Orpington, Kent (Kenneth Jacob, My Jacob Family)
• Custumale Roffense (University of Manchester)
  Images of a Latin manuscript from around 1300 held at Rochester Cathedral, recording the revenues of the cathedral priory.
• Survey of the manor of Somersham, [Huntingdonshire] 1222: frames and non-frames versions (David Postles, Leicester University) [not available, 11 December 2018; see the Internet Archive's copies from September 2015 (frames and non-frames)]
  Latin text and English translation
• Stubbington [Hampshire] manorial records (David Postles, Leicester University) [not available, 12 December 2023; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page]
  Material mainly relating to the estate of Southwick Priory at Stubbington, 13th to 16th centuries, with some records of land in Portsea and Portsmouth.
• Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield, 1274-1297 (Internet Medieval Sourcebook, Fordham University)
  English translation, from the edition of William Paley Baildon, in Yorkshire Archaelogical Society, Record Series vol. 29 (1900)
• The 1585 Walkhampton [Devon] Survey (ed. Peter R. Hamilton-Leggett) [formerly at http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/hamleg/wsur.html; not available, 6 April 2002; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from February 2002]
  English translation
• Names from article on the Manor [of] West Monkton, (Paul Mansfield) [not available, 4 November 2007; see the Internet Archive's copy of this page, from April 2007]
  From E.E.Trotman, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society, 1944
• Wotton Project (Kent Archaeological Society)
  Draft transcription of a survey of the lands of Thomas Wotton, 1557-1560, with supporting material to follow.