Glossary
A glossary of medieval and Latin
terms, for quick reference to assist your time travel
The hyperlinked terms
will also take you to a page or to other links which provide more
detail.
acre |
The amount
of land tillable by one man behind one team of eight oxen in one day.
Traditional acres were long and narrow due to the difficulty in turning the
plough and the value of river front access. |
advowson |
In
ecclesiastical law, the right to recommend a member of the Anglican clergy
for a vacant benefice, or to make such an appointment. |
The
clearing of land for agriculture. Slashing and burning. |
|
bovate |
A medieval
land unit equivalent to one eighth of a carucate. From Latin bovata,
it is synonymous with an oxgang and was a term commonly used in former
Danelaw counties. Depending on the quality of the land, it might be about 10
to 18 acres. It might be interpreted as the land which a single oxen could
plough in a year, though oxen
typically ploughed in teams of eight though not exclusively, so a
carucate was the land that a plough team could plough in a year. |
burh |
Anglo
Saxon fortified settlement. |
A medieval
land unit based on the land which a plough team of eight oxen could till in a
year. Depending on the quality of the land, it might be about 80 to 150
acres. Caruca means a team of eight oxen. |
|
castrum |
Roman
fort. |
chevauchée |
A practice
common during the Hundred Years War, the chevauchée was an armed raid into
enemy territory. With the aim of destruction, pillage, and demoralization,
chevauchées were generally conducted against civilian populations. |
The church rate was a tax levied in each
parish for the benefit of the parish church. The rates were used to meet the costs
of services, repairing the fabric of the church and paying salaries. It was
always a matter of common law, not statute. The compulsory levying of the
church rate was abolished by the Compulsory Church Rate Abolition Act 1868,
though it continued on a voluntary basis in many parishes. |
|
Rotuli
clausi were
administrative records of the royal chancery to preserve a central record of
all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown. They were
usually records of orders or instructions of a personal nature and were
issued folded and sealed or ‘closed’. They were then enrolled in the close
rolls. Close Rolls cover the period from 1204. The last writ enrolled on a
close roll was dated 1532-33. |
|
cottar |
Cottar is
a Germanic term for a peasant farmer. Cottars occupied cottages and cultivated
small land lots. The word cottar is often employed to translate the cotarius
recorded in the Domesday Book, a social class whose exact status has been the
subject of some discussion among historians, and is still a matter of doubt. |
crenallate |
Licence to
fortify a castle. |
Curia
regis refers to
the King’s Court. It refers to councils of advisers to the medieval kings of
Europe, including England. The curia
regis rolls are a source for various information about people and places,
particularly involving litigation. These records span the period from Richard
I to Henry II. |
|
enfeoffed |
“Bent the
knee”. To pledge service and allegiance often to the King in return for
confirmation of freehold over property under the feudal system. |
escheat |
The
reversion of land to a feudal overlord when the tenanted owner died without
heirs. |
Henry II
took a grip on a court system in a muddle. He developed a system of
travelling eyres for royal judges to travel around the country. The old
French word erre, means journey. The eyre justices were judges of the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries who were sent out from the central courts at
Westminster Hall around the counties of England (though not Chester nor
Durham). Generally they travelled out every seven years, but the interval
changed from time to time. |
|
A foot of
fines is the record of an agreement between two parties after a land dispute.
The agreement itself was called the final concord or ‘fine’ for short.
In practice the disputes were often fictitious and a foot of fines was really
just a way to record the transfer of land in an official way, through the
court of the King. Feet of Fines records span the period 1195 to 1833. There
are some examples before that, even back to King Stephen in 1140, but from
1195, the process was formalised so that three copies of the agreement were
made on a sheet of parchment. One was retained by each party and the third
was at the foot of the parchment. The three bits were separated by cutting,
the parties retained their segments and the third was retained by the Crown.
That is why the document is usually referred to in the plural as ‘feet of
fines’. At first, the fines were made in the Eyre Court in the Exchequer,
before justices of Eyre. From the early fourteenth century, fines were made
in the Court of Common Pleas. |
|
furlong |
Meaning
furrow length, the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting. This
was standardised to be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains. |
hart |
A male red
deer, or a stag. The red deer (Cervus elaphus) is one of the largest
deer species. The word
comes from the Middle English word hert meaning deer. |
hind |
A female
red deer, or a doe. |
A
stocktaking for tax purposes taken on the death of a noble person. |
|
Knight’s
Fee (or Fief) |
A unit of
land which was deemed to be sufficient to support a night. The area of land
depended on the climate and richness of the soil and such other factors. |
In 1692
the British government instituted a scheme to increase revenue which came to
be known as the land tax. The laws changed several times over the years until
the tax was finally repealed in 1963. The tax was administered locally and
original records will usually be located at the County Record Office. From
1780 to 1832, a copy of the Land Tax Assessment was placed in the quarter
session records. |
|
Lay
subsidy rolls are taxation records. They tend to relate to more prosperous
households. The rolls are arranged by county, and then by regions within the
county, often referred to as wapentakes (or hundreds). The subsidies include
the hearth tax returns of 1662 to 1674. |
|
mainpernor |
A person
who gave a guarantee that a prisoner would attend court. |
maritage |
The fee
paid by a vassal following the feudal lord’s decision on a marriage. |
messuage |
An area of
land occupied as a site for a dwelling house and its adjacent buildings. |
molendinum |
Latin for
Mill. |
mordant |
A
substance such as alum which, if applied to
material before it goes into the dye bath, will help the dye pigment bond
more strongly with the fibres of the material. This produces a richer,
brighter result that is colour-fast when washed. |
oxgang |
The amount
of land tillable by one ox in a ploughing season. This could vary from
village to village, but was typically around 15 acres. |
oyer
and terminer |
From the
French oyer et terminer, literally means 'to hear and to determine'.
It was one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat. By the
commission of oyer and terminer the commissioners, the judges of assize,
though other persons were named with them in the commission, were commanded
to make diligent inquiry into all treasons, felonies and misdemeanours
whatever committed in the counties specified in the commission, and to hear
and determine the same according to law. The inquiry was by means of a grand
jury. After the grand jury had found the bills of indictment submitted to it,
the commissioners proceeded to hear and determine by means of the petit jury.
The words oyer and terminer were also used to denote the court that had
jurisdiction to try offences within the limits to which the commission of
oyer and terminer extended. |
Rotuli
litterarum patentium are administrative records. Letters were issued openly or 'patent' (in
contrast to the Close Rolls) as they related to matters of public interest.
They were sealed with the sovereign's great seal pendent. They covered a
diverse range of subjects including revenue, justice, treaties, and foreign
correspondence. They also record grants, confirmations of liberties, offices,
land and wardship. They include charters of incorporation. |
|
praetorium |
Roman
Headquarters. |
The Pipe
Rolls are financial records held by the Exchequer, dating from the twelfth
century. They were early audits by the Exchequer. Various sheets of parchment
were fixed together and rolled tightly for storage, looking like a pipe, from
which the name derives. Pipe rolls record payments made to government, debts
owed to the Crown and expenditure of royal officials. |
|
quitclaim |
A
quitclaim was a formal renunciation of a legal claim against some other
person, or of a right to land. A person who quitclaimed a right, renounced or
relinquished a claim to some legal right, or transfers a legal interest in
land. |
rod |
A
historical unit of length equal to 5 ½ yards. It may have originated from the
typical length of a medieval ox-goad. There are 4 rods in one chain. |
regarders |
Ancient
officers of the forest. Generally knights, sworn to carry out the regard of
the Forest, and watch over royal; forest hunting grounds. |
soar |
A sow or
female pig or boar. |
sokeman |
A sokeman
belonged to a class of tenants, found chiefly in the eastern counties,
especially the Danelaw area, occupying an intermediate position between the
free tenants and the bond tenants, in that they owned and paid taxes on their
land themselves. Forming between 30% and 50% of the countryside, they could
buy and sell their land, but owed service to their lord's soke, court, or
jurisdiction. |
terrier |
An
eighteenth and nineteenth century record of field names, with reference
number, land use, acreage, value per acre and rent. |
verderers |
Forestry
officials in England who dealt with royal hunting areas which were the
property of the Crown. The
title Verderer comes from the Norman word vert meaning green and
referring to woodland. |
villein |
Villein
was a term used in the feudal system. It describes a peasant or medieval tenant
farmer. A villein in gross was legally tied to a lord of the manor. A villein
regardant was tied to a manor. They were expected to spend some of
their time working on the lord's fields in return for land. Villein is
derived from Late Latin villanus, which referred to a person employed
at a Roman villa rustica, or large agricultural estate. Villeinage
became progressively less common through the Middle Ages, particularly after the Black Death reduced the rural
population and improved the bargaining power of the non noble classes. |
virgate |
The amount
of land tillable by two oxen in a ploughing season. |
If you need
some more help you might also try the
glossary of medieval terms.