burgage tenure
Urban feudal arrangement
Burgage tenure was a medieval English system of land holding in towns, where a burgess held property from the king or a lord in exchange for a fixed money rent rather than labor or military service.
This arrangement gave townspeople greater independence than rural peasants and helped establish urban property rights.
The term survives mainly in legal and historical discussions of how English towns developed their distinctive character.
The old borough records still show the original burgage tenure plots.
- quit-rentPayment replacing service obligations
- rentPayment for temporary use
- boroughAdministrative town or district
- plotStoryline or land parcel
- charterFounding organizational document
lordship · burgess · feudalism · freeman · manorialism · town planning · tenant-in-chief · deed · vassalage · tenant · dues · frontage · inheritance · holding · medieval · manor · townhouse · conveyance
- local governancevillage council, mayors, local government, local councils, town meeting
- urban historycity walls, urban renewal, ancient cities, landmarks, city gates
burgage tenureknight-service
Land granted for military obligation
villeinage · serfdom · knight's fee · frankalmoin · freehold