court rolls
Medieval legal documents
Court rolls are the official records of proceedings in medieval and early modern manorial courts, documenting matters like land transfers, tenancy disputes, fines, and local customs.
Kept on rolls of parchment, they serve as primary sources for historians studying rural English life, property rights, and social relations: The court rolls show that Thomas paid a fine to inherit his father's copyhold.
- feudalOf tiered landownership
- manorLanded aristocratic residence
- lord of the manorFeudal estate holder
- stewardManager for another
- recordsStored data or albums
tenure · serfdom · demesne · surrenders · bailiff · admissions · leasehold · villeinage · landholding · fines · tenants · land transfer · inheritance · medieval · peasants · common land · open fields · archives
- historical recordsdiary, census record, annual reviews, letter, government records
- legal recordsjudicial records, rulings, judgments, opinions, case files
- medieval justicetrial by combat, trial by ordeal, trial by fire, trial by jury, ordeal
- English Recordsparish records, public records, land records, Domesday Book, censuses
- manorial recordsextents, surveys, terriers
- medieval lawMagna Carta, medieval justice, assize, writ, law codes
court rollsroyal decrees
Official orders from monarchs
royal charters · papal bulls · acts of parliament · Acts of Parliament · Domesday Book
roll, court, courtesy, courteous, courts, courtship, courthouse, courtly, courtier