A Steeple Claydons’ History
THE MANORIAL COURTS
An Oseney charter of 1281 makes it clear that by that date both Steeple Claydon manors were holding courts which their respective tenants had to attend. The main business of these courts, which were held by the stewards assisted by a jury of tenants, was to register transfers of property and to see that the Lord of the Manor received his full feudal dues. The courts’ minutes were entered in parchment rolls, some of which have survived. Two fifteenth century fragments are all that remain of the Rectory Manor rolls, but after the Chaloners had obtained both the manors the two courts were amalgamated and several of the later rolls are still preserved at Claydon House. The earliest complete surviving Court Roll is dated 20 April 1558, and its contents throw a good deal of light on sixteenth Century Claydon. Apparently the Court’s first duty was to recognize the Lord’s right on such occasions to a penny from each of the tenants (later this was known as head silver’ and collected at Michaelmas by households
Absentees were then reported: Henry Stanley is excused because he is ill in bed; the other defaulters would normally have been fined 2d. but on this occasion (it was probably Sir Thomas Chaloners first court) the Lord pardons them. The two village constables were then elected (one of them is the curate) and also two tithingmen (a relic of the medieval frankpledge system by which the inhabitants were divided up for police purposes into tithings or groups of ten, each under a tithings or groups of ten; their only surviving duty was to collect the ‘headsilver. (Thirteen jurors were then elected; they seem to have been generally) nominated by the bailiffs, who were also responsible for providing the steward with the names of those entitled to attend the court. The 1558 jurors report on oath that the constables, tithingmen and other officials had carried out their duties faithfully. They stated that Alice Snyll is ‘a common tippler’ (alehouse keeper) wl10 overcharges for her beer; she is therefore ‘ in mercy’ ( i.e. liable to a fine). Since the last court a horse-shoe worth 4d. has been found which the Lord claims as a waif. Marion Kyng has died. She had some freehold property, and also a house and two virgates, (sixty acres) copyhold on which two separate heriots are· due (a heriot was the best beast of a deceased villien or copy holder which feudal custom assigned to the Lord of the Manor; in later Claydon rolls we find heriots of a cow, a black pony worth £5, a mare, etc.). Hugh Snowe, a new copyhold tenant, ‘takes from the Lord’s hands one cottage built on the Lord’s waste to have and to hold for life.’ For this he is to pay a shilling a year, he also promises to attend the manorial courts, to pay a heriot when it falls due (i.e. when he is dead!), and, as the preliminary fine to which all new copyholders were liable, to give the Lord a pair of gloves next Christmas (in the later rolls there are fines of 2d. and 3s. 4d.). He then takes an oath of faithfulness to the Lord and is admitted as a tenant. There is a similar entry for John Bugge, and the Court then turned to agricultural offences before concluding with a number of petitions. One of the petitions was for the revival of the old custom of house bote’ (i.e. the right of a tenant to take wood from his landlords estate to repair his ho u s e). The petition was not granted as the Lord prudently wished first of all to find out rather more about the custom from the old rolls.
The court rolls continue, with intervals, to 1792, when the number of householders owing suit of court had dropped to forty-four and the court was transferred to Bicester where it became a mere legal formality. They are largely a repetition of the 1558 roll. Two other officials, however, in addition to the constables and tithing men, were generally appointed. These were the affearerswho were responsible for assessing the fines of absentees. There were two courts a year, in the spring and the autumn. They opened at 9 a.m. and sometimes lasted for two or more days.
After 1656 they were held in the School House.
