The influence of the manorial steward

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Clive Henly

The influence of the manorial steward

Legg inn av Clive Henly » 19 okt 2005 00:54:02

My family (Henly/Henley) were tenants of the manor of Brinkworth (Wiltshire)
in the sixteenth century. The earliest I have traced them there is 1536,
when they were granted tenancy of some land there (this was recorded in a
survey taken in 1578). At the time the manor was owned by the Abbey of
Malmesbury - following the Dissolution it was given to William Stumpe in
1544.

There was another branch of the family living in Chieveley (Berkshire), some
20 miles away. Although I am not sure of the exact relationship there were
several intermarriages between the families. A court roll of nearby
Childrey in 1526 mentions a piece of land called "Hendleys", suggesting that
the family was established in the area at that time. My strong suspicion is
that a member of the family moved from Chieveley to Brinkworth in order to
take up tenancy of the land there. There are several families who are
represented in both areas.

The court records of Brinkworth in 1572 show the name of the steward there
as Griffin Curteys. This is the same man who was steward at Chieveley in
1561, though I am not sure whether the manors were owned by the same
person/family. This provides a link between the two manors, though several
years after I believe the migration to have taken place.

It poses a few questions:
1) Is it possible that a man would have been employed as a steward by the
Abbey of Malmesbury, and then to have retained the position after the
Dissolution?
2) To what degree was a steward "freelance"? Was it common for a steward to
hold the position at different manors, working for different
people/institutions?
3) What influence did the steward have in the migration of people from manor
to manor? If a piece of land fell vacant in one place, was it within his
remit to bring in someone from another manor as a tenant? If the two manors
were owned by different people/institutions, did this matter?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Best wishes

Clive Henly
Chippenham, Wiltshire

Chris Dickinson

Re: The influence of the manorial steward

Legg inn av Chris Dickinson » 19 okt 2005 17:30:02

Re: Clive Henly's questions about manorial stewardship.

You may want to read, though your period is a century earlier :

'Stewards, Lords and People : The Estate Steward and his World in Later
Stuart England', by D. R. Hainsworth, C.U.P., ISBN 0-521-36489-2


Is it possible that a man would have been employed as a steward by the
Abbey of Malmesbury, and then to have retained the position after the
Dissolution?


Though I have no evidence for this, 'more than likely' I would have thought.

My reasoning would run along these lines. Estate stewardship wasn't so
developed as a profession in the sixteenth century as it was to become in
the following two, and as the estate owner you simply wouldn't have had a
great deal of choice. You would take on whoever was in the post already, and
be thankful.

That would apply less as you go up the scale - patronage might become more
important and you wouldn't be so restricted geographically. The Earl of
Northumberland no doubt had a much more professional head-hunted team than
did the Lord of the Manor of Lesser Nowhere.

To what degree was a steward "freelance"? Was it common for a steward to
hold the position at different manors, working for different
people/institutions?

I don't know. I don't see why it shouldn't happen. The sort of steward
family that you are describing sounds like a top-of-the-range local yeoman
family. This was quite likely to own property in more than one manor and to
have the contacts that would make such multi-stewardship possible.


What influence did the steward have in the migration of people from manor
to manor? If a piece of land fell vacant in one place, was it within his
remit to bring in someone from another manor as a tenant? If the two
manors
were owned by different people/institutions, did this matter?


The anwer will depend partly on what were the local customary rights of
tenure and what you mean by a tenant.

If you are talking about customary tenancies that could be bought and sold
and inherited, then neither the steward or the lord would have had much say
in the matter, other than rubber stamping. If you are talking about tenants
working the demesne land of the manor who were 'husbandmen' rather than
'yeomen' then the steward and lord could do whatever they wanted. And
various shades in between.

In the area I study, the seventeenth century distribution of surnames does
seem to follow the boundary of the manor rather than the boundary of the
parish. You get a cluster of a surname in a particular area that suddenly
stops at the manorial boundary.

I see that more as evidence of the power of the local yeoman families than
the power of the lord of the manor or his steward. Successful families
provided local tenancies for their younger sons, through purchase or
inheritance, and unsuccessful ones didn't.

Where the Steward was looking for short- or medium-term tenants for his
lord's lands, I think the big problem was to find people who were reliable.
For instance, it was in the interest for the tenant to maximise immediate
income (perhaps by over-ploughing the land or failing to maintain irrigation
and walls and farm buildings) but it was in the interest of the lord to
maintain and invest for the future. How do you get someone who is reliable?
Well, one way is to give tenancies to landless younger sons of families that
you already know and have working arrangements with. If those families
happen to be in another manor of yours fifty miles away, then you import
them - better that than having your land ruined by some local lad that
you don't know.

I think it would be a very interesting project to see whether surname
frequencies in seventeenth-centrury parish registers reflect pre-Reformation
landholdings of the monasticant and mendicant orders.

Chris

Chris Dickinson

Re: The influence of the manorial steward - correction

Legg inn av Chris Dickinson » 19 okt 2005 17:37:02

I wrote:

monasticant and mendicant orders

Oops! My mind ahead of my fingers. Monastic and mendicant.

Chris

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