THE LAW OF

THE MANOR
Christopher Jessel
ISBN13: 9780854901104
ISBN: 0854901108
Previous Edition ISBN: 1872328849
Published: November 2012
Publisher: Wildy, Simmonds and Hill Publishing
Country of Publication: UK
Format: Hardback
Price: 165.00

http://www.wildy.com/isbn/9780854901104/the-law-of-the-manor-2nd-ed-hardback-wildysimmonds-and-hill-publishing

The Law of the Manor is the definitive work on the subject, providing detailed, up-to-date and
comprehensive coverage for lawyers and also to those owning, managing, selling or buying
historic houses and estates. It provides a modern description of the law associated with lordships
of the manor.
Principally concerned with the lands and rights of the lord, the book also considers rights that
tenants of the manor can claim against him. These are put in context with a discussion of
associated topics such as franchises and titles of nobility.
The second edition has been updated to cover numerous developments in the law since 1998, in
particular the Land Registration Act 2002, with full discussion of the way manorial rights,
including minerals, will cease to be overriding interests after 12 October 2013. The book includes
changes made by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the Commons Act 2006, the
Hunting Act 2004, the House of Lords Act 1999, and the Legal Services Act 2007 as well as the
relevant case law.
New material has been included on escheat, rectorial manors and roadside verges. There is also
greater coverage of legal authorities including over 50 decisions since the first edition and a
selection of useful precedents for the practitioner. Although the book is about the law of the
manor in England and Wales, there is some reference to other jurisdictions, most notably the
experimental extension of the manorial system to some American colonies.
The text is arranged in five parts. Part 1 describes the context, summarises the history and
analyses custom which is the basis of manorial law. Part 2 describes the lands of tenants and
lords and the relations between them. Part 3 discusses rights and comprises a detailed
commentary on section 62(3) of the Law of Property Act 1925.
It covers rights of common, mineral and sporting rights, courts and remaining revenues. Part 4
sets the manor in the context of other institutions, namely the village, the church, towns and
feudal relationships. Part 5 summarises and looks at the modern manor, its documents,

conveyancing (with particular reference to registered land) and taxation, concluding with
suggestions for reform.
The Law of the Manor is for property lawyers, owners, managers, buyers and sellers of historic
houses and estates and surveyors concerned with rural matters.

Contents:
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
INTRODUCTION
TABLE OF STATUTES AND OTHER LAWS
TABLE OF CASES
PART I: ROOTS
THE PICTURE OF THE MANOR; The manor as an idea and a place
Farmland
Village and society
Waste and outliers
The eight ox plough
Size
TIME OUT OF MIND; Roman
Early Saxon
Late Saxon
Norman
DECLINE OF YEARS; Decline of the Manor
Population pressure and the Black Death
Copyholds and royal power
Inclosure
The twentieth century
Manors in America
CUSTOM AND VARIETY; Custom and the Manor
Local
Ancient and continuous
Reasonable
Certain
Services
Inheritance and disposition
Enjoyment
Extinction of custom
Variety
PART II: LANDS
FREEHOLD AND COPYHOLD
Service, tenure and jurisdiction
Tenure
Free and unfree tenure
Common and customary tenure
The will of the lord
Surrender and admission
Tenures today
THE LANDS OF THE LORD
Demesne and other land
Management and leases
Waste and commons registration
Types of waste; Roadside verges
Ownership of roads

Balks
Rivers
Unclaimed land of unknown lords
PARCELS
The limits of the manor
Outliers and distributed lands
Subinfeudation and Quia Emptores 1290
Rule against enlarging manor
Rule against land coming back to manor
Occasions of escheat
Mesne lords and escheat
Escheat and appurtenant rights
Copyhold enfranchisement
Acquisition of copyhold by lord
Inclosure at common law
Statutory inclosure
Hedges in inclosure acts
LEGAL AND REPUTED
Creation of manors
Proving the manor
Division by operation of law; Dissolution loss of lordship, tenants or services
Reputed manors;
PART III: RIGHTS
GENERAL WORDS; Rights and the manor; Corporeal and incorporeal
Property and possession, substance and revenue
Incidents appurtenances and other rights
Manorial or seigniorial rights
COMMON AND PASTURE; Common Land
Background to the current legislation; Rights of common
Classification of rights of common
Commonable rights
Lot meadows and regulated pastures
Rights of the lord
Regulation
Public access and conservation
MINERALS AND TIMBER
Nature of rights to wood and minerals
Trees; Estovers, botes, furze and turbary
Tenants mineral rights in the waste
Mineral substances
Lords minerals demesne and inclosed waste
Lords minerals in copyhold land
Exceptions on enfranchisement
Land registration
HUNTING, SHOOTING AND FISHING
Sporting and wild animals
Forest, chase and park
Warren
Sporting in copyhold land
Sporting reservations on waste or sold demesne
Hunting
Fishing
The Game Laws
Statutory protection of wild life
COURTS
Courts baron, customary and leet
Time and place

Procedure
Administration of Justice Act 1977
Officers
RENTS AND REVENUES; Nature of manorial revenues; Court payments
Reliefs and heriots
Transmission fines and royalties; Rentcharges and rents seck
Rentservices - chief, assize, quit and fee farm
Wayleaves
Extinction of manorial incidents
TOLLS
Tolls and ways
Road tolls
Bridges and ferries
Ports and harbours
Anchorage and mooring
FRANCHISES AND LIBERTIES; Nature of franchises; Defence
Local administration and jurisdiction
Legal personality
Currency
Commerce and animals
Merger in Crown rights
Creation and extinction
Land registration; MILLS AND MAIDENS; Miscellaneous rights; Banalities
Mills
Maiden right
Appointments
Covenants
Ceremonial renders
FEALTY AND PROTECTION; Homage and fealty
Allegiance
Warranty
Grand and petty sergeanty
PART IV: SETTING
VILLAGE AND HUNDRED; Manor and village; Hundreds
Shires
Local courts; Court leet
Village greens
Registration of greens
Management of greens
PARISH AND CHURCH
Manor and parish
Advowsons
Appropriate and impropriate rectories
Glebe
Rectorial manors
Consecrated land and churchways
Schools
Chancel repairs
Tithe
Frankalmoign and episcopal property
TOWNS AND TRADE; Towns and boroughs
Markets
Open places and streets
Houses
Corporations, trusts and charity
FEES, HONOURS AND ESTATES; Feudalism

Development and introduction of feudalism

Nature of Crown grants
Honours
Knights fees and feudal incidents
Complications of tenure
Legal estates
Landed estates
LORDS AND TITLES
Lord
Hereditary peers
Life peers Knights, gentlemen and honourable
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
ROYAL DEMESNE
Crown Estate
Royal residences and parks
Allodial land
Foreshore and purprestures
East Greenwich and other lordships of sold lands
Registration of title to royal demesne
The Royal Duchies
Parliamentary manors
Ancient demesne
Changes affecting royal manors
PART V: CONCLUSION
ROLLS AND REGISTRATION
Evidence of rights
Manorial rolls
Other manorial documents
Ownership and custody
Title deeds Land Registration Act 2002
Registered title to manors
Rentcharges franchises and profits
Transitional provisions affecting overriding interests
Protection of manorial rights
Human rights and the transitional provisions
BUYING AND SELLING
The market in manors
Agents
Lawyers
Terms and conditions of sale
Taxation
WHAT IS A MANOR?
Jurisprudence of the manor
Cokes philosophy
Cokes politics
Law and time
Ownership and public law
Whether the manor is land
Definition
WHAT REMAINS
THE FUTURE; Official proposals for reform
Specific reforms
Learning from the Manor
APPENDIX - PRECEDENTS
GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY