Computer printouts of information, in English, extracted from entries in the fourteenth century court rolls of the manors of Alrewas (Staffordshire), Lakenheath and Clare Fee, Lakenheath (Suffolk), with indexes in data-set format
The product of a special research project, these records present information from medieval manor court rolls in an easily accessible way. They comprise:
Data on entries in the manor court rolls, in chronological order of court session, giving: name of tenant; type of or reason for entry - whether it relates to an essoin [excuse for non-appearance at court made on oath of another man], a fine [imposed for some misdemeanour or crime], a land transaction or dispute including description of premises, presentment of manorial officer; followed by brief details incluidng the names of any others relative to the case and any monetary fine imposed.
Sessions of the court are introduced by the word 'Title' followed by 'ID' and the name, date and reference number of the court roll, and individual entries are separated by a dollar sign ($) or pound sign (£). Various letters are used to describe pieces of data, but no key is given; they appear to signify G: guilty party; E: person pledging for an essoin; I: injured party; S: seller of land; B: buyer of land; L: land; M: male; F: female; D (as in '8D'): pence X: court decision.
Following the entry data are series of 'index sets' presenting the information in different ways including variously: alphabetical index of names by surname where they exist, including mention of any relative, date of entry, position of the tenant (whether defendant, essoin, pledge for prosecution, etc) and type of entry; alphabetical list of surnames or attributions giving frequency of occurrence; alphabetical index of names by first name; index by surname including the plea or crime; alphabetical index by surname including mention of any land, fee and term of years relating to the entry; index to types of entries relating to land; index arranged by type of crime; list of dates of court sessions giving reference number to original document and frequency of types of entry [land, essoin, fine]; index of occupations; index arranged by name of the injured party giving name of the guilty party, the crime or plea and description; similar index arranged by name of the guilty party; surname index to manorial officers, index of names of vendors of land including description of land, fee and purchaser; similar index arranged by name of buyer of land; index of persons standing pledge giving name of payer, plea and fee; similar index arranged by name of payer for pledge.
The dates of court sessions appear in New Style. The original records, written in abbreviated Latin, are not held by the University of Birmingham.
These records are useful for the investigation of individuals and families who were tenants of these three manors in the medieval period. They shed light on their daily life including their land transactions, crimes and the management of their affairs, and on the customs of the manor. Misdemeanours and crimes include non-appearance at court, breaking assizes of bread or ale, false measures, rent default, trespass, assault and bloodshed, selling diseased sheep, diverting watercourses, obstructing road ways, pound breach, theft, poaching, damage to property, not selling goods at the lord's market, etc. The records were made principally for economic reasons, to ensure that a permanent record of the various rents, fines, heriots and other customary dues was kept for the lord of the manor.
The records are also interesting as evidence of the new exploration in the 1980s into how computers could be used with bulky data sets of information. They are examples of how researchers in many disciplines were becoming aware of computers' potential for arranging information in different ways, for example, for statistical analysis or for automatically indexing different types of data. These printouts demonstrate how the same information can be be displayed in a variety of different ways.