The collection comprises:
Court minutes, presentments, lists of fines and jury lists. 1753-1957 (TL 1);
Court suit rolls. 1744-1956 (TL 2);
Letter from Inclosure Office, London relating to proposed inclosure of Laxton and Kneesall with relevant forms. 1867 (TL 3).
In 1640 the manors of Laxton and Kneesall in Nottinghamshire were sold by William Courten to Robert Pierrepont, Earl of Kingston. The Pierrepont family had been settled in Nottinghamshire for several centuries prior to this transaction. The 5th Earl Kingston, Evelyn Pierrepont, was created Duke of Kingston in 1715 and his son Evelyn, the 2nd Duke, succeeded him as a minor on his death in 1726. The dukedom became extinct on the death of the 2nd Duke in 1773 but in 1806 his cousin and heir, Charles Medows, Viscount Newark (died 1860), was created Earl Manvers and took the name Pierrepont.
The Earls Manvers managed the Manor of Laxton until 1952 when Gervas Evelyn Pierrepont, 6th Earl Manvers, sold the Laxton estate to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The estate has been in the hands of the Crown Estate Commissioners since 1981. Laxton is the last English village to operate the open field system. The Court of the Manor, operating instead of a Lord of the Manor, continues to administer the work in the fields and to appoint officers to oversee maintenance of the system.
The collection has been divided by document type into three series. Within these series, items have been arranged chronologically.
Accessible to all registered readers.
Copyright in all finding aids belongs to The University of Nottingham.
In the Reading Room, King's Meadow Campus:
Typescript Catalogue, 7 pp
On the World Wide Web:
Online catalogue accessible from the Manuscripts and Special Collections website.
Good
Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.
Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk).
The collection was deposited with The University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts in 1960 by Colonel H. Tallents, solicitor of Tallents and Co. of Newark, Nottinghamshire, who acted as clerks to the court.
