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Abstract
In its four sections, this article briefly places the manor of Wakefield and its records in their local context, describes the work of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society in promoting access to the records of the manor, explains the purpose and format of the recently-completed docket books digitisation project, and acknowledges the work of the society volunteers who worked for a decade to carry this project to its completion. Two appendices describe the format and content of the digitised entries, and explain the history of the compilation of the docket books.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 One important document which predates the court rolls is the recently identified account roll of the manor of Wakefield for 1265–66, found among the records of the manor of Conisbrough and now held at Doncaster Archives. It appears in volume 21 (2021) of the Wakefield Court Rolls Series [WCRS].
2 Bailey, The English Manor, 6, which gives the average size of a manor as six square miles.
3 Charlesworth, ed., Wakefield Manor Book, 17. This volume contains an extensive statement of all aspects of manorial administration. There are two manuscript copies of the original in the society’s archives, one with the reference YAS/DD46, from which the published edition was taken, and the other has the reference, YAS/MD225/4/1.
4 Charlesworth, ed., Wakefield Manor Book, 5–7.
5 For a map showing the topography of the manor see https://www.yas.org.uk/Collections/Wakefield-Manor-Court.
6 Leeds Intelligencer, 28 Nov. 1786; and Leeds Intelligencer, 1 Nov 1832 and Leeds Mercury, 3 Nov 1832. Other sessions were reported in Leeds Times, 11 Oct 1834 and 31 May 1845, Leeds Intelligencer, 18 May 1829, Halifax Guardian, 4 Nov 1842, Halifax Courier, 3 Nov 1855 and Wakefield Free Press, 21 Apr 1866.
7 Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 148–9.
8 1311 and 1325 were omitted. 1331 and 1332 were published in the later WCRS.
9 A complete list of the volumes in both series can be found in Barber, Transcripts and Observations, and at https://www.yas.org.uk/Publications/Wakefield-Court-Rolls-Series .
10 See https://www.yas.org.uk/Publications/Wakefield-Court-Rolls-Series. The last six of the WCRS, from volume 15 (2011) to volume 21 (2021), have yet to be digitised.
11 A short video showing the seventeen stages of this process in action in repairing paper pages from the court rolls at the Wakefield History Centre can be found on the YAHS website:
12 See Harrison, ‘From Memory to Written Record?’, an article based on her doctoral thesis.
14 There are published editions of the court rolls for 1583–1585, 1608–1609, 1639–1640, 1651–1652, 1658–1659, 1664–1665, 1687–1688, 1688–1689, 1781–1782, and 1790–1792 (WCRS vols 1, 4, 5, 8–11, 13–16, 18 and 19). The manorial year ran from around October to September, the agricultural year, and so the roll for, e.g., 1639–1640 runs from October 1639 to September 1640. The two volumes 1583–5 and 1790–92 each contain rolls for two consecutive years.
15 See Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 147.
16 The text of Tusser’s commission also appears in Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 42–45.
17 The docket book entry is incorrectly given as after 1605/180 but appears in the 1606 roll, reference YAS/MD225/1/332, m. 1r-v.
18 Yewarte became surveyor of the duchy of Lancaster lands in the northern parts of the realm on 26 May 1604 but had surrendered his office by 10 December 1608, according to Green, ed., Calendar of State Papers Domestic, 1603–1610, 114 and 474.
19 For the tenants and properties liable to serve as grave and their helpers, see Charlesworth, ed., Wakefield Manor Book, 53–176, in which the graveship of Sowerby appears on 135–163 and the graveship of Hipperholme on 163–171.
20 Robert Allot (c. 1530 –1605) appears in Hunter, Familiae Minorum Gentium, 499.
21 WCRS, 1583–1585, vol. 4, 30–33; Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 71, 105, and 148.
22 See Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 148 on the manorial monopoly of milling.
23 The texts of these judgements can be found in the memorandum book of John Hatfeild Kaye, reference YAS/MS722b.
24 See Charlesworth, ed., Wakefield Manor Book, 17–35, for the text of the decree of the Duchy court; and Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 8–10, 12–128, and 145.
25 For Mounson, see his entry in Thrush and Ferris, History of Parliament: The House of Commons, 1606–1629.
26 The dates of the prosecutions at West Riding quarter sessions are given as 15 October 1662 and 15 January 1663. There is a quarter sessions indictment book, 1660–1662, but the sessions rolls for these years do not survive. See also S.J. Gold, ’Quakerism, Localism and the Law’, unpub. Ph. D. (Univ. of Reading, 2019), ch. 6, section 3.
27 P. Lindley, ed., Parish Registers of Wadworth, YAHS Parish Register Section, vol. clxii (1997), Tickhill, vols. clxxiv (2000), clxxvii (2010), clxxviii (2011) and Thorne (YAHS PRS CD/ download ref. T.42 and T.44).
28 A list of uncompounded lands appears in Charlesworth, ed., Wakefield Manor Book, 185–197.
29 See Barber, Transcripts and Observations, 49-50, for an abbreviated text of the grant.
30 For Whatman, father and son, see Hills, Papermaking in Britain, 65–76, and biographies by A. P. Baker in the ODNB, vol. 58, 402-403. Paper was always used in the draft court rolls.
31 For the records of the Registry, see Barber, Guide to the West Riding Quarter Sessions, 37–38.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Brian Barber
Brian Barber has contributed a dozen articles on various aspects of Yorkshire history to this journal and several to other publications since his retirement in 2006. He was general editor of the six volumes of the Wakefield Court Rolls series of this society which were published between from 2014 to 2021.