Manorial roll

A manorial roll or court roll is the roll or record kept of the activities of a manorial court, in particular containing entries relating to the rents and holdings, deaths, alienations, and successions of the customary tenants or copyholders.^[1] The records were invariably kept in roll form in the Middle Ages, but in the post-medieval period were more usually entered into volumes. Despite this change of format, the records often continued to be known as court rolls, although the term court books is also found.

A copy of the relevant entry in the court roll constituted the tenant's title to his holding, and this form of land tenure therefore became known as copyhold.

See also

• Urbarium

References

1. "court roll, n.". OED Online. November 2010. Oxford University Press