Title:

Manorial Surveys in Ewyas Lacy

Date:

1600s, 1700s, 1800s

 

The split of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy into separate moieties in 1241 made the subsequent ownership of land, property and manorial rights in the area considerably more complex than normal to establish. However, this very complexity has had the advantage for local historians and family history researchers that it obliged those claiming title to parts of the shared Lordship of Ewyas Lacy to identify their supposed holdings in detail at relatively frequent intervals through surveys of various kinds.

 

One recognised way of achieving this was by means of formal Manorial Surveys carried out by jurors empanelled by the Lord of the Manor, and required to address specific questions set out by him. These questions typically include the recognised boundaries and extent of the moiety of the manor being surveyed including commons, forests and waste, the names of the tenants and their holdings of land and buildings, the nature of their tenure whether freehold, copyhold or leasehold, and the rents and other customary entitlements such as heriots, duty of service etc. payable to the Lord of the Manor. Other types of survey take the form of inventories of properties, such as Rentals or Terriers, which were set out from time to time by Stewards for purposes of estate management, and include a similar range of information. Reference is also often made in both types of document to how lands have descended from one generation of tenants to the next, the names of people holding adjoining land, and [in passing] to a variety of other important information about the social, economic and family history of the manor.

 

There is a significant number of such surveys held on this website as transcriptions or as photographs in our Digital Images collections. We have brought these together and highlighted them in this Theme page because of their importance as a primary entry point for anyone researching family names and genealogy or the history of specific houses and parcels of land in the area. They also provide a unique overall view of the status and development of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy as a whole over a significant time span.

 

Follow the links below to access the detailed material relating to each moiety of the manor of Ewyas Lacy. References to known surveys that have not yet been transcribed or photographed are included for completeness, but without hyperlinks.

 

1. Moiety of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy descended from Maud de Lacy [1241]

 

 

2. Moiety of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy descended from Margery de Lacy [1241]

 

 

3. Other known Surveys of the Manor of Ewyas Lacy

 

  • Survey of the manor of Ewyas Lacy and Ewyas Harrold: 1624 [Gwent Record Office ref. MAN/A/151/ 0022 & 0028]
  • Survey of the Estate of the Earl of Abergavenny: c.1800 [Gwent Record Office ref.  D1583/187]
Top - Back

Ref: rs_ewy_0050