Title
This section contains little in the way of purchase deeds, and the
only notable sale is that of the manor of Ewridge and other land in 1724 (24). It is interesting because of the series of 18th century leases, which
have been arranged by family and property.
While a few of these are for a term of years (e.g. 67-69, 176-179), the
majority are of a type common in the west country in the late 17th and
18th centuries; that is, a lease for a period of years or for a number of
lives (in the case under review, for 99 years or 3 lives, whichever was the
shorter; where in the documents the lease is for less than three lives
this is because there were lives subsisting from a previous lease. The
origin of these leases for lives at Crudwell is clearly from copyhold land.
Several of the early documents (e.g., 158, 164, 245) refer to the land in
question being held by copy of court roll either previously or at the date
when the lease for lives was made. It appears from the manor court rolls
(still to be catalogued) that the custom of the manor was, at least by 1510
or so, that land was held for two or three lives, so that the leases in
the series under review merely represent, as far as copyhold was concerned, the continuation of the custom of the manor as it affected land tenure without manorial machinery to operate it; perhaps freed from the restrainsts of custom of the manor as far as entry fines were concerned. Provision that the tenant should attend any manor court which might be called was included in the lease, and the payment of heriot was retained; but although this, like the rent paid, remained steady throughout the 18th century, the entry fines rose sharply; though the amount paid for the granting of any particular lease depended on the number of lives which the lease included, and the period of time which was likely to pass before all the people mentioned died.
In a few cases towards the end of the century the property ceased to
be leased for lives, and became a straightforward term for years (158-63,
190-5); in these cases an economic rent was charged, or heavy fine.
The people for whom the lives were taken out often included the lessee
and members of his family, but also neighbours and friends; but the
appearance of the Bishop of Osnabruck and Princess ?melia, George II's
daughter, among those named by Lewis Clutterbuck shows that there was no limit to the persons who could be named (240, 241).
Various documents refer to the intention to enclose (64, 164), to
permission to enclose, and to new and late enclosures (124, 158). There
was apparently a good deal of piecemeal enclosure going on in Crudwell
during the 18th century, though the final step was not taken till the next
century.
EXTRACT FROM WILTSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY (RECORDS BRANCH) Volume III, p.xi
" From the late sixteenth century there are examples of
leases granted for a certain term of years provided that the
lessee, or the lessee and some other person (often of his
kin) should live for the length of time specified in the lease.*
My experience is that the lessee is more frequenly not included
amongst the 'lives'. The terms are always long ones (ninety-nine, ninety or forty- one years) and must therefore have outrun the life of the
longest liver amongst the lessees. By such an arrangement lessors
kept the freehold, and lessees got something approaching the
security of life tenure. There may, however, have been other
advantages to both parties which are not immediately obvious."
EXTRACT FROM "THE HISTORY OF...PART OF WEST SOMERSET" BY CHARLESE.H.CHADWYCK HEALEY (1901) P.11
"The reason for the decay (of West Country manorial courts)
is to be found, I think, in the customary tenure which prevailed
in all. Insufficient as our knowledge of these matters is for
the earliest days in the history of these manors, we do know
that for centuries the tenants held under the common West-country
custom for lives, and that the fine on renewal was not fixed, but
arbitrary. During the eighteenth century the lords for some
reason or another preferred to substitute for the old manorial
practice of granting tenements by copy of court roll, contractual
obligations by the tenant under leases which at first contained
special provisions as to suit and services to be rendered and so
forth, and latterly were in common form. It may be that the
tenants saw an advantage in the change. The fact that the lord
was able to exact such fine as he thought fit to demand when a
copyholder for lives, without customary right of renewal, or
power to nominate a successor, surrendered his estate for the
purpose of putting in another life** facilitated the change.
The holdings of the tenants gradually fell under a system of
special leases for lives as the old 'copies' ran out. Except
for such leet jurisdiction as there was, there remained no longer
any need for the assembling of the manorial court. No more
'copies' were granted, and the rolls therefore became useless as
records of title. A little longer and the leet jurisdiction in
its turn vanished. Then the term 'manor' became merely a
geographical expression."
* "My experience is that the lessee is more frequently not included amongst the "lives""
** See Elton, 'Copyholds,' p.174."