Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society

Clevedon Court Manorial Rolls

The Clevedon Medieval Manorial Rolls: 1321 to 1397

Four medieval manorial rolls, the only known surviving rolls for the Manor of Clevedon, have been translated and published with a commentary.
The original publication for Clevedon Civic Society, ( www.clevedon-civic-society.org.uk, ) is the first section of the book
"Clevedon: Medieval manor to Victorian Resort"; Matador, 2009; ISBN 978 1848761 759.

The rolls are an important historic record of Somerset and the whole document will ultimately be made available in full on the SANHS website.

In the meantime, some parts of the document are available here, on-line, including the glossary and some of the tithe maps that can be seen in detail..

Translation and Commentary on Four Rolls of the 14th Century

by David Fogden

CONTENTS

Foreword & Acknowledgements

1 An Introduction to Clevedon

2 Introduction to the Rolls and Their Contexts

3 Roll 7659 Translation & Commentary

4 Roll 7660 Translation & Commentary
      Appendix: Roll 7660 Translation in Tabular Form

5 Roll 7661 Translation & Commentary
      Appendix: Roll 7661 Translated Accounts in Tabular Form

6 Roll 7662 Translation & Commentary
      Appendix: Roll 7662 Translated Accounts in Tabular Form

7 People & Population
      Annex A: Derivation of Surnames in Roll 7659 of 1321
      Annex B: Local Names in the Lay Subsidy Rolls of 1327
      Annex C: Derivation of Surnames in Roll 7660 of 1389
      Annex D: Derivation of Surnames in Roll 7661 of 1390 & Roll 7662 of 1397
      Annex E: Surnames Derived from Old English Words, and Forenames
      Appendix 1: Surnames in the Rolls Listed in other Contemporary Documents
      Appendix 2: Population Estimates - Calculations

8 Pay & Prices

9 The Demesne

10 Dowers, Dowagers & Descent

11 Land
       Annex A Place & Field Names
       Appendix to Annex A: Clevedon Surnames Related to Later Documents
       Annex B Assessment of Extent of Manorial Land in 1390/90

12 Glossary

13 Bibliography

Map 1 Clevedon - Showing Principal Features
Map 2 North Somerset - Places Relevant to the Manorial Rolls
Map 3 Clevedon - Places Named in the Manorial Rolls
Map 4 Clevedon Demesne Land & Fields Identified in the Manorial Rolls of 1390/90
       Appendix: Demesne Lands of 1389/90: Rationales for Locations Assigned against Tithe Map

FOREWORD

Nearly 150 years ago, a short remark in the Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological Society noted the existence, in the British Library, of four medieval court rolls, relating to Clevedon. To the Victorian writer, they were of marginal interest, but in the 21st century they offered a tantalizing source with an unknown content. While we hoped that the rolls would tell us something of medieval Clevedon and its manor, at the outset it was not certain that anything would be achieved at all. The rolls might have proved to be largely illegible; but this was not the case.

There are few surviving records of Clevedon between Domesday and the ‘Wake survey’ of 1629. As it turned out, the rolls include a previously unknown survey of 1389. Enhanced by detail from the other rolls, of 1390 and 1397, it enables comparisons to be made with the Wake survey of 1629 and the tithe award survey of 1839, in addition to matters that can be deduced directly. A fascinating glimpse of life in 14thC Clevedon is contained in the records of four manorial courts of 1321. For the reader who wants to understand more of the world in which these documents were written, HS Bennett’s “Life on the English Manor” is recommended. It contains a wealth of complementary detail which this publication cannot hope to include.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Financial support for translation of the rolls was generously given by Clevedon Town Council, Clevedon Civic Society, the Alan Youde Memorial Fund and the Elton family of Clevedon Court. This enabled some translation to be commissioned and added to a great deal undertaken voluntarily by Robert Dunning and Anne Smith.

Although I drafted the majority of the commentary, I could not have done so without the contributions and assistance of many others, and in particular of Jane Lilly (JL) and Frank Willy (FW), whose local and medieval knowledge respectively made this possible. Authorship of this document has been a joint endeavour, and the initials of the principal writers are shown at the end of each section.

David Fogden (DF)
January 2009