[1] According to tradition, the court was first created some time before 1661, after the Lord of the Manor of King's Hill was woken by a cock crowing, to discover a group of his vassals planning to murder him.
As an act of clemency, he declared that they would be allowed to keep their lands in a state of "shameful service".
The tenants were then obliged to wait there until a cock crowed three times, at which point they were dismissed.
[2] The names of those tenants who answered were entered by the Steward with a piece of charcoal, ink being forbidden; in addition, no candles were allowed, with only natural light being permitted.
[4] In later years there were many shortcuts in the court's procedure; most tenants simply paid their double rent at the Steward's office in the morning, preferring this to standing around in the damp, and a local man was employed to make the noise of a cock crowing after the court's business had been concluded.