Lord of the manor
The title continues in modern England and Wales as a legally recognised form of property that can be held independently of its historical rights.
A similar concept of such a lordship is known in French as Sieur or Seigneur du Manoir, Gutsherr in German, Kaleağası (Kaleagasi) in Turkish, Godsherre in Norwegian and Swedish, Ambachtsheer in Dutch, and Signore or Vassallo in Italian.
Initially in England the feudal "baronial" system considered all those who held land directly from the king by knight-service, from earls downwards, as "barons".
The entitlement or "title" to attend the King's Council in parliament began to be granted exclusively by decree in the form of a writ of Summons from 1265 entrenching the status of the Greater Barons and effectively founding the House of Lords.
Magna Carta (which had been first issued in 1215) had declared that "No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers", and thus this body of greater Barons with a right to attend parliament were deemed to be "peers" of one another, and it became the norm to refer to these magnates collectively as the "peerage" during the reign of Edward II.
Meanwhile the holders of smaller fiefdoms per baroniam ceased to be summoned to parliament, and instead lesser barons of each county would receive a single summons as a group through the sheriff, and representatives from their number would be elected to attend on behalf of the group (this would later evolve into the House of Commons).
It is understood that all English Feudal Baronies that were not Lordships of the Manor and had not been upgraded into a peerage, were abolished by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, passed after the Restoration, which took away knight-service and other legal rights.
Further sub-infeudation could occur down to the level of a lord of a single manor, which in itself might represent only a fraction of a knight's fee.
After the Black Death, labour was in demand and so it became difficult for the lords of manors to impose duties on serfs.
This was largely because by the mid 17th century, large English cities had leading residents such as John Harrison (died 1656) of Leeds, who saw the possession of the manor by only one resident as "giving him too great a superiority over his fellow townsmen, and exposing him to considerable odium".
In January 1872, as a group, the "lords of the manor of Leeds" applied to the Law Courts to ascertain if they could "exercise acts of ownership" over land at a time when manorial rights were being sold to larger city corporations.
[12] The Land Registration Act 2002 does not affect the existence of unregistered lordships after October 2013, only the rights that would have previously been attached to the same.
[20] King's College, Cambridge has given the view that the term "indicated wealth and privilege, and it carried rights and responsibilities".
They are a semi-extinct form of hereditary landed title that grants the holder the rank of Esquire by prescription and are considered high gentry or lower, non-peeragenobility[22] by contemporary heralds and students of nobiliary.
[23] The journal Justice of the Peace & Local Government Law advises that the position is unclear as to whether a lordship of a manor is a title of honour or a dignity, as this is yet to be tested by the courts.
John Selden in his esteemed work Titles of Honour (1672) writes, "The word Baro (Latin for Baron) hath been also so much communicated, that not only all Lords of Manors have been from ancient time, and are at this day called sometimes Barons (as in the stile of their Court Barons, which is Curia Baronis, &c. And I have read hors de son Barony in a barr to an Avowry for hors de son fee) But also the Judges of the Exchequer have it from antient time fixed on them.
[1] There have been cases where manors have been sold and the seller has unknowingly parted with rights to unregistered land in England and Wales.
[23] Many Lordships of the Manor are 'held' via grand serjeanty – a duty to carry out certain functions when required – which places them in close proximity to the monarch, often during the Coronation.
Additionally, many peers also hold lordships of the manor, and the sovereign via the Duchy of Lancaster is one of the largest holders of manorial titles in the UK.
Feudal lordships of the manor therefore still exist today (2023) in English property law, being legal titles historically dating back to the Norman invasion of England in 1066.
The first element, the title, may be held in moieties and may not be subdivided (this is prohibited by the statute of Quia Emptores, preventing subinfeudation).
[27][28] The Historical Manuscripts Commission maintains two Manorial Document Registers that cover southern England.
The National Archives at Kew, London, and county record offices maintain many documents that mention manors or manorial rights.
[30] Ownership of a manorial lordship can be noted on request in British passports through an official observation worded, 'The Holder is the Lord of the Manor of [name]'.
[16][31][32] The issues of land claims were raised in the UK Parliament in 2004 and were debated with a reply on the subject from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs acknowledging "need for reform of the remnants of feudal and manorial law" as a case was highlighted in Peterstone Wentloog, Wales, where villagers were being charged excessive fees to cross manorial land to access their homes.
[15] In 2007, a caution against first registration caused houses to stop selling in Alstonefield after Mark Roberts, a businessman from Wales also previously involved in the Peterstone Wentloog case, registered a caution against first registration for 25,000 acres (100 km2) after purchasing the lordship of the manor of Alstonefield for £10,000 in 1999.
