‘ANCIENT CUSTOM TIME OUT OF MIND:COPYHOLD TENURE IN THE WEST COUNTRY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES

Copyhold tenure for a number of lives, regulated by manorial custom, was by far the most common form of landholding throughout much of the West Country during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and was only gradually replaced by leaseholds for a term of years during the eighteenth century. Manorial custom, the body of local law and traditional usage, hallowed by long use and enforced in the manorial court, governed all aspects of farming practice, transfer of holdings, entry fines, rents, heriots, rules of cultivation, access to common grazing, wood, stone, fuel and the rights of widows. This paper uses examples from Wiltshire and Dorset to show the great variety of manorial customs, the effect these had on the lives of copyhold tenants and the problems which some long-established customs could cause for landowners.