Glossary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W
Carucate - An old English unit of land-area measurement, varying from 60 to 160 acres.
Copyhold - A form of landholding defined as a holding at the will of the lord according to the custom of the manor
Demesne - The home farm of the lord of the manor, retained by the owner for his own use
Enclosure - The division or consolidation of communal fields, meadows, pastures, and other arable lands into the individually owned and managed plots
Fee - Large medieval lordship
Feoffment - Granting of a free inheritance of land (fee simple) to a man and his heirs. The delivery of possession (livery of seisin) was done on the site of the land and was made by the feoffor to the feoffee in the presence of witnesses. Written conveyances were often customary and, after 1677, mandatory.
Fine - An amicable settlement over land ownership recorded in Fines Books, allowing a means of tracing the changing ownership of houses and land
Furlong - A unit of length = 220 yards
Geld - The tax paid to the crown by English landholders before the Conquest, and continued under the Norman kings.
Honour - Large medieval lordship
Hundred - Ancient division of a county in England and Ireland
Manor - The district over which the court of a Lord of the Manor had authority
Messuage - A dwelling house with the adjacent buildings and curtilage and other adjoining lands used in connection with the household
Thane - One who in Anglo-Saxon times held lands of the king or other superior by military service
Tithe - A tithe was a tenth of a person's produce or income which was contributed voluntarily or as a tax to the church
Tithe Map - Shows the boundaries, fields, woods, rivers, roads, buildings etc within the tithe area.
Toft - a site for a dwelling and its outbuildings; also an entire holding comprising a homestead and additional land
Wapentake - A wapentake was a sub-division of a Riding, equivalent to the southern counties' "Hundred" and became obsolete around the year 1900.
The West Riding - was divided into three parts:
- Northern part: Skipton, Keighley, Shipley, Sowerby, and Elland
- Eastern part: Ripon, Otley, Barkston Ash, Osgoldcross, Pudsey, and Spen Valley
- Southern part: Batley, Normanton, Colne Valley, Holmfirth, Barnsley, Hallamshire, Rotherham, and Doncaster
West Riding :Agbrigg & Morley (Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds suburbs, Wakefield); Barkston Ash (Selby, Tadcaster); Claro (Ripon, Knaresborough); Ewcross (Dent, Ingleton, Sedbergh); Osgoldcross (Pontefract, Goole, Snaith); Skyrack (Leeds); Staincliffe (Keighley, Settle, Skipton, Stainburn); Staincross (Barnsley); Strafforth and Tickhill (Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield).