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earliest of which have survived for the boroughs of
Ipswich and Exeter. Custumals were compiled for a practical purpose: to guide, and even educate, successive generations of civic officials tasked with keeping law and order within their boroughs. Even though town clerks and scribes inherited these registers as part of their duties to preserve local custom, they were also obligated to modify and add to them to respond to changing interests and the needs of their communities. As such, it is not out of the ordinary to have custumals survive only in copies or
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500:(the men who had entered the town's freedom) and regulation of economic practices, they also reveal larger social concerns regarding the governance of the borough. A good example of these political, social, and economic concerns, and how they could change over time, can be easily seen in the document outlining the customs of the borough of
460:. It imposed practical safeguards for preservation of the property: the tenants were obliged to "maintain the dikes of the mill pond so that the pond does not burst for the lack of them". It also set the rules of personal conduct: "no tenant shall call any of his neighbours a thief or a robber under a penalty of 40
472:
Since public business in the Middle Ages was judicial in character, the custumal and the court roll were the principal registers of a medieval borough’s administration. Custumals, or collections of customary law, for the
English boroughs began to be compiled as early as the late twelfth century, the
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The study of borough customs primarily flourished in the early twentieth century, when both historians and amateur antiquarians began to take a keen interest in the constitutional origins of the
English law. Indeed, the most comprehensive work on borough law is
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An inventory of the customs of the manor itself which summarized its regular agricultural, trading and financial activities. This was the most common form, usually complete with a local code of laws, a summary of oral sworn tradition, in-house
363:
in 1576. These printed codes are all distinctly different, the three handwritten and two printed copies analyzed by Hull have only nine substantially matching paragraphs (out of thirty-five). Lesser custumals were far more stable: the
464:. And no tenant shall call any of his neighbours a whore, for a penalty of 12d." Ultimately, according to Steven Justice, "no form of writing served lordly interests and ideology more surely and directly than the manorial custumal."
267:
or town. It is common for it to include an inventory of customs, regular agricultural, trading and financial activities as well as local laws. It could be written for one manor or a whole county.
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define custumal as "an early type of survey which consists of a list of the manor's tenants with the customs under which each held his house and lands." Custumals were compiled in
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Bailey, p. 61. See translation of the original text in Bailey, p. 66: "No tenant ... shall trade his fuel with the strangers who come looking for mussels under a penalty of 40
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Cuenca, Esther
Liberman (2019). "Borough Court Cases as Legal Precedent in English Town Custumals". In Goddard, Richard; Phipps, Teresa (eds.).
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A survey, or an inventory of rents and services ("customs") owed by each tenant of the manor; this form was relatively uncommon.
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and sometimes mixed fragments in different languages. They were commonly preceded with a standard formula in French:
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Although the clauses and ordinances found in borough custumals seem to be primarily concerned with the rights of
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Custumals provide historians an insight into all significant aspects of everyday life in a manorial estate.
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Custumals of large ecclesiastical estates introduced their own systems of grading the tenants. The
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Custumals of Battle Abbey, in the Reigns of Edward I. and Edward II. (1283–1312)
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424:), subtenants usually holding fixed parcels of four acres (a cotland); and
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document that stipulates the economic, political, and social customs of a
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has been regularly copied by scribes, who introduced errors and inserted
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Hull, p. 150, lists two printed and three handwritten versions of the
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and written legal arrangements between the landlord and his tenants.
791:. Manchester medieval sources series. Manchester University Press.
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provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject
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Hull, p. 151, suspected that the reference to John de
Berwicke in
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Town Courts and Urban
Society in Late Medieval England, 1250–1500
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Territories governed by a custumal ranged from a single manor (
322:, 1326–1327) to an assortment of manors under common control (
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that existed for centuries before its enactment in 1293. The
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All
English citations in this article are translations into
339:, written in Anglo-French, codified the unique system of
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fuel, salt, sheep, goats, horses, cattle and shoreline
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438:), holders of one or two acres, and landless cottars (
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The Common Law of Kent: or, The
Customs of Gavelkind
769:"Medieval English urban history - Maldon - Custumal"
293:Ces sount les usages, et les custumes le ques ...
713:Ipswich Borough Archives, 1255-1835: A Catalogue
187:The examples and perspective in this article
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945:Medieval charters and cartularies of England
493:in two volumes for the years 1904 and 1906.
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87:. There might be a discussion about this on
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296:(These are the usages and customs of ...).
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
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299:Custumals existed in two distinct forms:
243:Learn how and when to remove this message
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162:Learn how and when to remove this message
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829:Writing and rebellion: England in 1381
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879:Scargill-Bird, Samuel Robert (1877).
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144:providing more context for the reader
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876:. 1821 edition: London: A. Strahan.
740:The Anglo-Norman Custumal of Exeter
737:Schopp, Jacob Wilhelm, ed. (1925).
450:Custumals of the Manor of Cockerham
832:. University of California Press.
743:. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
366:Custumal of the Manor of Cockerham
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850:Sussex Archaeological Collections
34:This article has multiple issues.
885:. Camden Society. 2009 reprint:
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42:or discuss these issues on the
528:"Glossary. Manorial Documents"
368:was properly revised in 1463.
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955:Medieval documents of England
940:Economy of medieval England
201:, discuss the issue on the
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846:"The Custumal of Pevesney"
678:Scargill-Bird, pp. vi–vii.
576:Cf. the opening clause of
870:Robinson, Thomas (1741).
844:Larking, Lambert (1851).
408:), customary tenants not
317:Custumal of the Manor of
16:Medieval-English document
826:Justice, Steven (1996).
710:Allen, David H. (2000).
620:, all "in Anglo-French".
373:Custumal of Battle Abbey
580:, in: Robinson, p. 355.
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805:"The Custumal of Kent"
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809:Archaeologia Cantiana
785:Bailey, Mark (2002).
635:Perambulation of Kent
532:The National Archives
276:The National Archives
960:Medieval English law
803:Hull, Felix (1958).
757:. B. Quaritch. 1906.
607:Scargill-Bird, p. ii
578:The Custumal of Kent
552:Custumal of Pevensey
489:, published for the
207:create a new article
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189:may not represent a
77:confusing or unclear
915:10.2307/j.ctvd58tww
140:improve the article
85:clarify the article
432:: small cottars (
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271:Manorial custumals
950:Legal manuscripts
909:. Boydell Press.
891:978-1-115-26800-4
755:"Borough Customs"
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856:: 209–218.
637:is a gloss.
380:freeholders
329:, reign of
934:Categories
815:: 148–159.
779:References
537:2010-05-14
475:recensions
429:subcottars
405:custumarii
288:Law French
79:to readers
39:improve it
923:213399599
498:burgesses
435:coterelli
341:gavelkind
319:Cockerham
203:talk page
45:talk page
441:cotteria
421:cottarii
410:adscript
396:villeins
331:Edward I
257:custumal
197:You may
458:mussels
416:cottars
400:villani
353:glosses
75:may be
965:Custom
921:
889:
836:
795:
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502:Maldon
390:socage
919:S2CID
813:LXXII
512:Notes
506:Essex
504:, in
280:Latin
265:manor
259:is a
205:, or
887:ISBN
834:ISBN
793:ISBN
718:ISBN
550:The
454:peat
345:Kent
911:doi
858:doi
633:'s
485:'s
343:in
286:or
142:by
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