manor

manor, an institution, introduced into Ireland by the Anglo‐Normans at the end of the 12th century, that provided the framework within which a radically reorganized society came into existence. The social structure of manorial society was determined by land tenure and the rights and duties attached to it.

The medieval manor was primarily an instrument of lordship. Once a territory was conquered, structures had to be put in place urgently to defend and exploit it. For example, the Butler lordship, founded by Theobald Walter between 1185 and 1206, comprised some 750,000 acres in Leinster and Munster. This enormous area was divided into seven ‘capital’ manors—Nenagh, Caherconlish, Dunkerrin, Thurles, Gowran, Tullow, and Arklow—each with its castle and lands reserved as the lord's demesne. The territory of each capital manor was in turn divided into smaller manors (fiefs)—perhaps 3,000 to 5,000 acres on average—held by tenants (knights) owing military service. At this primary level the manor was a tenurial structure to provide the means to defend and retain a recent conquest.

The manor was also the institutional means of exploiting the agriculture and trade of the lordship. The rising population of Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries stimulated the development of demesne farming, enabling Ireland to export large quantities of grain and wool in the 13th century. Anglo‐Norman lords likewise sought to profit from trade in their lordships by founding towns, creating a network of towns and villages that survive to this day, such as those already mentioned in association with the Butler lordship.

Fundamentally, lordship had to do with the population rather than the territory of the manor. Every class was subject to the lord, and that relationship was expressed by the terms of tenure: knights held their lands by military service, free tenants by rent, burgesses by burgage tenure, and serfs by tenures that owed labour services. The place for resolving disputes involving tenure, minor breaches of the peace, or custom was the manor court (or court leet), where custom was declared on disputed points by the suitors (another tenurial obligation). Since the record of the court was the memory of the suitors, seldom written, our knowledge of this institution governing the lives of most of the population is extremely limited. A unique archive of social custom and daily life in medieval Ireland perished with the society that sustained it.

Bibliography

Empey, C. A. , ‘Medieval Knocktopher: A Study in Manorial Settlement’, Old Kilkenny Review, 2 (1982–3)

Revd Canon C. A. Empey