wardship

wardship, the right of a feudal lord to retain and profit from the land a deceased tenant had held of him by knight service, until the legal heir came of age. In the medieval period the wardship of the lands of tenants‐in‐chief, who held directly of the crown, was a valuable form of political patronage; such wardships, together with the marriages of the heirs, might be awarded on easy terms to those the king favoured, or simply sold to the highest bidder. The administration of crown wardships was normally entrusted to an official known as the escheator. Sixteenth‐century wardship was administered through commissions, but reforms were introduced by the commissions of 1616–19, and in 1622 a court of wards was established. By 1628 the court yielded £7,000 a year, or one‐seventh of total Irish revenue. Wards were educated in Trinity College, Dublin, and had to take the oath of supremacy before entering into their estates. The Old English objected in 1613 and seven of the Graces, which seem to have had some effect, concerned the court. The administration was tightened by Wentworth, who tried to increase the number of landowners holding by knight service and prevent evasion by the Statute of Uses (1634). This produced little income but it was a political irritant to all groups in Ireland. The court collapsed in the 1640s and was abolished by the Feudal Tenures Abolition Act (1666).

RFF/ and Robin Frame