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

MANOR

A house, a dwelling, or a residence.

Historically under english law, a manor was a parcel of land granted by the king to a lord or other high ranking person. Incident to every manor was the right of the lord to hold a court called the court baron, which was organized to maintain and enforce the services and duties that were owed to the lord of the manor. The lands that constituted the manor holdings included terrae tenementales, Latin for "tenemental lands," and terrae dominicales, Latin for "demesne lands." The lord gave the tenemental lands to his followers or retainers in freehold. He retained part of the demesne lands for his own use but gave part to tenants in copyhold—those who took possession of the land by virtue of the evidence or copy in the records of the lord's court. A portion of the demesne lands, called the lord's waste, served as public roads and common pasture land for the lord and his tenants.

The word manor also meant the privilege of having a manor with the jurisdiction of a court baron and the right to receive rents and services from the copyholders.

cross-references

Feudalism.

man·or / ˈmanər/ • n. (also manor house) a large country house with lands; the principal house of a landed estate. ∎  chiefly hist. (esp. in England and Wales) a unit of land, originally a feudal lordship, consisting of a lord's demesne and lands rented to tenants. ∎ hist. (in North America) an estate or district leased to tenants, esp. one granted by royal charter in a British colony or by the Dutch governors of what is now New York. DERIVATIVES: ma·no·ri·al / məˈnôrēəl/ adj.

manor Name for a type of unit, or estate, characteristic of medieval Europe. Typically, a manor was divided into the lord's demesne (on which the peasants were bound to labour) an area assigned to the peasants for their own use and an area of common land. The lord, or his steward, occupied the manor house.

manor † mansion, country residence XIII; † mansion of a lord with the land appertaining XIV; territorial unit, orig. a feudal lordship XVI. ME. maner(e) — AN. maner, OF. maneir, (now) manoir dwelling, habitation, sb. use of maneir dwell:- L. manēre remain.
Hence manorial XVIII.

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