Explanation
of a small extract from the Last Will & Testament of George Naylor the
Elder.
George’s occupation was Yeoman[1]. George had a leasehold
of 30 acres from the manor at Delamere in Cheshire. George’s leasehold had been
willed to his eldest son George. A lease for three lives determinable upon 99
years was the method used by the manor at or near Delamere. The
lessee paid an entry fine and an annual rent and his lease held good as long as
one of the entered names was still alive. It was common to enter the
names of husband, wife, and eldest son, though any names could be
chosen. Fresh lives could usually be entered upon the payment of another
entry fine. Estate records often include a good run of leases.
Surveys of estates give accounts of the various ways in which property was
held. George ran cattle on his Leasehold Premises The property
contained a Leasehold Messuage or Dwellinghouse and Outbuilding with Fields,
Closes[2], pieces and
parcels of Land or Ground.
With thanks to Errol, for this example.
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[1]
Yeoman - The term has changed its meaning over time. In the
13th-15th centuries it was principally applied to a *knights servants or
retainers, though in the Royal Household the minor officials under the
Chamberlain were known as the Yeomen of the Kings Chamber. Under
the Tudors the use of the term was gradually widened to include the prosperous
working farmers below the rank of the *gentry, the class formally known as
*franklins. They worked their own land, but did not necessarily have to
be freeholders. Yeomen increasingly held their land by a variety of
tenures: *freehold, *copyhold, and *leasehold. The term had no
legal precision, but was used informally to distinguish a farmer who was more
prosperous than the average *husbandman.
[2] Closes (fields). A small hedged or walled field, either at the edge of cultivation or taken in (‘enclosed’) from the *open fields, and so not subject to rights on the *commons and wastes.