| Description | In 1546 Paget acquired various manors in grants from the crown. Abbots Bromley and Burton in Staffordshire; Littleover, Mickleover and Findern in Derbyshire; Austrey in Warwickshire; and Appleby in Leicestershire were granted from the estates of the dissolved Abbey of Burton (SHC 1937, p188). Appleby and Austrey were sold in 1555 and the Derbyshire property in the 17th century. Longdon, Haywood, Cannock and Rugeley all in Staffordshire were from the lands of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, which were surrendered to the Crown and subsequently granted to Paget (SHC 1939, p132). Weston on Trent in Derbyshire was part of the estates of the Bishop of Chester and similarly surrendered and conveyed. The property of the Chantry of St Radegund was purchased at the dissolution of the Chantries and that of Farewell in 1550 from the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield who a received it at the dissolution of the nunnery in 1527. In addition to these properties in the Midlands, Paget also acquired estates in Middlesex (West Drayton, Harmondsworth), Buckinghamshire (Iver, Great Marlow).
Certain manors for which records are found in this collection were not part of the main Paget estates. The Lichfield Portmote and the St. George's Chantry records probably strayed into the collection in the 16th century. The Longford family estates (accounts 1514-25) were in the hands of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield during the minority of Ralph Longford. Sir William Paget had the wardship of Michael son of Francis Poulteney who held Misterton, Leicestershire (accounts 1549-54). William Paget (b.1572) acquired an interest in Stanford in the Vale, Berkshire (rentals 1580-1663,) through Lettice his wife, daughter and coheiress of Henry Knollys.
The collection shows a good survival of engrossed and draft court rolls, rentals, surveys and manorial accounts. For six of the eight manors, the court roll series start in the 14th century, Lichfield commences in 1413 and Abbots Bromley in 1542. These court rolls in particular illustrate that differences in the type of manorial business recorded may be found even within a small area and single estate. Essoins, private suits and the presentments by the frankpledges of agricultural offences and affrays, together with amerciaments, are to be found in the rolls of all the manors, while heriots and reliefs and presentments of other officers, such as ale tasters, foresters, and the halsweyn and grangers at Burton, occur fairly frequently. Surrenders and admissions are found for all manors in the 17th century, but are rare except in Cannock and Rugeley before the late 16th century. The 14th century Burton rolls include notes of fealty and entry fines and full details of leases; little writs of right are attached to the rolls of Cannock and Rugeley, an ancient demesne manor. The 16th and 17th century draft court rolls of Abbots Bromley and Burton are enriched by the inclusion of original lists of presentments and pains laid and of alehouse keepers, bakers, chandlers, etc. The manor of Farewell, which comprised all the lands belonging to the nunnery of Farewell, held its small court only infrequently, from one to six times a year, but had its own view of frankpledge twice yearly. The court rolls exist from 1288, those before 1377 being in the Dean and Chapter library at Lichfield. The manor court of the Chantry of St. Radegund also governed a miscellaneous collection of lands received separately by gift rather than a single area. The Chantry was founded in Lichfield Cathedral in 1242 and the rentals and proceedings of the courts of recognition which exist from the early 14th century show the endowment. About 1443 the Hulton Chantry in St. Michael's Lichfield of which a cartulary and rental survive, was joined to St. Radegund's. Essoins and amerciaments for default of suit of court alone are recorded in the monthly court in the first half of the 14th century apart from 1305-10 when there are a few private suits. Heriots and the names of the homage are also given at the less frequent courts of the later part of the century and in the 15th century when one court only was held per annum, details are given of holdings, dues and heirs of dead tenants. A 15th century rental also exists for the Chantry of St. George.
The roll for the Manor of Lichfield includes business of three courts, the weekly portmote, the view of free borough, and the view of decenarii or 'Mawdlens Court'.
A substantial number of rentals and surveys survive for the 16th century, for example a survey seems to have been made in each manor c.1570, and there are also a few field books showing each tenant's holding in the common fields. In Rugeley the rentals distinguish between the 'oldeholders' and the new rents, the same distinction occurring in the accounts where the collectors of ancient and new rents account separately. Good series of rentals exist for Farewell and for the Chantry of St. Radegund from the 14th century; the Burton survey of 1545/6 includes the dimensions of the abbey, but perhaps the most important survey is the elaborate extent of the manors of the Bishop of Chester [Coventry and Lichfield] 1297-8. This, of course, includes estates of the Bishop in Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire and not merely those acquired by Paget.
There are a few bailiffs accounts for individual manors, notably those of Longdon, Farewell and Weston-on-Trent in the 14th century, the two last including grange accounts. The Weston series continues to c.1496. However, the two main series are the neat copies of the bailiffs accounts in which the accounts of all the manors for one year are included in one roll, and the receiver general's accounts containing a digest of the bailiffs accounts. The bailiffs accounts commence in 1423 and until 1542 concern the lands of the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield in the various counties. From 1545 they include only those manors that were acquired by Paget from the Episcopal estates, together with manors acquired from other sources, notably the Burton Abbey manor. As receiver general's accounts begin in 1541, only the first roll concerns the Episcopal estates. Both series continue to the end of the 16th century. |