The Lordship of the Manor of Barwick-in-Elmet
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The Lordship of the Manor of Barwick-in-Elmet
Barwicker 3
September 1986
Readers of a Christmas edition of the Skyrack Express were,
no doubt, surprised to read that the Lo r-d s h Lp of the Manor of
Barwick-in-Elmet was for sale. It was one of a list of about 100
titles offered for sale jointly by Strutt and Parker, Estate Agents
of Chelmsford, and Manorial Research, Ltd. of Kennington Road,
London. Offers in the region of £6,000 were requested. Lordships
of three other local manors were also on the list, namely Scholes
and Parlington, offered at £6,000 each, and Garforth, at the
impressive price of £25,000. Included in this sum are important
documents, five of them bearing Great Seals of the Monarch of
the day. There are 40 documents connected with the Barwick Lordship,
dated from 1537 to 1827.
The whole package was assembled so that the sale could be
held in 1986, which has been declared Domesday Year. The Domesday
Book of 1086 recorded the wealth of England in the reign of
William I. Information was compiled from more than 13,000 manors
and their lords, and this was compared with the situation 20 years
earlier, before the Norman Conquest.
Lordships were granted by the King or his principal
Lieutenants in return for a promise of military service when
required. A manor was an economic unit. Those living within it
were allocated land in return for services to the lord.
Barwick-in-Elmet was held by Edwin of Mercia at the time of
the Conquest and he was confirmed in the lordship by 'William the
Conquerer in 1067. He joined the rebellion of the northern earls
in 1071, was killed and his lands granted to Ilbert de Lasci
(Lacy), who had come to England with the Conquerer. Through the
successors and by marriage, the lands were added to the vast
estates of the Dukes of Lancaster. These lands exist nominally
today as the Duchy of Lancaster.
Soon after Henry Bolingbroke, son of John of Gaunt, inherited
the estates, he usurped the throne of Richard II, to become
Henry IV. He was careful to separate Crown lands, to which his
claim could be challenged, from Duchy lands, to which his right
was absolute. The Manor of Barwick remained in the Duchy until
1603, when James I granted it to his wife, Anne of Denmark, for
life.
At her death in 1619, the Prince of Wales, later Charles I,
received the manor, but in 1687 he mortgaged it, with the Honour
of Pontefract, to the City of London. 2 years later, it was sold
and eventually passed into the hands of Sir Thomas Gascoigne. The
title remained with the Gascoignes until 1972, when the last
member of the family died.
For centuries after the ending of the Feudal System, with
its military service, lords of the manor had important rights and
duties as prominent landowners. These diminished with the
establishment of more representative local government. Manorial
ranks will have our full support and encouragement in any research
into the history of the Manor.
Mr Franks has negotiated the ownership of the documents
relating to the Manor. These will be deposited, for safe keeping,
with the West Yorkshire Archive Service, where they will be
available for inspection by the general public, now and in the
future. This is in accordance with the policy of the Manorial
Society, whose Chairman, Robert Smith, states, "it is only by
access to these crucial primary sources that historians and
researchers can get a clear picture of English social and economic
development during the Middle Ages and the Tudor period."
The title is used after the name and style, that is
Mr Raymond Franks, Lord of the Manor of Barwick-in-Elmet. The lord
may adopt a coat of arms and use it, with the title, on stationery,
silver, legal documents, etc. He can use the title on his passport
and one can imagine situations where this could be useful.
The title does carry with it some property rights, in
theory at least. The Lord owns the sub-soil, without mineral
rights unfortunately. How he exploits the sub-soil without
disturbing someone else's top-soil is an interesting question.
He also owns the roadside verges, which formed part of the Lord'S
common, but Mr Franks disclaims all liability for their proper
upkeep. He is also the nominal owner of the land on which the
Maypole and War Memorial stand. We think that the Maypole
Committee can continue to sleep soundly in their beds, without
fear of any disturbance of their ancient ceremony.
Manors and their lords go back in our history for a
thousand years. Now in Barwick, only the title exists, as a
reminder of a system that dominated English economic life
for centuries.
Arthur Bantoft.
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