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The Use of Manorial Court Rolls in Demographic Analysis: A Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2011

Zvi Razi
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Extract

Drs. L.R. Poos and R.M. Smith have strongly criticized the uses made of manorial court rolls for demographic analysis. They have argued that the data obtained from the court records are inadequate in measuring the demographic trend and in making observations about replacement rates, expectation of life, marriage and illegitimacy. It seems to me, however, that although their criticism is partly justified, on the whole it is unduly negative. First, the claim that the demographic trend cannot be measured from court rolls will be examined; and thereafter the other issues raised by Poos and Smith will be discussed.

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Law and History Review , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 1985 , pp. 191 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © the American Society for Legal History, Inc. 1985

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References

1. Poos, L.R. and Smith, R.M., ‘“Legal Windows onto Historical Populations?” Recent Research on Demography and the Manor Court in Medieval England’, 2 Law and History Review, 128, 130–37 (1984Google Scholar).

2. Ibid, at 135-37.

3. Ibid, at 135.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid, at 135-37.

6. Ibid. Among the 251 males in the polltax listing 178 were also noted in the court rolls.

7. Ibid.

8. Poos, L.R., ‘Population and Resources in Two Fourteenth-Century Essex Communities: Great Waltham and High Easter 1327-1389’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1984) 98Google Scholar.

9. Ibid.

10. I have assumed that the sex ratio among the servants (eighteen) and the Little Waltham taxpayers who do not appear in the court rolls (sixty-eight) is the same as found for all the taxpayers. This gives a figure of 9.6 and 36.5 males respectively. I have also assumed that half of the male taxpayers from Little Waltham (18.2) lived outside the jurisdiction of the court and that half (twenty-five) of the single male taxpayers who do not appear in the court rolls emigrated. If I am close to the mark, the percentage of the taxpayers noted also in the court rolls is 89.8 percent.

11. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 130-37.

12. Beckerman, J.S., ‘Customary Law in Manorial Courts in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1972Google Scholar).

13. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 132.

14. Ibid, at 133.

15. Ibid.

16. Titow, J.Z., English Rural Society, 1200-1350 (London, 1969) 73–78Google Scholar.

17. Razi, Z., Life, Marriage and Death in a Medieval Parish: Economy, Society and Demography in Halesowen, 1270-1400 (Cambridge, 1980) 31Google Scholar.

18. Ibid, at 117.

19. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 135-37.

20. Ibid, at 139.

21. Razi, Life, Marriage and Death, supra note 17 at 50-60.

22. Ibid, at 43-44.

23. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 141.

24. Ibid, at 138-39.

25. Razi, Life, Marriage and Death, supra note 17 at 34-41.

26. Smith, R.M., ‘Hypotheses sur la Nuptialité en Angleterre aux Xllle-XIVe Siècles’, Annales: E.S.C. 38 (1983) 107–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27. Razi, Life, Marriage and Death, supra note 17 at 50-60.

28. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 140-41.

29. Ibid.

30. Razi, Life, Marriage and Death, supra note 17 at 60-71.

31. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1 at 148-51.

32. Razi, Life, Marriage and Death, supra note 17 at 63.

33. Poos and Smith, ‘Legal Windows onto Historical Populations’, supra note 1.

34. Ibid, at 147.

35. Macfarlane, Alan, The Origins of English Individualism (Oxford, 1978Google Scholar).

36. Bennett, J.M., ‘Spouses, Siblings and Surnames: Reconstructing Families From Medieval Village Court Rolls’, The Journal of British Studies 23 (1983) 26–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar.