Manor
Court Rolls were minutes of Estate meetings, known as Courts Baron
or Courts Leet - headed by the Lord of the Manor, with his Steward,
to which his tenants came to take or renew land holdings, and
to which presentiments would be made regarding any misconduct.
They were often recorded on lengthy strips of parchment, but in some cases, bound books were used.
The Manor Court records for Chardstock are mostly in book form, and
are held at Dorset History Centre in Dorchester, where they are available to view on microfilm.
The collection comprises four books:
Book 1 1585 - 1647 with gaps, in Old English
Book 2 1672 - 1702 192 pages in Latin
Book 3 1718 - 1749 256 pages in English
Book 4 1750 - 1787 330 pages in English
CHRG has commissioned the Dorset History Centre to create high quality
scanned images from Book 2. These have been transcribed and calendared
by a specialist translator of 17th century Court Latin, and are now
available here.
