Glossary of technical terms used in the four 13th-century English treatises on household and estate administration
Copyright Martha Carlin, 2005-2023, all rights reserved
Not to be quoted without permission
| Amercement | Fine payable to a court |
| Aver (also affer) | Adult work-horse, usually used for plowing |
| Boon work | Extra work for the lord (e.g., at harvest time) required of servile tenants (serfs) |
| Conygarth | Rabbit yard (see Warren) |
| Corn | Grain (not maize or sweet corn, a New World food that did not exist in medieval Europe) |
| Cultura | Strip of plowland |
| Curtilage | Courtyard |
| Customary work | Ordinary work for the lord required of servile tenants (serfs) |
| Demesne | Manorial land retained for the use of the lord of the manor rather than rented out to tenants |
| Dredge | Mixture of oats and spring barley, often malted to make ale |
| Escheat | Property forfeited to the lord |
| Extent | Manorial survey listing holdings and tenants and the rents and labor services due from them; also known as a terrier |
| Messor | A manorial official with responsibility for supervising the reapers |
| Michaelmas | 29 September (feast of St. Michael the Archangel). One of the standard quarter-days of the English legal year. The others were Christmas (25 December), the feast of the Annunciation (25 March), and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist (24 June). |
| Money denominations |
The principal coin that was minted was the silver penny (in Latin, denarius). A dozen pennies made a shilling (solidus), and a score of shillings made a pound (libra). (The shilling and the pound were “moneys of account” used for calculations and accounting; neither existed as a minted coin.) Thus: 12 pennies (12d.) = 1 shilling (1s.) A sum written as, e.g., “four-and-sixpence” means 4s. 6d. Fractions of the penny in use were the halfpenny or ha’penny (obolus; written as 1/2d. or 1 ob.) and the farthing (quadrans; written as 1/4d. or 1q.) Fractions of the pound in use as moneys of account (not as minted coins) were the mark (2/3 of a pound, or 13s. 4d.) and the half-mark (1/3 of a pound, or 6s. 8d.) |
| Murrain | A plague or pestilence in livestock |
| Perch | Measure of land. A unit of length (also called a pole) of 5 1/2 yards; also a unit of square measure equivalent to 30 1/4 square yards |
| Pottle | Half a gallon (2 quarts) |
| Quarter | Measure of grain (= 8 bushels) |
| Rewayn | Milk or cheese from cows that graze on the second growth of grass or hay in a season |
| Rolls | Court records or financial records, kept on rolls of parchment |
| Rood | Measure of land (= 1/4 acre) |
| Score | Unit of twenty (e.g., nine score acres = 180 acres) |
| Terrier | Manorial survey listing holdings and tenants and the rents and labor services due from them; also known as an extent |
| Tithe | Ten percent of one’s annual income (in cash or kind), levied for the maintenance of the parish priest and church |
| Tun | A large cask or barrel, usually for liquids, of varying size (often 252 gallons) |
| Wardship | Guardianship of a legal minor (the wardship of a wealthy heir was a valuable commodity) |
| Warren | Area of protected rabbit burrows (rabbits were imported to England in the 12th century, and were bred for their meat and pelts) |
| Wey (or weight) | Measure of weight, which varied by commodity; a wey of cheese was 32 cloves, each clove of 7 pounds (= 224 lb. in all). Also a unit of dry capacity of 32 bushels. |
| Whitsuntide | The week that begins with Pentecost (Whit Sunday), the seventh Sunday after Easter |