Rentals & Leases
A quick guide to understanding some of the words
When I started to look at rentals & leases I was totally baffled. What did these words really mean and why didn’t the rents ever change? It doesn’t make good business sense?
Hopefully, if you are in the same position, the following might help! Well – I’ve tried!
Copyhold
This was where the tenant held a copy of the entry in the rolls of the manorial court which recorded his or possession.
In the early Middle Ages the tenant performed services to the lord but by the 16thC these had generally been converted into money payments. These tenancies involved large entry fines and nominal annual rents. At this time copyhold began to be replaced with leasehold agreements. (Copyright was abolished in 1922.)
Copyholders and leaseholders paid low annual rents which were known variously as ‘rents of assize’, ‘quit rents’, ‘reserved rents’ or other local names.
Fine
Tenants who held their property by copyhold or leasehold paid an entry fine when they acquired a property through inheritance or purchase. This fine was a lump sum which could be either certain or arbitrary.
‘Certain’ meant fixed by custom
‘Arbitrary’ meant that it was open to negotiation.
During inflation, tenants who paid ‘certain’ fines benefited.
The courts ruled that arbitrary fines must be reasonable.
During the second half of the 17th & 18th centuries, the system of levying fines on the grant or renewal of leases was gradually abandoned.
Leasehold
The tenure for the lease was usually for a specific number of years or for a certain number of lives.
Leases for the Harpur Estate
As a generalisation, from c1580-1645, the leases were for 80 years. After that, they were for 3 lives.
The names of the 3 lives could be chosen but it was common for the husband and wife to be 2 of the names and the eldest son to be number 3. However, the high infant mortality of children meant that it was not a good bet to name young children. Fresh lives could be entered on payment of another fine, sometimes the annual rental was adjusted at the same time.
As an example, in c1630 George Goodwyn the Elder & his son George Goodwyn rented the mill at Longnor for a period of 3 lives. The third life was for the wife of George Goodwyn the Elder. The entry fine was £100 and the payment dates and amounts are recorded in the tenancy agreement.
Tenant’s Duties
Whilst the value of the tenancy was appropriate at the beginning of the tenancy, after some 50 or so years, the rental only represented a small proportion of its value. In order to shift the cost of ownership from the lord to the tenant, the tenant was responsible for (often) repairs and maintenance. Additionally tenants were required to maintain soil fertility by manuring etc.
Taxation
The landlord paid parliamentary taxes, however, in order to move the burden of taxation, the tenant was required to pay the poor rate and other local parish & county dues. In addition, the tenant also had to pay herriots and sometimes rectorial tithes; in the early period this was in livestock eg hens or geese, but later it was transferred to money.