Tenement

A tenement was any holding of land with at least one building. A customary tenement was held according to the ‘custom of the manor’ rather than by written deed. It was inheritable under local custom, with transfers recorded through ‘surrender and admission.’ Customary tenants enjoyed significant tenure security provided they met their obligations. These included entry fines, annual rents, suit of court, heriot upon death, and labour services (often commuted to money by the seventeenth century). Tenants held rights of common, use of the manor’s mill, and sometimes the right to sublet. Terms were regulated through the manorial court. By the seventeenth century, many customary tenements had evolved into ‘copyhold’ tenure, so called because tenants received a copy of the court roll entry as evidence of their rights.