From before the Norman Conquest until the 18th century, the manorial system provided the administrative framework for the lives of much of the population in England. In the 17th century the manor was defined as:

“a little commonwealth, whereof the tenants are the members, the land the bulke, and the Lord the head”.

The manorial system generated a large quantity of archives, produced as a result of the internal administration of a manor, and they can tell us much about how people lived. The manor was an economic unit; normally there was a demesne which the lord of the manor kept for his own use, while the rest of the land was tenanted or common or waste. Manorial courts were used to enforce payment of dues and performance of services required of tenants, and to state (and restate) the customs of the manor relating both to tenure of land and to its use. For the Middle Ages, particularly the period from the late thirteenth to the late fifteenth century, manorial records form one of the principal surviving archive sources.