Description:Court Rolls from the Manor Court at Trentham provide a colourful insight into the lives of people living on the Trentham Estate during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The document above is an extract from ‘the Court Leet & Court Baron of the honourable Sir Richard Leveson Knight of the Bath for his Manor of Trentham’ held at Trentham on 10th April 1658. The document tells us about the activities of tenants on the Trentham Estate during this period.
Many of the tenants who appeared at the court had been brought before the jury there for committing an offence. These offences ranged from keeping animals to harbouring vagrants. Ellenor Jones had been brought before the ‘Jurie’ at the court for ‘keeping animmales’. A number of men and women had been brought before the court ‘for selling ale’.
The court rolls also tell us about decisions that were made concerning the local government of the Trentham Estate. The document records that ‘John Morton’ had been ‘chosen Constable’ and was sworn in this post at the Court in 1658. ‘John Degge’, the ‘aletaster of Blurton’ was also sworn in on the same date.
The document records that the jury at the Court on 10th April 1658 had decided ‘that Blurton men’ were to ‘repaire the stockes’ there. In addition, it was decided that people ‘who lodge any vagabond persons or wanderers longer then two nights’ would be fined.
This is just an extract from many of the court rolls which survive in the Sutherland Papers, providing a fascinating insight into life on the Trentham Estate during this early period.