Description:The Court Papers for Longton include the Court Verdict for 'the Court Baron of Obadiah Lane' held on 17th April 1733. The document provides an insight into the type of local matters debated at the Manor Court and the punishments levied at those who continued to break the Court's rulings.
All persons who owed 'suit and service' to the Court were presented in front of tenant witnesses whose signatures and marks appear on the document to prove the validity of the Court's rulings. One of the rulings made concerned 'Potters' in Longton. Potters, including Ralph Haynes, William Wright, William Austin, Samuel and Thomas Johnson, Richard Hamersley 'and other people that make Claypitts for getting of clay', were to be fined 'one pound six shillings and Eight pence each' if their claypits 'were not filled and made good betwixt the fifth of August next'.
Other tenants were fined for keeping dogs illegally. A number of cottagers were threated with a fine of six shillings and eight pence for 'keeping a Curr Dog without the Lord and Freeholders consent' unless the dogs were 'not made away' within a month.
This document demonstrates that the Manor Court was still extremely significant in the lives of people living in Longton in the early eighteenth century. Far from being merely an opportunity for the Lord of the Manor to demand a performance of deference from tenants, the Court served an important practical purpose for tenants living in Longton at this time.