lOO COURT ROLLS OF THE MANOR OF LITTLE CHESTER. 



William Spencer, Duke of Devonshire, 1812 — 1858. 



William, Duke of Devonshire, 1859— 1865. 



The following extracts from the Court Rolls are, perhaps, in 

 themselves of little interest, but they may suggest the value of 

 the evidence afforded by manorial documents to family and 

 parish history. 



The existing Court Rolls of the Manor of Little Chester date 

 only from 1642, but in Roll "A" there is a number of notes 

 made by a former lord of the manor from copies of a very 

 much earlier date which had come into his hands. The older 

 Rolls must have long since disappeared. In the seventeenth 

 century many copyholders prescribed for ' fines certain,' 

 supporting their claims by the production of ancient copies ; 

 and the lord, although disputing the sufificiency and even the 

 genuineness of the evidence, seems to have had no original 

 records to which to refer. 



" Things observable in the survay in the black booke at 

 Lincolne " : — 



" The Deane had then a wood at Eyton." 



"The copyhold rents are said to be ;^i8 - 4 - 10." 



" The Deane was patron of the Collegiate church of Alsaints, 

 & had the gift of the prebends & spirituall jurisdic." 



" The Piscary was then valued at 8/- per ann." 



" He had upon the death of the m"^ of every house the best 

 plow & Irons, a brasse pot, & a peece of cloth." 



" He had the custody of infants till 25." 



•' He had 5/4 of every corrupt woman." 



It is noticeable that no names are recorded during the period 

 of the Puritan administration. To a sequestration at that time, 

 reference is made in several places. Sir John Curzon was one 

 of the Committee of Sequestrators appointed by Parliament for 

 the County of Derby, but it is probably not in this capacity 

 that his name appears in the foregoing list. 



Sir Simon Degge, on taking up the manor, asserted the rights 

 of the lord with characteristic energy, and to the industry of 

 him or his steward, the preservation of all that remains of the 



