MANORS OF STRATTON AND GRIMSTON. 85 



The term demesne lands, properly signifies the lands of a 

 manor which the lord either has, or potentially may have, in his 

 own hands, and a certain restriction was formerly put on the sale 

 of such lands away from the manor, for by the Great Charter of 

 9 Henry III., it was provided " That no man should either grant 

 or sell land without reserving sufficient to answer the demands of 

 his superior lord," but of later years this provision seems to have 

 been ignored, for the demesne lands of a manor could by con- 

 veyance, be treated as a distinct property, when they ceased to 

 form part of the manor, although the rents and dues may remain, 

 and where that has happened, the manor becomes a manor or 

 seignory " in gross." 



The services to be rendered by the tenants of the manor have 

 now mostly been commuted for a monetary payment, and the 

 Courts Baron or Customary Courts have to a great extent fallen 

 into disuse and have ceased to be holden, so that it seems all 

 important that the records of proceedings or court rolls of these 

 ancient courts should be preserved, and that the ancient customs 

 of such manors as (by having less than three customary tenants 

 remaining or by all the services attached thereto becoming 

 extinct) have ceased to be manors, and have become manors by 

 reputation only or "reputed manors," should not be lost sight of. 



As to the value of these documents to the workers in middle 

 class genealogy, Mr. Hone remarks : 



" Beginning long before the establishment of parish registers, 

 they form a mine of information concerning the descent of the 

 yeoman class which has been well called the backbone of the 

 country ; the surrenders and admittances to the yard-lands of 

 the manor often show descent from father to son for many 

 generations." 



As we have seen, the manor was originally granted direct from 

 the kings of this realm to their vassals, lords, or barons, with 

 liberty for these latter to parcel out the lands to sub-vassals, and 

 by these sub-grants to form minor manors. We thus get the 

 superior lord, or lord paramount, and the inferior lord, or lord 

 farmer, who as a rule resided in the manor house, farmed the 



