The role of written records in peasant tenure and litigation : a study of the manor court rolls of Wakefield (Yorkshire) and Alrewas (Staffordshire) before 1381

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis is an examination of the uses of whiten records in peasant land tenure, transfers and litigation on the late medieval English manor. It has been widely accepted that the peasantry, although largely illiterate, developed a 'document consciousness' through their growing familiarity with the written culture of the royal and seigniorial administrations. As well as aiming to investigate the extent and nature of the use of written records by the peasants of the manors, the thesis attempts to address the question of what drove the use, and the extent to which the ability to participate in written culture actually mattered to peasants, both functionally and symbolically. The mechanisms for the transfer of customary land, both by illegal charters and by surrender and admittance in the manor court, are discussed in Chapter 2. The confiscation of charters from the tenants of the manor of Barnet by St Albans Abbey is compared with that of the villein charters which were enrolled in the

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