COURT BARON

This article appears in Volume V07, Page 324 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: COR-CRE

COURT BARON , an

English

ENGLISH

manorial

court

COURT
COURT (from the O. Fr. court, Late Lat. cortis, curtis, a popular form of class. Lat. cohors, gen. cohortis; the mod. Fr. form tour is due to the
influence
- INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)
of the Lat. curia, the word used in medieval documents to translate " court " in the feudal sense)
COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o)

dating from the middle ages and still in existence. It was laid down by Cokethat a manor had two courts, " the first by the common law, and is called a

court

COURT
COURT (from the O. Fr. court, Late Lat. cortis, curtis, a popular form of class. Lat. cohors, gen. cohortis; the mod. Fr. form tour is due to the
influence
- INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)
of the Lat. curia, the word used in medieval documents to translate " court " in the feudal sense)
COURT, ANTOINE (1696-176o)

baron," the freeholders (" barons ") being its suitors; the other a customary court for the copyholders.

Stubbs

adopted this explanation, but the latest learning, ex-pounded by Professor

Maitland

, holds that court baron means curia baronis, " la court de seigneur," and that there is no evidence for there being more than one court. The old view that at least two freeholders were required for its composition is also now discarded. Prof.

Maitland

's conclusion,is that the " court baron " was not even differentiated from the " court-leet " at the close of the 13th

century

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

, but that there was a distinction of jurisdictional rights, some courts having only feudal rights, while others, had regalities as well. When the court-leet was differentiated, the court baron remained with feudal rights alone. These rights he was disposed to trace to a lord's

jurisdiction

JURISDICTION
JURISDICTION, CRIMINAL LAW, DIVORCE

over his men rather than to his possession of the manor, although in practice, from an early date, the court was associated with the manor. Its

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

business was to administer the " custom of the manor "and to admit fresh tenants who had acquired copyholds by

inheritance

INHERITANCE

or purchase, and had to pay, on so doing, a " fine " to the lord of the manor. It is mainly for the latter purpose that the court is now kept. It is normally presided over by the steward of the lord of the manor, who is a lawyer, and its proceedings are recprded on " the court rolls," of which the older ones are now valuable for genealogical as well as for legal purposes.
See Select Pleas in Manorial and other Seignorial Courts, vol. i., and The Court Baron (Selden Society). (J. H. R.)

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