If you are unable to locate the word that you are looking for, then please do not hesitate to contact us and let us know.
Archive Administration
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| Term | Meaining |
| Accession | Records created or collected by a single body or individual, given to the record office on a particular occasion. |
| AnyText | Your search term, i.e. the word or word(s) that you enter in the AnyText box on the Search the Catalogue page. The software will search every field of every record for the term that you have specified. |
| Bundle | A group of documents, often tied together and described as one unit. |
| Catalogue | A list of documents, mainly from one collection, giving their reference number, brief description of their composition and content and their date. |
| Collection | All records (which could include a number of accessions) deposited by a single individual or body. |
| Dateofcopy | This field is most often used in descriptions of photographs. Some of the photographs in our collection are copies of much older images. The date of the photograph's content is recorded in the date field and the dateofcopy field is used to record the date that the reproduction was made. |
| Depositor | The individual or body who owns or is responsible for the records. |
| DocRefNo | This stands for Document Reference Number and is a unique number that we assign to all documents. |
| Document Production | The process by which documents are retrieved from the strongrooms for consultation in the searchroom. |
| EAD | Encoded Archival Description. A computer language used to display archival catalogues on the internet. |
| Fonds | An alternative name for a collection. All records (which could include a number of accessions) deposited by a single individual or body. |
| FondsNo | An artificial number that we use to group together all of the items in a collection. This number is also used to build the tree. |
| Item | This is the actual document that we hold and that would be issued in the searchroom. It might be a single sheet of paper, a bundle of papers, a volume or an original bundle of deeds. |
| Level | Unlike library books, which tend to be catalogued one by one as separate items, archives are catalogued in groups. The archivist will look at all archives which belong together as part of a "collection", as identifying the links between the various documents is a significant part of the cataloguing process. To help users and other staff understand the context of a particular item, the archivist will create a catalogue which moves through different levels of description. You normally start with the collection as a whole - a brief description of the group of records, and end up with descriptions of individual items.
The help page includes an example of the levels of description. |
| Manuscript/MS | A handwritten document. |
| Overview/Hitlist | Hitlist is the name given to a list of all of the items that have been found containing the required search term. The level, title, docrefno and date are given in a list providing an overview of the items that have been found. |
| Parchment | The treated skin of sheep or goats used as a writing material. |
| Photocolour | This field is only seen on descriptions of photographs and is used to record whether the image is in Black & White, Colour or if it is Toned. |
| Phototype | This field is only seen on descriptions of photographs and is used to record the type of photograph e.g. Ambrotype; Lantern; Slide; Glass Plate Negative; Print, Colour; Postcard. |
| Pipe Roll | The annual accounts of Crown revenues, which were sent by sheriffs to the Exchequer, where they were rolled around rods, or 'pipes', for storage. They are now housed in the National Archives under E372. |
| Search term | Significant words that might be used in the description of the type of record you are looking for |
| Section | This is a level of description which describes an administrative grouping, e.g. Parochial Church Council, Personnel |
| Series | This is a level of description which describes a group of similar records, e.g. parish registers. |
| Transcript | An exact copy of the wording of a document. |
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Property/Deeds/Conveyancing
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| Term | Meaning |
| Alienation | The transfer of ownership from one person to another |
| Appurtenances | The rights and duties associated with holding land |
| Arable | Cultivated land (usually ploughed) |
| Bargain and Sale | A method of conveying property by private agreement, common in the 16th century. The name is also given to the deed recording the transaction |
| Barring an entail | Preventing an entail from taking effect |
| Burgage | The house or plot of land held by the inhabitant of a town or borough OR a tenure of land in an ancient borough OR a small field near a farmhouse |
| Butt | A short or irregularly shaped strip of land in an open (pre-enclosure) field, or one that lies at right angles to other strips. |
| Chattels | Personal Property |
| Close | A small hedged or walled field; an enclosure from the open fields |
| Codicil | A signed and witnessed addition to a will |
| Common Recovery | A method used to bar an entail, involving fictitious legal proceedings |
| Conveyance | A general term for a deed which transfers land |
| Copyhold | Tenure of manorial land, with obligations to perform certain services for the lord. Copyhold tenure was abolished in 1922. |
| Counterpart of lease | One of two identical documents pared as part of a lease, The counterpart is executed by the lessee, who then exchanges this for the lease which is executed by the lessor. |
| Covenant | An agreement creating an obligation contained in a deed. |
| Croft | (i) A small piece of enclosed land near a dwelling.
(ii) A small dwelling. |
| Demesne/Demesnes | Land retained by the lord of the manor for his own use, or which was part of the main farm of the manor. |
| Demise | To convey a property by lease. |
| Devisee | A beneficiary of a will |
| Distrain/Distreint | A term originally applied to the seizure of possessions, generally livestock, in compensation for an alleged breach of feudal service obligations. |
| Driftway | A road along which cattle or horses are driven to pasture or market |
| Enclosure | The amalgamation of land holdings, thereby freeing it from common rights |
| Encroachment | The extension of private property, enclosing part of a green, common or another person's land. |
| Entail | Estate which is settled without regard to the rules of its descent. |
| Executrix | A female person appointed by the testator to carry out the intentions of the will. |
| Fee simple | Freehold land which can be disposed of according to the wishes of the owner. |
| Feoffee | i) Someone who holds a feudal tenure known as a fief, or
ii) A trustee |
| Feoffment | The public transfer of land by the owner to the purchaser, consisting of the ceremony called "livery of seisin". The written record of this transaction became known as a charter or deed of feoffment. |
| Fine | The amount of money paid for a lease or admission to copyhold land |
| Fither | A small strip of land between two ridges. |
| Foredraft/foredraught/foredrift | A lane leading from a dwelling to a road or field. |
| Glebe | Land held by a clergyman. |
| Grate | A barred place of confinement for animals |
| Hade | Uncultivated land at the end of a block of strips, giving room for a horse-drawn plough to turn. |
| Headland | Uncultivated land at the end of a block of strips, giving room for a horse-drawn plough to turn. |
| Hereditaments | Any property which may be inherited. |
| Holm | A pasture of water meadow. |
| Homestall | A homestead (i.e the site of a house) or farmyard. |
| Housebote | The right to take wood from the lord's land for the repair of a house. |
| Indenture | A document written in duplicate on the same parchment or paper, and divided into two by cutting a wavy line |
| Lammas | Enclosed land (formerly open)used as common grazing after the harvest; Lammas day was in early August. |
| Leasow | A pasture. |
| Ley | Grassland, or a field of grass. |
| Ling | A kind of heather. |
| Marriage Settlement | The complex arrangements for passing on property in advance of marriage, and the document recording these arrangements. |
| Math | (i) A mowing.
(ii) Meadowland used for hay. |
| Meadow | Land used for growing grass, often low-lying by a river. |
| Meer | A small lake. |
| Messuage | A house and the ground around it. |
| Mill Holme/Mill Ham | A small meadow by a mill. |
| Modus | Money payment in lieu of tithes. |
| Ozier | Willow used for hurdles, etc. |
| Pasture | Uncultivated land used for grazing. |
| Penny Land | A portion of land valued at a penny a year |
| Pent house | A shed attached to the side of a house, usually at a smithy, for horses to be shod in. |
| Piece | A field or close of ground, often arable. |
| Pike | A butt [see entry for butt within this section] of land running to a point (often because it lies at an angle to other strips). |
| Pinfold | A small enclosure for keeping stray animals in. |
| Pit | Often used to denote a pond. |
| Pleck | A plot of enclosed ground or meadow. |
| Probate | A certificate showing that someone's will has been proved and registered. |
| Querent | A complainant or plaintiff |
| Quitclaim | The act of transferring a title or right or claim to another |
| Seizin/Seisin | Possession of property, as opposed to ownership |
| Slade | A valley or side of a hill. |
| Slang | A narrow strip of land between fields |
| Tenement | A holding of land. |
| Terrier | A document summarising land holdings, particularly of a church |
| Testament | A formal declaration, usually in writing, of a person's wishes as to the disposal of his property after his death. See also Will. |
| Title | A right to property |
| Will | A person's formal declaration, usually in writing, of his intention as to the disposal of his property or other matters to be performed after his death. See also Testament. |
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Units of Measurement
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| Term | Meaning |
| Acre | 1 acre = 4840 square yards. |
| Furlong | Originally a furrow's length in a ploughed field, later (1) a unit of length, 220 yards or 201 metres (2) a block of strips in an open (pre-enclosure) field. |
| Gloads | A measure of 15-20 feet. Also known as a lugg. |
| Manse | Dwelling house or measure of land sufficient to support a family. |
| Mark (money) | A sum of money used for account, after the Conquest the value was fixed at 160 pence or 13s 4d or two thirds of the pound sterling. |
| Moiety | A half. |
| Nook | A corner or triangular area usually a small piece of land or corner of a building. |
| Perch | 1 perch = 1/40 rood, or 1/160 acre, or about 30 square yards. |
| Pightle | An alternative name for a close of enclosed piece of land, usually though not always small in scale. |
| Pingle | A small piece of land, most commonly referred to in the Midlands. |
| Pole | A unit of measurement of land, either (1) square, equalling a perch, or (2) linear, equalling 5 1/2 yards. |
| Pound (animals) | An enclosure for stray animals that could be reclaimed on the payment of a fine. |
| Quartern | Quarter of a pint. |
| Rood | 1 rood = 1/4 acre or 1210 square yards. |
| Selion/s | Irregularly sized strips of arable land in open fields. |
| Toft | A plot of land to the rear of a building, often bounded at the rear by a back lane. |
| Virgate | A standard holding of arable land in the Middle Ages, of up to 30 acres, scattered amongst the open-fields of a manor, with accompanying rights on the commons. |
| Yardland | One quarter of a hide. A hide is a variable measurement of land, but originally meant the amount of land which could be ploughed in a year using one plough with an 8-ox team. |
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Ecclesiastical Terminology
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| Term | Meaning |
| Advowson | The right to nominate a clergyman to a benefice, often subject to the approval of a diocesan bishop. |
| Banns | The published intention of marriage which are announced on three Sundays before the actual ceremony in the parish. |
| Bastardy | A term used widely in legal proceedings referring to children born out of wedlock. |
| Benefice | An ecclesiastical office, or the income derived from it. It is usually applied to the incumbency of a parish church. |
| Chantry | A chapel or altar endowed with lands or other revenues for the singing of masses for the soul of the donor. Chantries were abolished in 1547. |
| Churchwarden | A parish officer responsible for the upkeep of the church fabric, accounting for the expenditure of the church rate, control and extermination of vermin, etc. |
| Clergy | The body of all those appointed to the Christian ministry. |
| Consistory Court | A church court |
| Curate | An assistant of a beneficed clergyman. |
| Diaconate | Managed by a deacon or deacons |
| Disburse | To pay out or expend |
| Donative | Something that is given (normally referring to a benefice) |
| Faculties | A licence or authorisation issued by a senior ecclesiastical official. Often issued to authorise building work in parish churches |
| Filiation | In effect, an order for the maintenance of an illegitimate child.
Following on from a single woman naming the putative father of her child, churchwardens or overseers of the poor made application to the Justices of the Peace requiring the father (sometimes the mother) to pay maintenance to the parish, for so long as the child was chargeable to the parish. As part of the process, a warrant of apprehension could be issued in order to bring the putative father before JPs, prior to the filiation order being made. |
| Glebe | Land held by a clergyman. |
| Incumbency | Office held by the incumbent - resident minister of the parish |
| Incumbent | A rector, parson, vicar or minister of a parish |
| Ordinary | Someone possessing ecclesiastical jurisdiction such as a Bishop or a Judge with authority to take cases in his own right. |
| Overseers of the Poor | A parish officer appointed to deal with the administration of the poor law as set down in the 1601 Poor Law Act. This Act continued until its reform in 1834. Later Overseers of the Poor became merely rate assessors and collectors. The office was abolished in 1925. |
| Parish, ecclesiastical | A unit of pastoral care that was also expected to provide the resources to maintain its church and support its priest. A parish could be formed from more than one manor. |
| Parochial Church Council | A parochial governing body in the Church of England, consisting of the incumbent, the churchwardens and elected parishioners. |
| PCC (Prerogative Court of Canterbury) | The Prerogative Court of Canterbury was the probate Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury, which proved wills of persons who left goods of considerable value, usually in more than one diocese or deanery. Wills from this court are held at The National Archives. |
| Peculiar | An ecclesiastical district (usually a parish) outside the jurisdiction of the archbishop, bishop or archdeacon. Peculiars were entitled to hold their own courts, hence, before 1858 they proved wills of people who owned property in their respective districts. |
| Poor Law | Refers to the Acts: 43 Elizabeth chapter 2, 1601 and 4/5 William IV chapter 76, 1834, both pieces of legislation created in order to deal with the poor. |
| Prebend | The right to a cathedral or collegiate church benefice. |
| Prebendary | The holder of a prebend, usually the canon of a cathedral or collegiate church. |
| Precentor | An official in a Cathedral either a member ranking next to the dean in the Old Foundation or a minor canon or chaplain in the New Foundation. It is also one who sings and plays without accompaniment in a church. |
| Preceptory | An estate or manor house supporting a subordinate community of the Knights Templars. |
| Priest in Charge | An incumbent of a parish who does not have permanent title, unlike a vicar and a rector. |
| Rector | A parson or incumbent of a parish whose tithes were not appropriated to a monastery or college in the past. |
| Removal Order | This was a warrant granted by the Justice of the Peace to forcibly transfer a pauper (or potential pauper) to his/her place of legal settlement. |
| Sequestration | To excommunicate someone, or cut them off from the privileges of church membership |
| Settlement certificate | A settlement certificate was the written admission by a parish required by the poor, or potentially poor, which entitled them to legally settle in that parish. |
| Settlement (right to reside) | Settlement was a system whereby the poor or potentially poor had to prove they had a right to settle in a parish. It was a way of ensuring the parish supported only those that had a legal right to live within that boundary. If a pauper could not prove settlement, he/she would be removed to the parish deemed legal place of settlement. What constituted settlement altered from time to time but could depend upon apprenticeship, place of birth, marriage (in the case of women), and/or father or mother's place of settlement. |
| Terrier | A document summarising land holdings, particularly of a church |
| Tithe/Tythe | A tenth of all produce given to the rector of a parish, who in return was supposed to maintain the chancel of the church and provide for church worship. Tithes were categorised as 'great', being corn and hay, and 'small', being livestock, wool and non-cereal crops. Where the rector of a church was an organisation, such as a college, or a layperson, the small tithe was paid to the vicar who served in the rector's place. |
| Vestry | The governing body of a parish. Generally appointment was based upon a property qualification, and often those qualifying held a position only after having first been invited to serve. |
| Vicar | Originally, the minister who was appointed by an absentee rector. The vicar received the small tithes, whereas a resident rector received all the tithe. Parishes which today are served by a vicar must have paid tithes to a religion institution such as a monastery in the Middle Ages. |
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Manorial Terminology
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| Term | Meaning |
| Amercements | Fine paid in a manorial court |
| Assize | A royal court of justice presided over by a judge responsible for trying to serious criminal and civil cases in a group of counties (known as a circuit). Assizes were held several times a year in each assize town within the circuit (normally one per county) from the 14th century until 1971 where they were replaced by the Crown Court in 1971. |
| Assizes of Bread and Ale | A process that took place in manorial courts to ensure that bakers and brewers sold goods of proper quality and quantity. |
| Copyhold | Tenure of manorial land, with obligations to perform certain services for the lord. Copyhold tenure was abolished in 1922. |
| Court of Baron | A manorial court which enforced the customs of the manor, and dealt with land transfers, agricultural management, etc. |
| Court of Leet | A manorial court which handled petty offences such as common nuisances or public affray, or the breaking of the Assize of Bread and Ale, and also with the maintenance of highways and ditches. |
| Demesne/Demesnes | Land retained by the lord of the manor for his own use, or which was part of the main farm of the manor. |
| Frankpledge | A manorial system whereby groupings of 10 to 12 households (known as tithings) were held jointly responsible for the behaviour of each member. At the manorial Court Leet, a View of Frankpledge would regulate the working of the tithings. |
| Heriot | A feudal obligation which has evolved over time. Most commonly, this refers to the practice whereby the heir to a deceased copyhold tenant has to give his best beast to the lord of the manor or, later, a money payment. In effect, it comprises a fee to enter copyhold land |
| Homage | A ceremonial pledge of loyalty and obligation made by a tenant to his lord or a collective term for the assembly of tenants at a manorial court |
| Leet | The district covered by the Court Leet or the designated persons eligible to serve on the jury. |
| Manor | A manor is a territorial unit that was held by a landlord who held land directly of the Crown. In the Middle Ages the manor was an economic unit, which included the demesne which the lord farmed himself, and the rest of the land, which was farmed by tenants or used as common pasture and waste. It is distinct from an estate because it also held a Court. |
| Manorial | Of or pertaining to a manor. |
| Owing Suit | The obligation to attend a particular court. |
| Pains | Term used in manorial courts meaning a penalty or punishment, often a threat for not fulfilling an order or condition of the court. |
| Panage/Pannage | The right of tenants to feed swine in common woodland |
| Quit (claim, rent) | A small fixed annual rent, which on being paid released a manorial tenant from services to his lord. These payments were abolished in 1922. |
| Suit | A tenant's obligation to attend the lord of the manor's court. |
| Vill | A township, parish or manor. |
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Professions
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| Term | Meaning |
| Chirurgeon | Surgeon |
| Churchwarden | A parish officer responsible for the upkeep of the church fabric, accounting for the expenditure of the church rate, control and extermination of vermin, etc. |
| Clergy | The body of all those appointed to the Christian ministry. |
| Overseers of the Poor | A parish officer appointed to deal with the administration of the poor law as set down in the 1601 Poor Law Act. This Act continued until its reform in 1834. Later Overseers of the Poor became merely rate assessors and collectors. The office was abolished in 1925. |
| Woodward | A forest keeper. |
| Yeoman | This term has changed its meaning over time but in the 13th-15th centuries it mainly referred to a knight's servants or retainers. In Tudor times the term was gradually widened to include prosperous working farmers below the rank of gentry. These yeomen worked their own land, did not necessarily have to be freeholders, and were considered to be more prosperous than the average husbandman |
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Courts/Legal Terminology
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| Term | Meaning |
| Affidavit | A sworn statement made in the presence of a person qualified to receive it |
| Assignee | Someone appointed to act on behalf of someone else; a representative |
| Assize | A royal court of justice presided over by a judge responsible for trying more serious criminal and civil cases in a group of counties (known as a circuit). Assizes were held several times a year in each assize town within the circuit (normally one per county) from the 14th century until 1971 where they were replaced by the Crown Court in 1971. |
| Bastardy | A term used widely in legal proceedings referring to children born out of wedlock |
| Chancery | A Central Court specialising in equity cases, often relating to inheritance, debts and land ownership. |
| Court Baron | A manorial court which enforced the customs of the manor, and dealt with land transfers, agricultural management, etc. |
| Court Leet | A manorial court which handled petty offences such as common nuisances or public affray, or the breaking of the Assize of Bread and Ale, and also with the maintenance of highways and ditches. |
| Court of Augmentations | A court set up during the reign of Henry VIII to take judgements on controversies concerning monastery or abbey lands |
| Defeasance | Rendering something null and void |
| Demesne/Demesnes | Land retained by the lord of the manor for his own use, or which was part of the main farm of the manor. |
| Dower | Part of an estate that a widow can claim for the rest of her life, or until her re-marriage |
| Filiation | 1. A persons parentage.
2. In effect, an order for the maintenance of an illegitimate child.
Following on from a single woman naming the putative father of her child, churchwardens or overseers of the poor made application to the Justices of the Peace requiring the father (sometimes the mother) to pay maintenance to the parish, for so long as the child was chargeable to the parish. As part of the process, a warrant of apprehension could be issued in order to bring the putative father before JPs, prior to the filiation order being made. |
| Frankpledge | A manorial system whereby groupings of 10 to 12 households (known as tithings) were held jointly responsible for the behaviour of each member. At the manorial Court Leet, a View of Frankpledge would regulate the working of the tithings. |
| Indemnity | Protection against loss or damage; legal exemption from penalties. |
| Inspeximus | Latin for " we have inspected" in the context of inspection of charters |
| Instrument | A document used to carry out an action |
| Leet | The district covered by the Court Leet or the designated persons eligible to serve on the jury. |
| Petty Sessions | The meetings of local Justices of the Peace dealing with minor offences and the issuing of licences. |
| Polygamy | Marriage with several spouses at one time |
| Praecipe | A legal term for a writ commanding a defendant to do something or to appear and show why it should not be done or an order to the clerk of the court requesting that a writ be issued and specifying its contents. |
| Presentments | A formal statement of something to be dealt with legally. A statement made on oath by a jury, magistrate or J.P or a report made by a churchwarden to a bishop during a visitation. |
| Quarter Sessions | A system of quarterly meetings of the Justices of the Peace for each county and county borough which began in 1361. Records of Warwickshire Quarter Sessions do not survive before the seventeenth century. The Quarter Sessions court had both a judicial and administrative function so the surviving records include court minutes, calendars of prisoners along with licenses for ale houses, deposited plans for proposed public undertakings, including the construction of roads, railways and canals. |
| Quietus (roll) | Final settlement or discharge of a payment |
| Quittance | Discharging a debt |
| Statute Merchant | Shorthand way of referring to the Statute of Merchants, 1285, which entitles someone owed a debt to seize the land of the person owing the money if he does not pay up by the appointed time |
| Vouchee | In law this means the person vouched or summoned into court to give warranty of title. It can also mean a person cited or appealed to as an authority for some fact or statement, or in evidence of some assertion. |
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Local Government
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| Term | Meaning |
| Burgess | A citizen of a borough, with full municipal rights. |
| Census | A population survey. In England and Wales, a census has been held every 10 years from 1801, but it is only since 1841 that names of the inhabitants were systematically recorded. |
| Constable | This officer was the keeper of law and order in the parish. Appointed by the parish vestry meeting he served for one year, unpaid. The office was replaced by the establishment of a county police force in the mid-19th century. |
| Constablewick | A township or tithing under the jurisdiction of a constable. |
| Enclosure | The amalgamation of land holdings, thereby freeing it from common rights |
| Highway Surveyors | An Act of 1555 required the annual appointment at Easter of a 'Surveyor of the Highways' for each parish or township. The unpaid officer was empowered to raise local rates and had a particular responsibility for the supervision of statue labour, whereby local people were called upon to maintain their roads. In 1835 a new system was introduced whereby Justices of the Peace appointed paid surveyors for groups of parishes. |
| Hundred | An administrative division of a shire, the influence of which declined as parishes, manors and judicial bodies became more important. They were probably first established in the 10th century, and were only formally abolished in 1894, when hundred courts were replaced by district councils. |
| Parish, civil | These often covered the same area as the ecclesiastical parish but had responsibilities for the poor, the highways and for petty law and order. The system was overseen by the Justices of the Peace, meeting at Quarter Sessions. This function continues today with elected Parish Councils. |
| Poor Law | Refers to the Acts: 43 Elizabeth chapter 2, 1601 and 4/5 William IV chapter 76, 1834, both pieces of legislation created in order to deal with the poor. |
| Removal Order | This was a warrant granted by the Justice of the Peace to forcibly transfer a pauper (or potential pauper) to his/her place of legal settlement. |
| Sanitary Authority | Nineteenth century administrative body responsible for local sanitation and hygiene matters. |
| Settlement (right to reside) | Settlement was a system whereby the poor or potentially poor had to prove they had a right to settle in a parish. It was a way of ensuring the parish supported only those that had a legal right to live within that boundary. If a pauper could not prove settlement, he/she would be removed to the parish deemed legal place of settlement. What constituted settlement altered from time to time but could depend upon apprenticeship, place of birth, marriage (in the case of women), and/or father or mother's place of settlement. |
| Shrievalty | The office or jurisdiction of a sheriff. Sheriffs were deputies of the Crown, and the main agent of the courts until the 14th century, and therefore of enormous executive influence in each county. |
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Taxation
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| Term | Meaning |
| Levy | To raise or collect a sum of money possibly through a tax or rent, also to require a persons attendance possibly at a court or to muster. |
| Murage | A toll or tax levied for the building or repairing of the walls of a town. This also means the right of levying such a toll. |
| Papist Tax | A 'head' tax. The first poll tax was levied in 1377, the again in 1381. All persons over a certain age (depending on when the tax was instigated) were required to pay the tax. The 'poll tax returns' are the records created from these levies, naming each taxpayer. Copies can be found at local record offices, but the originals are held at the National Archives. |
| Pillage | Some sort of tax or a duty levied on merchandise |
| Portage | Tax paid on entering a town or the charge on carriage and cargo. |
| Rate Book | Books usually recording payment of the poor rate. |
| Window Tax | This was introduced in 1697 after the abolition of the hearth tax. Residents paid a tax based on how many windows their place of abode had, though only where 10 or more windows existed. After 1825 occupiers with less than 8 windows were exempt. This tax was abolished in 1851. |
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Non-conformity
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| Term | Meaning |
| Nonconformist | Refusal to conform to the doctrine, discipline or polity of an established Church. Today, this terms is often used to describe Christian denominations other than the Church of England, e.g. Baptists, Methodists. |
| Recusancy | A person who refused to conform to the rites of the Established Anglican Church |
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General
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| Term | Meaning |
| Aquittance | A written discharge from a debt or obligation |
| Bull (papal) | A written mandate of a pope of a more serious nature than a brief. In early times sealed with the pope's signet ring, but later by a special form of lead seal, called the 'bulla'. |
| Dorse | The reverse side of a sheet of paper or parchment. |
| Foldyard | An enclosure for sheep. |
| Handbill | Single page printed notice or advertisement |
| Imprest | 1. Enforced service in the army or navy.
2. An advance or loan of money. |
| Interdiction | The placing or issuing of a prohibition. |
| Pauper | A poor person destitute of property and without employment usually reliant on a charity or poor relief from their parish of residence. |
| Recto | The right hand page of an open book, the opposite of verso. |
| Requisition | To require, demand or call upon something for military purposes |
| Verso | The left hand page of an open book, the opposite of recto. |
| Ye | "The". The sound of the "th" at the beginning of the word "the" used to be represented by a single letter (called a thorn) which resembles a modern letter "y". |
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