Glossary

20s: Twenty shillings or one pound. A shilling equals five pence in decimal.
Abbey: A community of monks or nuns governed by an abbot or abbess.
Benifice: An enclosed Church office yielding an income to its holder.
Carucate: The amount of land that can be ploughed with one plough and eight oxen in one year.
Chancellor: A clergyman acting as the law officer of a bishop.
Chapel: A place of christian worship.
Chapter of Canons: The collective body of the canons of a cathedral.
Chattel: An item of moveable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc.
Cloister A covered walk usually around a quadrangle in a religious institution, having an open arcade or colonnade on the inside and wall on the outside.
Consecrated: Made or declared sacred or holy.
Crusade: A military expedition by Christians to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims.
Curtilage: The enclosed area of land adjacent to a dwelling house.
Cut: Name given by the locals to the winterbourne that flows through the village.
Dean The head of a chapter of canons and administrator of a cathedral.
Domesday Book: The record of a survey of the land of England carried out by the commissioners of William I in 1086.
Hatchment: A diamond shaped tablet bearing the Coat of Arms of a dead person.
Heriot: A death duty paid by villeins and free tenants to their Lord, often consisting of the dead man's best beast or chattel.
Licensing Tournaments: To give permission for tournaments.
Manor: The Manor House of a lord and the lands attached to it.
Messuage: A dwelling house together with its outbuildings, curtilage , and the adjacent land appropriated to its use.
Monastery: The residence of a religious community, living in seclusion from secular society and bound by religious vows.
Nomina Villarum: A list made of all cities, boroughs and townships, and the lords of them, for King Edward III in 1316.
Patera: A round flat ornament in bas-relief in freizes etc.-often applied loosely to rosettes and other flat ornaments (archit.)
Pin Money: An allowance by a husband to his wife for personal expenditure.
Priory: A religious house governed by a prior, sometimes being subordinate to an abbey.
Standard: A large tapering flag ending in two points, originally bourne by a sovereign or high ranking noble.
Tithe: A tenth part of agricultural produce, personal income or profits contributed as a tax for the support of the church or clergy.
Tithe Barn: A large barn where the agricultural tithe of a parish was stored.
Tournament: A martial sport or contest in which mounted combatants fought for a prize.
Villein: Worker on a country estate
Virgate: 30 acres of land.
Warren: A franchise permitting one to keep animals, birds or fish in an enclosed space for breeding etc.
Winterbourne: A stream that runs dry in the summer.

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