Manors

The manorial system was the part of the medieval feudal system concerned with land ownership or tenure, and although its local importance declined from the 16th century onwards, one element of it lasted until after WW1 when the last vestiges of copyhold land tenure were finally abolished by the Law of Property Acts of 1922 and 1925. The manor was an area of land, distinct from the parish, and as a result a parish often had more than one manor within its boundaries, and a manor based in one parish often owned land in another parish. Tasburgh had two manors but some of its land was owned by a third, Rainthorpe manor.

Each manor was owned either by an individual, the Lord of the Manor, or sometimes by an institution such as an abbey or cathedral and, as property, they could be inherited as well as being disposed of by gift or sale. As a result, a Lord or institution could own multiple manors, and many did, so that although initially the Lord would normally live in the manor house on his manor, over time the Lord was more usually an absentee landlord, leaving the administration of his manor in the hands of his steward. Lordship of the manor also carried with it a local judicial function, and property matters were dealt with in his Court Baron. Grants of land were entered into the court roll, originally rolls of parchment but later in books, and especially after Lords began to be non-resident, tenants began to be given a written copy of the entry as evidence of their entitlement, hence the term "copyhold" tenure, as opposed to the later freehold tenure, where the rights of the Lord of the Manor no longer applied. The Court record books for Tasburgh from 1625 onwards are held in the Norfolk Record Office and are a valuable historic resource for tracing changes in land ownership, especially after 1733 when they ceased to be written in Latin.

One of the original adjuncts of Lordship was the right to appoint the Rector, known as the right of Advowson, but that could be sold or transferred separately from the Lordship itself and was sometimes sub-divided, with each part owner taking it in turns to make the appointment. As recorded on a board at the back of the church, in 1374 the local Lord, Roger de Taseburgh, sold the advowson to the Lord of the Manor of Buckenham Castle, and by 1563 Thomas Chapman of Rainthorpe must have had acquired a share of it, because the board refers to the appointment made by him that year as being "this turn". Appointments of the Rector continued to be made by the Lord of Rainthorpe Hall until at least 1723 when the advowson was sold to the Lord of the Manor of Hethel, before being reaquired by the Lord of the Manor of Tasburgh Uphall with Boyland and Hunts.