Manorial Court records

[kiterunner]

Originally Posted by HowardRichards

Also the possibility of Rok being Roll (sounds like something from the 60s!) may refer to the copy of the court roll each land copyholder had to have to prove possession.
I'll have a fresh look after the weekend. Any other ideas welcome before then.

No, now I've seen it, the last letter is definitely a k. Could it be Rook? Or something else ending in ook?

[Janet]

I'm sure I have no business making such wild guesses, not being familiar with that handwriting in the slightest, but when I looked at it I imagined I saw an H. A Google search revealed the existence of a thing called a Hook net. Do you suppose?
Knight's New Mechanical Dictionary. A description of tools, instruments, machines, processes, and engineering. With indexical references to technical journals (1876-1880.) by Edward Henry Knight

[HowardRichards]

Thank you Janet. Wild guesses welcome-I've made a few myself! Pretty certain it is a capital R. One of my ancestors,Simon Richards is named in the document. It has to be a term,name or tool etc. that is not well known .

[Janet]

Hm. Okay, sticking my neck out further yet, there's a "Rook-net" too. I should have thought to investigate that when Kite first pointed it up.

Zoologist: A Monthly Journal of Natural History (1894) quoting Booke of Fishing (1590) and Art of Fowling (1621)

A better fit perhaps because it involves fowling, not fishing?

[HowardRichards]

Could be "rook net". I haven't found a reference for this Elizabethan period but such things clearly existed and may have been used back then. More research! Thanks Janet.
I'll just throw in one more thing.
The entry above I read as:
Qui dicunt super sacramentum suum et presentant quod anglice le butte sunt in defectu ideo in misericordia iis.

After long consideration I could only come up with: They (the jury) state on their oath and present that English - the Buttes ( a family name ) are in default and fined 2 shillings. This by linking it to the following sentence which contains " the aforesaid inhabitants"
This is wrong. I recently saw a booklet (about Wootton) written by an Oxford academic, now deceased, which referred to the residents having to maintain " the butts" i.e the archery butts , target mounds for villagers' practice. Archery was surely becoming less important then, but Henry VIII had apparently insisted on their upkeep.
So it should probably read ..........the butts are defective/in disrepair. It doesn't specify any residents as responsible. Does this give any context to Rok net. Any archery experts out there?
The aforesaid inhabitants may refer to any of the tenants named above in the doc. as being present .

[HowardRichards]

Thanks to your various comments and suggestions I think I have the solution.

The latin should read more as follows: Etiam presentant quod inhabitantes predicti quod non habent anglice a Rok net secundum tenurem unam (?) formam et offendent statutum ideo in misericordia iis.

Research into rook net eventually found a website Statutes at Large Magna charta to 1800, which , on page 254 has a statute from 1532 ( Henry VIII) to enforce the destruction of rooks, crows etc as injurious to farmland and crops. Each village was responsible for the maintenance and use of net(s) to prevent harm to crops upon pain of a fine to the crown.
This manorial record is from April (1591) when rooks were beginning to nest and crops had been sown.
The translation should perhaps be something like:
They also present that aforesaid inhabitants who do not have English a Rook net according to the single form of tenure (?) and offend the statute are in mercy and fined 2 shillings.

[Olde Crone]

Well done Janet!

How curious though, that the scribe did not know the Latin word for Rook. Even I know that!

OC

[Janet]

My heart soars!

*lies down, fibrillating*

As usual, however, credit for the first solid pointer goes to Kite.