assart: a clearing from woods or waste

bondage: a system whereby land was held for defined services

bovate: an oxgang or the amount of land an ox could plough in a year; one-eighth of a ploughland or carucate

carucate: a unit of taxation in the Danelaw equivalent to eight bovates

chirograph: a formal document, signed and sealed; sometimes copied and sealed twice before separation for each of two parties

curtilage: land on which a dwelling and outbuildings are situated

deforciant: a defendant

demesne: land on a manor that was reserved for a lord's own use

eyre: from the Latin word iter (journey); court of justice held by itinerant royal justices in the shires

fee: lordship

feoffaments: the original form of conveyance

free alms: charitable donation

homage: formal acknowledgement of allegiance to a feudal superior

messuage: a dwelling-house and its surrounding property

moiety: half share

multure: a toll on grain ground at a mill

oxgang: see bovate

reeve: an elected intermediary between a lord and his tenants

rod: a quarter of an acre

seisin: possession of property as distinct from ownership

selions: strips in open fields

soke: land held by free peasants who owed suit of court and other customary dues to the lord of the manor

subinfeudation: the grant of a fief or fee by a chief lord to a sub-tenant on condition of service or payment

syke: a small stream of water, often used as a boundary between lands

tenement: rented property

vill: the smallest unit of local government; a township

villeinage: unfree tenancy of manorial land

Map 1.

Beauchief Abbey: local properties

Map 2.

Beauchief abbey: properties in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire