Norfolk Record Office Online Catalogue Help: Glossary

This is a glossary of terms likely to be found in the Norfolk Record Office catalogue descriptions. It is not exhaustive and if you find a term in a catalogue description which does not mean anything to you please contact us.

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Account: (a) A narration or description.
(b) A record or statement of money, goods or services received or expended, with the balance.
(c) A statement of the administration of money in trust.
AccessConditions: (NROCAT field) To provide information on the legal status or other regulations that restrict or affect access to the unit of description.
AccessStatus: (NROCAT field) To record the access status of the unit of description, whether it is available for consultation in the searchroom. This field flags restrictions to access imposed by law, the owner or the depositor.
Accruals: (NROCAT field) To inform the user of foreseen additions to the unit of description.
Acquisition: (NROCAT field) To identify the circumstances of the immediate source of acquisition or transfer.
Activity: (NROCAT field) To indicate the functions, occupations and activities performed by the corporate body, person or family.
AdminHistory: (NROCAT field) To provide an administrative history of, or biographical details on, the creator(s) of the unit of description to place the material in context and make it better understood.
Advowson: The right of patronage or of presenting a clergyman to a living.
Alienate: To grant land to someone else or an institution.
Almoner: Monastic official responsible for the collection and distribution of alms.
Almanac: An annual calendar of months and days, usually with astronomical data and other information.
Amercement: A fine levied by a court.
Appraisal: (NROCAT field) To provide information on any appraisal, destruction and scheduling action.
Appropriation: The making over of a benefice, its tithes and endowments to a monastery or bishop. See also Impropriation.
Appurtenances: The rights attached to a piece of land.
Archive: Materials which resulted from the business operations of the originating body.
Archdeacon: A diocesan official who, under the bishop, has chief supervision of part of the diocese or archdeaconry.
Arrangement: (NROCAT field) To provide information on the internal structure, the order and/or the system of classification of the unit of description.
Assize: A legal procedure.
Assize of bread and ale: A legal procedure that regulated the quality and price of bread and ale for sale.
AuthorizedFormsOfName: (NROCAT field) To create an authorized access point that uniquely identifies a corporate body, person or family.

Bailiff: The local official responsible for the day-to-day management of the manor. Performed a similar job to the Reeve, but the bailiff was salaried.
Benefice: Usually, a church living (with income).
Book: (a) A written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers.
(b) A literary composition intended for publication.
(c) A bound set of blank sheets for writing or keeping records in.
(d) (in plural) A set of records or accounts.
Booklet: A small book consisting of a few sheets usually with paper covers.
Bundle: A collection of things tied or fastened together.

Calendar: A list of documents with summaries of their contents. Usually arranged in chronological order.
Canon: Originally a secular priest, but after the Norman Conquest an increasing number of canons (canons regular) lived monastic lives, e.g. Augustinian canons.
Capital messuage: A messuage containing a high status dwelling house, often the manor house itself.
Cartulary: A book containing copies of deeds, charters, and other legal records.
Cash book: A book in which receipts and payments of cash are recorded.
CatalogueRef: (NROCAT field) To identify the repository and to provide a link between the archival material and the description that represents it.
CatalogueStatus: (NROCAT field) To record the catalogue status of a record. 'Catalogued' means the collection has been sorted and described. 'Uncatalogued' means a collection is described briefly as a whole, with possibly some mention of the more notable documents, but that a more detailed catalogue has yet to be undertaken.
Category: (NROCAT field) To record the predominant document type or types.
Cellarer: Monastic official or obedientary responsible for food supplies and outside trading.
Census: The official count of a population or of a class of things, often with various statistics noted.
Chapter: The chapter of a religious house consisted of all the full members. The part of the Rule read daily in the chapter house was also called the chapter.
Chattels: Moveable personal property.
Clerk: (a) Any clergyman.
(b) A man in minor orders.
(c) One in charge of accounts or records.
(d) A scholar.
ClosedUntil: (NROCAT field) To record the first date the unit of description is open to public access in the searchroom after a period of closure.
Collection: An artificial gathering together of manuscripts from diverse sources.
Copies: (NROCAT field) To indicate the existence, location and availability of copies of the unit of description.
Copy: (a) A transcript, reproduction or imitation of an original, as a writing, a picture or other work of art.
(b) The transcript of the manorial court roll.
(c) An individual example of a manuscript or print.
Copy admission or surrender: Copy of court roll admission or surrender.
Copy book: (a) A book containing copies of documents, accounts etc (now US).
(b) A book containing lines of writing for pupils to imitate.
(c) An exercise book.
Copyright: (NROCAT field) To identify any restrictions on the reproduction of the unit of description.
Correspondence: (a) Communication by letters.
(b) Letters sent or received.
Corrody: See Grant of Corrody.
Country: (NROCAT field) Leave blank for England or Wales. Channel Islands, Ireland and Scotland are treated as separate countries. Modern versions of countries are used, with an entry in Notes for any changes of name.
County: (NROCAT field) The 'historic' county in which the parish lies, i.e., ignoring administrative changes from the late 19th century onwards, e.g., Norfolk.
Court leet: A local court authorized by royal grant to hear cases of petty jurisdiction. Courts leet were often responsible for the view of Frankpledge.
Court roll: The record of a court's activities, so called because the parchment on which the record was written was filed as a roll. Later, books were used instead of rolls, but continued to record the same information.
CreatorName: (NROCAT field) To identify the creator(s) of the unit of description.
Croft: An enclosed plot of land, often adjacent to a dwelling house.
Curate: An assistant parish cleric.
CustodHist: (NROCAT field) To provide information on the history of the unit of description that is significant for its authenticity, integrity and interpretation.
Custumal: An inventory detailing all the various types of revenue which the lord was entitled to receive from his tenants. Set out the names of all the tenants along with the details of the land which they held and particulars of the rents, labour services and payments in kind which each of them owed to the lord. Brief rental of customs of the manor may be included. 12th-13th century, usually for manors, usually ecclesiastical.

Date: (NROCAT field) To identify and record the date(s) of the unit of description.
DatesAndPlaces: (NROCAT field) To indicate the predominant places and/or jurisdictions where the corporate body, person or family was based or had some other connection.
DatesOfExistence: (NROCAT field) To indicate the dates of existence of the corporate body or person as far as is known.
Day book: An account book in which a day's transactions are entered, for later transfer to a ledger.
Demesne: Part of the manor land which the lord of the manor farmed directly. The' home farm'.
Description: (NROCAT field) To enable users to judge the potential relevance of the unit of description.
Diary: (a) A daily record of events or thoughts.
(b) A book for this, or for noting future engagements, usually printed and containing other information.
Distrain/distraint: Temporary confiscation of land and/or goods to enforce a court's decision or recover a debt including the non-payment of a government rate or tax.
Dowry: Land or money handed over with the bride at marriage.
Drag(g)(e): As terrier. Local usage.

Escheator: The royal officer responsible for holding Inquisitions Post Mortem.
Essoin: An excuse for non-attendance at a court.
Estreat rolls: Record the details of the amercements or fines imposed by the court and the details of the heriots and entry fines to be collected often begin with a similar opening as the court rolls. List names of tenants who have been amerced and gives brief details of their offences, and of the amount they have to pay.
Extent: (a) (Document) Includes details relating to the demesne. All the items on the manor were described and valued in a set order, beginning with the manor house and demesne land and concluding with the tenants' rents and services.
(b) (NROCAT field) To identify and record: the physical or logical extent and the medium of the unit of description.

Fair copy: A copy of a document etc. after final correction.
Fee simple: Land held without restriction on inheritance.
Feodary: One who holds lands on condition of homage and service to an overlord. Also an officer concerned with inheritance of land.
Field book: (a) A book for the use in the field.
(b) The book in which a land surveyor notes down the measurements as taken in the field.
(c) A botanist's or naturalist's book for preserving collected specimens while in the field.
File: (a) A folder, box, etc. for holding loose papers, especially arranged for reference.
(b) A set of papers kept in a file.
(c) Any group of documents of heterogeneous size or shape filed on a string or spike or otherwise.
(d) Any document formed of sheets fixed at the corner or head.
Final concord: A legal agreement or settlement.
FindingAids: (NROCAT field) To identify any finding aids to the unit of description.
Foldcourse: An area designated for sheep grazing.
Folder: (a) A folding cover or holder for loose papers.
(b) A folded leaflet.
Fonds: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) The whole of the documents, regardless of form or medium, organically created and/or accumulated and used by a particular person, family, or corporate body in the course of that creator's activities and functions.
Format: (NROCAT field) To record formats with specialist storage and packing requirements beyond the BS5454 requirements for paper and parchment.
Frankpledge: The system by which the householders of a manor or village were grouped into Tithings in order that each tithing could be held corporately responsible for the good behaviour of its members. Cases of law-breaking were heard twice a year at a View of Frankpledge.
Furlong: A sub-division of open arable lands.

Gathering: A gathering is any number of leaves folded down the centre and sewn as a book.
Gender: (NROCAT field) Male or Female.
Genealogy: (NROCAT field) Explain the interrelationship(s) between members of the family(ies) if helpful.
GeneralContext: (NROCAT field) Any other relevant information.
Glebe: The landed endowment of a parish church. The parish incumbent did not hold the land in freehold and not until the 19th century, could glebe land be sold or exchanged.
Grant of Corrody: An annual allowance for maintenance or food.
GridRef: (NROCAT field) OS grid reference.

Hamlet: (NROCAT field) The township or hamlet in which the site lies, i.e., different to a parish, e.g., Spooner Row, Heigham, Lakenham, Bracondale.
Hayward: Manor or parish officer responsible for fences and enclosures. Sometimes called Messor.
Headland: A ridge of unploughed land at the head of arable strips in open fields providing access to each strip and a turning place for the plough.
Heriot: Also Harriot. A feudal service. Originally consisting of weapons, horses, or other military equipment, restored to a lord on the death of his tenant; afterwards a render of the best beast or dead chattel of a deceased tenant. Became a payment due to the lord of the manor on the death of a tenant.
History: (NROCAT field) To provide a concise history of the corporate body, person or family.
Homage: Acknowledgement of allegiance to a superior.
Hundred: Administrative sub-division of a county, comprising several parishes.

IdentifiersForCorpBodies: (NROCAT field) To provide any numeric or alpha-numeric identifiers that are used to identify the corporate body.
Impropriation: The making over of a benefice, its greater tithes and endowments to a lay person. See also Appropriation.
Incumbent: The person holding a benefice.
Indenture: An agreement written two, three, or more times on a single parchment. To insure against forgery, the copies - one for each party to the agreement - were separated by irregular, wavy cuts.
Infangenthief: The right sought by borough and manor courts to apprehend and punish anyone caught thieving within the boundaries of their jurisdiction.
Infirmarium: Monastic official responsible for the infirmary or sick quarters.
Inquisition: An inquiry.
Inquisition Post Mortem: An inquiry into the holdings, services, and succession of a deceased person, who held land of the monarch.
InternalStructures: (NROCAT field) To describe and/or represent the internal administrative structure(s) of a corporate body.
Item: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) The smallest intellectually indivisible archival unit, e.g., a letter, memorandum, report, photograph, sound recording.

Journal: (a) A daily record of events.
(b) A log book.
(c) A book in which business transactions are entered, with a statement of the accounts to which each is to be debited and credited.

Knight's fee: Originally a grant of land in exchange for undertaking to supply a lord with the services of a fully armed knight and his necessary servants for forty days each year. Eventually, payment was made by rent, and knight's fees were often divided amongst several tenants.

Language: (NROCAT field) To identify the language(s), scripts and symbol systems employed in the unit of description.
Leaflet: A sheet of paper, usually printed, sometimes folded but not stitched giving information, especially for free distribution.
Ledger: A tall narrow book in which a firm's accounts are kept, especially one which is the principal book of a set and contains debtor-and-creditor accounts.
Leet: See Court leet.
LegalStatus: (NROCAT field) To indicate the legal status of a corporate body.
Letter(s): (a) A written, typed or printed communication, usually, sent by post or messenger.
(b) (in plural) An addressed legal or formal document for any of various purposes.
Letters Close: Private letter or letters.
Letters Patent: An open document from the sovereign or government conferring a patent, or other right.
Level: (NROCAT field) To identify the level of arrangement of the unit of description: Fonds, Sub-fonds; Sub-sub-fonds; Series; Sub-series; Sub-sub-series; Sub-sub-sub-series; Piece; and Item.
Living: Ecclesiastically, a benefice, a position in the church such as a parish.
Log book: Any systematic record of things done or experienced.

Mandates: (NROCAT field) To indicate the sources of authority for the corporate body, person or family, in terms of their powers, functions, responsibilities or sphere of activities, including territorial.
Manor: A feudal freehold estate. Manors varied considerably in size, but usually the lord of the manor, or his deputy, presided over a manor court, which administered the manor lands and controlled the manor tenants. Since manors were held in fee simple, they passed automatically from the lord to his heir.
Map: (a) A usually flat representation of the earth's surface, or part of it, showing physical features, cities, etc.
(b) A diagrammatic representation of a route etc.
Memoir: (a) A historical account or biography written from personal knowledge or special sources.
(b) An autobiography or a written account of one's memory of certain events or people.
Memoranda/um book: (a) A note or record made for future use.
(b) An informal written message e.g. in business, diplomacy, etc.
(c) A document recording the terms of a contract or other legal details.
Messor: See Hayward.
Messuage: A plot of land containing a dwelling house and outbuildings.
Metropolitan: Ecclesiastically, an archbishop.
Minute(s): (a) A brief summary of the proceedings at a meeting. Sometimes in the form of a book.
(b) An official memorandum authorizing or recommending a course of action.
Moiety: One of two parts into which an estate was divided: not necessarily a half.

Notebook: A small book for making or taking notes.
Notes: (NROCAT field, Catalogue database) To provide information that cannot be accommodated in any of the other areas.
Notes: (NROCAT field, Places database) To record changes in name or boundary or other information of use to identify the place, e.g., formerly Elsewhere. Use for major spelling variants and aliases, e.g., Elsware, alias Elsewhere.

Obedientary: A monk in charge of an administrative department inside a monastery.
Official: Ecclesiastically, the judge or presiding officer of an archbishop's, bishop's or archdeacon's court.
Originals: (NROCAT field) To indicate the existence, location, availability and/or destruction of the originals where the unit of description consists of copies.
OtherFormsOfName: (NROCAT field) To indicate any other name(s) for the corporate body, person or family. Record other names by which the entity may be known.
Ouster le Main (Out of the hand): (a) A delivery of lands out of the king's hands by judgment given in favour of the petitioner in a plea of right where the petitioner challenged the Crown's title.
(b) A delivery of the ward's lands out of the hands of a guardian on the former arriving at the proper age, which was 21 in males and sixteen in females. Abolished by the Tenures Abolition Act, 1660.
Oyer and Terminer: To hear and give judgement. A court of Oyer and Terminer was one of final judgement usually held by one of the king's judges.

Packet: A small package.
Pamphlet: A small, usually unbound booklet or leaflet containing information or a short treatise.
Pannage: The right to feed pigs in the woods. Also the payment made to hold that right.
Papers: A natural accumulation of personal and family materials.
Parish: (NROCAT field) The 'ancient' or ecclesiastical parish in which the site or township lies, e.g., Thorpe St Andrew.
ParallelFormsOfName: (NROCAT field) To indicate the various forms in which the Authorized form of name occurs in other language or script form(s), e.g., Welsh.
Pattern book: (a) A book of patterns or designs.
(b) A blank book of cardboards to hold patterns.
PhysicalDesc: (NROCAT field) To provide information about any important physical characteristics or technical requirements that affect the use of the unit of description.
Piece: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) An organized unit of documents grouped together either for current use by the creator or in the process of archival arrangement, because they relate to the same subject, activity, or transaction. A piece is usually the basic unit within a record series.
Pightle: An enclosed yard or croft, often adjoining a dwelling house.
Pinder: The villager responsible for putting stray animals in the pinfold or pound.
Pipe roll: Record of payments made to the Exchequer.
Pittancer: Monastic official responsible for supplying pittances, the extra food given to the community on feast days.
PlaceName: (NROCAT field) The actual locality referred to: a building name, a road or street address, or a landscape feature. Do not use hyphens, e.g., Walsham le Willows, not Walsham-le-Willows.
Plan: (a) A drawing or diagram made by projection on a horizontal plane especially a building or one floor of a building.
(b) A large scale detailed map of a town or district.
Plea: Action at law. Pleas of the crown were cases reserved for the King's justices. The court of common pleas heard civil actions only.
Prebend: The portion of the property of the cathedral granted to a prebendary for his maintenance.
Precentor: The priest responsible for conducting choir services in a cathedral or monastery.
PublnNote: (NROCAT field) To identify any publications that are about or based on the use, study, or analysis of the unit of description.

Quit rent: Money payment made by a small landholder in place of traditional services.
Quitclaim: A charter formally renouncing a claim to land.
Quo Warranto: Latin 'by what warrant'. Writ issued by the Court of the King's Bench from mid-13th century demanding proof of liberty holders rights to enjoy such privileges.

Receiver's accounts: Accounts kept by a lord's receiver, possibly covering several manors and/or estates. Begins with the 'charge' or the money to be gathered from rents, profits by the sale of commodities, imposition of fines by the manor court and the payments of heriots. Then, the 'discharges' e.g. purchase of seed corn or equipment. The balance or profit, is the difference between the two.
Recognisance: A bond agreed in court binding a person to undertake a stated action. Recognisances were also taken by J.P.s acting together or individually outside of the normal sittings of Quarter Sessions.
Records: Documents created or received and maintained by an agency, organization or individual in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business.
Rector: Person or institution entitled to the endowment of a parish church, e.g. the tithes and glebe.
Rectory: The residence of the rector; the lands belonging to a rector.
Recusancy: The legal offence of refusing to attend the established church. Recuso: I refuse.
Reeve: A deputy. (a) The shire reeve (sheriff) was the King's deputy in the county.
(b) The manor reeve the lord's deputy in the manor court responsible for the day-to-day management of the manor. Performed the same task as the Bailiff, but was elected from the tenantry.
Refectorian: Monastic official in charge of the refectory or frater.
Register: (a) An official list e.g. births, marriages, deaths, shipping, voters.
(b) A book in which items are recorded for reference.
Regular clergy: Clergy living according to a religious rule. Monks and friars were regulars.
RelatedMaterial: (NROCAT field) To identify related units of description.
Relationships: (NROCAT field) Information that connects the corporate body, person or family with any corporate body or other persons and/or families, e.g., parentage, siblings, marriage and children, especially when significant to the archives.
Rental: (a) The amount paid or received as rent.
(b) The act of renting.
(c) An income from rents.
(d) The record of rents for payment or received.
(e) The record of rents that the lord was entitled to collect.
Rental rolls: Record the actual amounts paid by tenants rather than the amounts due from them, the tenants name and sum paid.
Repository: (NROCAT field) To record the institution responsible for the custody of the document or collection.

Sac and Soc: The right to hold a court and require tenants to attend it.
Sacrist: The official responsible for the utensils used in divine service.
Scrapbook: A book of blank pages for sticking cuttings, drawings, etc. in.
Scutage: A money payment made to the King instead of personal military service. Scutage became increasingly usual from the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) onwards.
Secular clergy: Priests who live among laymen and not in a religious order. Bishops, parish priests, and curates are all seculars.
Seize: Possess. A freeholder was said to be seized of his land. To be disseized was to be dispossessed.
Seneschal: Steward.
Sketch: (a) A rough, slight, merely outlined, or unfinished drawing or painting, often made to assist in making a more finished picture.
(b) A brief account without many details conveying a general idea of something, a rough draft or general outline.
(c) A sketch map - a roughly drawn map with few details.
Socage: Tenure without servile obligation; the tenant usually paid a rent.
Spiritualities: Tithes, gifts, and other ecclesiastical sources of income belonging to a bishop or religious house. See also Temporalities.
Sub-fonds: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) A subdivision of a fonds containing a body of related documents corresponding to administrative subdivisions in the originating agency or organization or, when that is not possible, to geographical, chronological, functional, or similar groupings of the material itself. When the creating body has a complex hierarchical structure, each subgroup has as many subordinate subgroups as are necessary to reflect the levels of the hierarchical structure of the primary subordinate administrative unit.
Sub-series: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) A sub-series of records within a series.
Sub-sub-fonds: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) Sub-division of sub-fonds.
Sub-sub-series: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) Sub-division of sub-series.
Sub-sub-sub-series: (NROCAT field, Catalogue level) Sub-division of sub-sub-series.
Suit of court: The right and obligation to attend a court.
Survey: Manorial 16th century detailed, a written description of a manor. Contains a description of the boundaries of the manor; a presentment by the Jury of survey relating to the customs of the manor; a rent roll or rental of all the tenants of the manor giving their names, details of the land they hold, by what tenure and for what rent.
Synod: An ecclesiastical council or assembly.

Tallage: A tax, usually levied arbitrarily by a lord on his vassals.
Temporalities: Land, buildings, and other secular sources of income belonging to the bishop or religious house. See also Spiritualities.
Tenement: A landholding.
Terrier: A register of landed property described by site, boundaries and acreage.
Tithe: Payment to the church of a tenth of the produce of the land. In a parish the great tithes, i.e. tenths of the main products (e.g. major crops such as wheat and oats), went to the rector, and the small tithes (e.g. on produce regarded as minor and more difficult to collect such as lambs and eggs) to the vicar.
Tithing: A group of householders in the Frankpledge system. Originally a tithing had ten members, but eventually numbers varied considerably.
Title: (NROCAT field) To name the unit of description.
Toft: An enclosure for a farmstead.
Town: (NROCAT field) Areas and towns, such as those with smaller areas within them, e.g., Thetford.
Turbary: The right to dig peat for fuel.
TypeOfEntity: (NROCAT field) To indicate whether the entity being described is a corporate body, person or family.

There is nothing in this section at the moment.

Vestry: The governing body of a parish. Replaced by the Parochial Church Council.
Vicar: Parson of a parish where the tithes had been appropriated or impropriated so that he received only the smaller tithes.
Vicar General: An official representing the Archbishop or bishop.
Vill: A settlement; a hamlet.
Villein: An unfree peasant or villager, who usually farmed strips in the common fields, and, therefore was better off than a serf.

Wayleave Consent: Right of access to or over land.

There is nothing in this section at the moment.

Yeoman: (a) a man holding and cultivating a small landed estate
(b) a person qualified by possessing free land of an annual value of 40 shillings to serve on juries, vote for the Knight of the Shire at elections, etc.

There is nothing in this section at the moment.

Useful publications:

John Richardson, Local Historian's Encyclopedia (2003)
Rosemary Millward, A glossary of household, farming, and trade terms from probate inventories (Derbyshire Record Society Occasional Paper, 1, 1986)
David Yaxley, A researcher's glossary of words found in historical documents of East Anglia (2003)

Norfolk Record Office online catalogue

Glossary of Terms