Catalogue description KINGTON AND HUNTINGTON MANORIAL RECORDS

• Borough of Kington, Herefordshire
• English Huntington, Herefordshire
• Welsh Huntington, Herefordshire
• Kington, Herefordshire
• Eardisley, Herefordshire

The deeds and papers listed here fall into two main sections, firstly muniments of title and manorial documents for the manors of English and Welsh Huntington and Kington, and secondly deeds and papers relating to Eardisley and Kington and to parishes in Brecon and Radnor.

The manorial documents consist almost entirely of court rolls in draft form on paper files. The courts represented are the court baron and court customary of the Manor of English Huntington (dealing with property in the parish of Kington) and separate courts leet for English Huntington and the Borough of Kington. The bulk of the rolls for the court baron and court customary of English Huntington cover the years 1840-1862 and show the descent of farms in the parish of Kington most of which can still be identified. They also throw light on the ramifications of local families, particularly the Woodhouses, and give full details of property in the manor inherited by the Earls of Oxford from the Vaughan family of Hergest. The rolls for the court leet of the Borough of Kington, which was a subsidiary manor within the manor of English Huntington, cover the years 1809-1838 with some gaps. As the governing body of the borough the court controlled its fairs, markets and trade, appointed the borough officers and punished and remedied public nuisances. In 1837 or 1838 it lost its control of fairs and markets, but there is no evidence to suggest why this happened or who took over its functions in this sphere. It was still apparently the governing body of the town in 1851, but some time between then and 1867 the government of the town was vested in the Improvement Commissioners set up under the Kington Improvement Act of 1829. Apart from the proceedings of the court the rolls contain lists of inhabitants owing suit of court, lists of inhabitants summoned as jurors, nominations of officers and various other subsidiary documents. The only surviving manorial documents for the manor of Welsh Huntington, another subsidiary manor, are a list of the inhabitants of the upper division of Brilley and a precept to the bailiff to summon jurors; slight evidence that it also had a separate court leet.

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