Description

This highly detailed analysis of the medieval records of Forncett Manor, first published in 1906, is a case study of the development of an agricultural estate from early medieval to Tudor times. The economic system of the manor and the people who depended on it, aristocrats, tenants and serfs, is described and statistics are given where they can be extrapolated from the surviving records. Appendices list and transcribe important sections of the archive, including lists of tenants and financial records, as well as relevant passages of the Domesday Book. Starting from the documentary evidence, Harvard-trained Davenport does not speculate beyond the facts and offers little interpretation. However, she creates a highly instructive case study for medieval economic history that remains a rich source of valuable information for historians of later generations.