manor
(ˈmænə(r))
Forms: 3–6 maner, 4 manayre, 4–5 manere, 5 mano(i)re, manoyr(e, -ayr, manure, 5–6 manoir, 6–7 manner, 6–8 manour, 6–9 mannor, 7–8 mannour, 6– manor.
[a. OF. manoir dwelling, habitation, subst. use of manoir inf., to dwell:—L. manēre to remain.
Latinized as manērium in France and England as early as the 11th c.; subsequently maneria occurs in general continental use.]
† 1. a. A mansion, habitation; a country residence; the principal house of an estate, ‘capital messuage’.
A surviving trace of this use appears in the designations of certain ancient manor-houses, e.g. Wingfield Manor, Worksop Manor; the houses so named are of course locally known as ‘the Manor’.
| c 1290 Beket 524 in S. Eng. Leg. I. 121 Ich hote ov euerechone, þat ȝe beon þat ilke dai At mi maner at Clarindone. 1297 R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10231 Þe bissop of eli & þe king sone wende To a maner þer biside. 1375 Barbour Bruce xvi. 337 In the hawch of lyntoun-le He gert thame mak a fair maner. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 308 Ac now is religioun a ryder, a rowmer bi stretes,..A priker on a palfray from manere to manere. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxi. 95 Of þir redez þai make þare houses and maneres and schippez and þaire oþer necessaries. c 1450 Bk. Curtasye 601 in Babees Bk. 197 Of þe resayuer speke wylle I, Þat..ouer-seys castels, maners a-boute. 1470–85 Malory Arthur vi. ix. 195 Whan that ye come within yonder manayr I am sure ye shal fynde ther many knyȝtes of the round table. 1530 Palsgr. 242/2 Manner a dwellyng place, maison de plaisance. 1549 Latimer Ploughers (Arb.) 26 They are so troubeled wyth Lordelye lyuynge,..and moylynge in their gaye manoures..that they canne not attende it. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 26 Thys yere the kynge byldyd new hys maner of Shene. 1561 J. Dolman (title) Those fyve Questiones, which..Cicero disputed in his Manor of Tusculanum. 1610 Histrio-m. v. 216 They have..ruin'd Churches, Townes, Burn't goodly Manours, and indeed lay'd wast All the whole Country. |
† b. fig. An abode or resting place.
Obs.| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vi. 76 Þe Mot is of Merci þe maner al abouten, And alle þe walles beþ of wit to holde wil þeroute. c 1369 Chaucer Dethe Blaunche 1004 Trouthe him selfe,..Had chose his maner principal In her that was his restyng place. 1413 Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton 1483) iii. x. 56 This pytte is the chyef and the manoyr of helle that is clepid Abissus. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 178, I shal be constrained, to entertaine some of them into the manour of my memorie. |
† 2. The mansion of a lord with the land belonging to it; hence, a landed possession.
Obs.| [1292 Britton ii. xix. §4 Car en une vile porrount estre plusours paroches, et en une paroche plusours maners, et hameletz plusours porrount apendre a un maner.] c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 7431 Þe kyng gaf Hengist faire maners. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 1028 Þenne helde vch sware of þis manayre, Twelue forlonge space er euer hit fon. 1382 Wyclif John iv. 5 Therfore Jhesu cam in to a citee of Samarie,..bisydis the manere [L. prædium],..that Jacob ȝaf to Joseph, his sone. c 1410 Sir Cleges 62 His maners he ded to wede sett. 1470–85 Malory Arthur iv. xii. 134, I wylle that ye gyue vnto your broder alle the hole manoir with the appertenaunce vnder thys forme, that sir Ontzelake hold the manoir of yow and yerely to gyue yow a palfrey to ryde vpon. 1600 Shakes. All's Well iii. ii. 10, I know a man that had this tricke of melancholy hold [sold] a goodly Mannor for a song. |
3. a. A unit of English territorial organization, originally of the nature of a feudal lordship.
The doctrine of the lawyers of the 17th c. is that a manor consists essentially of land held in demesne by the lord, to which is attached a seignory over freehold tenants sufficient in number (the minimum is variously stated as two or three) to constitute the court, called at a relatively late time the court-baron, which the lord is bound to hold and the tenants to attend. (The manor was often defined from the point of view of its relation to the lord, as an estate in land consisting of demesnes and services.) This restriction of the meaning of the word is destitute of early authority (though the kind of complex estate described probably existed from the 12th century), but is the basis of the present application. As the status of tenant in fee under a mesne lord is practically obsolete, a manor now consists of the lord's demesne (if any exists) and of lands from the holders of which he has the right to exact certain fees and fines, and within which he has certain privileges. A ‘court customary’ is held in all manors where there are copyhold or customary tenants of the demesne. A manor is usually named from the principal township, as ‘the manor of Barnstaple’.
| 1538 tr. Littleton's Tenures (1544) 18 b, In dyuers lordshyps & maners there is suche custome. 1601 W. Fulbecke 1st Pt. Parall. 18 A manor is an inheritance of auncient continuance consisting of demesnes & seruices, perquisites, casualties, things appendant and regardant, customes, liberties, &c. 1605 Camden Rem. 221 A Mannor of a hundred tenements. 1608–28 Risdon Note Bk. (1897) 124 Unto him the king gave Constanc, his base daughter, with the mannor of South Tawton. 1620 J. Wilkinson Court Leet 141 If the Lord purchase their Lands, the Manor is destroyed. 1670 Cotton Espernon ii. v. 235 This Ancient and Illustrious Family, are possessors of many goodly Mannors in Guienne. 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 351 The Scholars, according to Custom, hunted a Ram, by which, the Provost and Fellows [of Eton] hold a Manor. 1797 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) X. 543/2 By an ancient custom of this manor [Mansfield], the heirs were declared of age as soon as born. 1812 Combe Picturesque xxii. (Chandos ed.) 86 You'll see what game my manor yields. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages viii. (1868) 428 Few of English birth continued to enjoy entire manors, even by a mesne tenure. 1890 Sir F. Pollock Oxford Lect. 117 In the English manor the community is the oldest element, and the lordship a newer one. |
| fig. 1819 W. Lawrence Comp. Anat. ii. (1844) 28 The manor of living nature is so ample, that all may be allowed to sport on it freely. 1874 A. J. Munby Diary 20 Apr. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 366, I was ‘struck all of a heap’ by seeing..a picture of Wigan wenches working at brow. What right had this artist to poach on my manor..? |
b. With qualifications.
assessionable manor, one of the manors into which the duchy of Cornwall is divided, to which commissioners are appointed periodically for the purpose of assessing them, or letting them on the best terms;
customary manor (see
quot.);
reputed manor,
manor by reputation, a manor which has lost its manorial status by expiry of some necessary adjunct;
manor in ancient demesne, a manor which at the time of the Conquest formed part of the royal domain;
manor in gross, a manor from which the demesne has been separated, leaving only the incorporeal hereditaments to the lord.
| 1607 J. Cowell Interpr. s.v. Maner, A man may haue a maner in grosse (as the law termeth it) that is, the right and interest of a court Baron with the perquisites thereunto belonging: and another or others haue euery foote of the land thereunto belonging. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 388/1 In the assessionable manors, parcel of the duchy of Cornwall, customary estates for years still subsist. Ibid. 389/1 Such an estate is however more frequently called ‘a manor by reputation’. Ibid. 389/2 The estate of the grantor, which..would consist of the mansion and the other ungranted portions of the villenage, with the services of the grantees appendant thereto, was called a customary manor. 1890 Sir F. Pollock Oxford Lect. 114 A ‘reputed manor’ will serve as well as a real manor for most purposes. |
c. lord of the manor, the person or corporation having the seignorial rights of a manor.
| 1605 Order of keeping a Court Leet 29 b, Note that all the vacant and wast land within the Manour, is to the Lord of the Manour. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 309 It is most strange and unaccountable Policy in many Lords of Mannors. 1765 Blackstone Comm. I. xii. 387 All lords of manors, or barons, that held of the king in capite, had seats in the great council. 1817 W. Selwyn Law Nisi Prius (ed. 4) II. 834 Lords of manors are distinguished from other landowners with respect to the game. 1858 W. Arnot Laws fr. Heaven Ser. ii. xxix. 237 The lord of the manor passed by. |
d. In some of the American colonies, authority was given by royal charter for the creation of ‘manors’ after the English model, with courts-baron and seignorial rights. The Dutch governors of what is now the State of New York also granted ‘manors’, with certain hereditary privileges now abolished. (See
quot. 1870 and
patroon 4.) The term still continues to be applied to certain districts in the
U.S. which were ‘manors’ in colonial times.
| 1639 Act in Arch. Maryland (1883) I. 71 Punishment of death shall be inflicted on a Lord of a Mannour by beheading. 1681 Chas. II Charter granted to Penn §19 We give and grant Licence unto the said William Penn, and his Heirs, [etc.]..to erect any Parcels of Land within the Province aforesaid into Manors..; and in every of the said Manors to have and to hold a Court-Baron [etc.]. 1691 Acts of Assembly New York (1719) 2 The several Cities, Towns, Counties, Shires, Divisions, or Manors of this Province. Ibid. 69 Being a Free-holder in any Manor, Liberty, Jurisdiction, Precinct, or Out-Plantation. 1870 Burrill Law Dict. s.v., In American Law, a manor is a tract held of a proprietor by a fee-farm rent in money or in kind, and descending to oldest son, who in New York is called a patroon. 1883 Encycl. Amer. I. 198 The manors, as the grants of the early Dutch rulers of New Netherland were called, have disappeared under the pressure of republican institutions. |
e. slang. A police district; a local unit of police administration. Also
transf., one's home ground, one's own particular territory.
| 1924 S. Scott Human Side Crook & Convict Life vii. 107 There are straight crooks and crooked crooks on the ‘Manor’ of a detective, and he gets to know them apart. 1928 E. Wallace Gunner xii. 93, I wouldn't advise you to break in on Gennett's ‘manor’—he's rather touchy, and he's got charge of the case. 1945 M. Allingham Coroner's Pidgin xxiii. 202 Do you realize who the Coroner is for those parts?.. It's Montie Forster's manor. 1959 Observer 1 Mar. 10/1 This ‘manor’—a tenement neighbourhood in North London—is theirs by right of birth and conquest. 1961 C. Witting Driven to Kill 24 If anything's happened to Pearce, it's in my manor, so I'm interested. 1962 R. Cook Crust on its Uppers iv. 47 ‘Then they whipped him down to the nick on the hurry-up.’ ‘Which manor?’ ‘The local nick.’ Ibid. 49 ‘Where to for the next one?’ says he. ‘Well off the manor, if you like.’ 1970 P. Laurie Scotland Yard 287 Every non-policeman knows that detectives call their working-area their ‘manor’ or ‘patch’... What they actually said was ‘ground’. 1974 Times 23 Nov. 2/6 Mr Buck is trying to alter that situation by appealing to everyone in his ‘manor’ (with a population one million higher than that of Northern Ireland) to dial 999 at the slightest sign of suspicious activity. |
4. attrib., as
manor-court,
manor-farm,
manor-hall,
manor law,
manor lord,
manor-pew,
manor-yard. Also
manor-house,
manor-place.
| 1786 W. Gilpin Mount. & Lakes Cumbld. (1788) II. 231 His *manor-courts are kept with great strictness. 1890 Sir F. Pollock Oxford Lect. 130 It will not do, therefore, to assume that the manor court was made out of an older township court. |
| 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. ii. 51 It hath been anciently a great *manor-farm or court-house. |
| 1856 Emerson Eng. Traits, Stonehenge Wks. (Bohn) II. 126 It [Wilton Hall] is..esteemed a noble specimen of the English *manor-hall. |
| 1887 Athenæum 20 Aug. 235/3 Books on *manor law became common. |
| 1899 G. M. Trevelyan Engl. Age Wycliffe 339 If Lollard preachers had attacked..the rights of the *manor lords, they soon ceased to do so. |
| 1892 J. C. Blomfield Hist. Heyford 46 Pews of different sizes, with the *manor-pew overtopping the rest. |
| 1667 Duchess of Newcastle Life Dk. of N. iii. (1886) 158 The enemy..made a passage into the *manor-yard. |