The University of Liverpool

Deeds and other manorial documents

The University Library holds important collections of deeds and other documents transferred in 1962 from the former School of Local History, most notably collections relating to the Norris family of Speke Hall, Lancashire and the Aston family of Cheshire.

This material can provide a wealth of information for local history; charting changes in place name and topography, in rents and taxes, and in estates and their tenants.

• Norris collection: 314 pieces belonging to the Norris family of Speke Hall, Lancashire, c.1220-1637
• Aston collection: English and Latin deeds, documents and maps (16th-19th century) largely relating to the family's estates in Cheshire, Berkshire, Warwickshire, and Leicestershire. There are over 700 deeds, rent rolls, accounts, receipts, inventories and bonds relating to the estates and their tenants, and fragments of court rolls and presentments from the manor courts. The collection also contains documents concerning the shrievalty of Cheshire, legal papers, correspondence, and maps of the Cheshire estates.
• Widnes Halmote rolls: 1 copy of court roll, 1748, and 76 rolls recording surrenders, admittances and enfranchisements, 1799-1863
• MS.F.3.12: Mss. cartulary of 13th-15th century deeds from the Kay family of Woodsome, York
• MS.4.27: 28 documents (1428-1818) from the Sir Thomas Philipps collection
• MS.23.1-2.2A: 113 pieces, documents relating to the Moore family of Bankhall, 17th century

The Norris collection, and a large part of the Aston collection, consist of various types of deeds. A deed is a legal document made between two or more parties which concerns ownership or tenure. They might concern physical property or rights and privileges associated with a property.
There are numerous types of document which can be considered deeds. Examples from the collections at Liverpool include:

• assignments
• bargain and sales
• bonds
• covenants (for example, to levy fines, to execute common recovery or to stand seized of reversion)
• defeasances
• feoffments
• final concords
• leases and releases
• marriage settlements
• mortgages
• surrenders

There are also a number of manorial documents in the Aston collection. The rules for the National Archives' Manorial Document Register define manorial documents as court rolls, surveys, maps, terriers, documents and books of every description relating to the boundaries, franchises, wastes, customs or courts of a manor.

• Online finding aid for Norris collection
• Online finding aid for Aston collection
• A Handlist of manuscripts and searchable database is kept in the Special Collections and Archives Reading Room
• John Brownbill, A calendar of ... deeds and papers of the Moore family of Bankhall, Co. Lanc. Manchester, 1913.
• J.H. Lumby, A Calendar of the Norris deeds, 1939
• Catalogue of the Aston Documents in Liverpool University Library, 1964.
• The language and handwriting of old deeds and documents (particularly those in Latin) can be off-putting, but the majority are formulaic, and once a reader has grasped the basic components of any type of deed, they should have little problem reading others. The University of Nottingham Manuscripts and Special Collections Department provides a good online introduction to deeds and other manorial documents, with glossaries of terms and bibliographies.