Did Martin West own his Farm?

[AlanBoyd]

Burial in the Chapelry of Bolton Abbey, 6th May 1843
Martin West, age 78, abode Hag Head.
If you have access:
https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=GBPRS%2FYORKSHIRE%2FBUR%2F600012733&tab=this

[AlanBoyd]

If the Martin West who was at Hag Head in 1841 was born ~1765, this would be consistent with him being the grandson of the will-making Martin West, so perhaps he was the third life, as suggested in reply #2. Then upon his death the lease was transferred to Francis Shiers?

[DianaCanada]

If the Martin West who was at Hag Head in 1841 was born ~1765, this would be consistent with him being the grandson of the will-making Martin West, so perhaps he was the third life, as suggested in reply #2. Then upon his death the lease was transferred to Francis Shiers?

Yes I had done a bit of looking at the later Martins - the one in 1841 is his grandson and that Martin's father was Martin II.  It does seem to fit in with the three lives tenancy.
I did have a peruse through the internet for information on Bolton Abbey - I had noticed the Duke of Devonshire connection.  They still do, am not sure exactly how.
Now I will have to see if I can prove Sarah Spofforth was Martin I's wife.
Thank you for everyone's help.  I've learned a lot.

[DianaCanada]

If the Martin West who was at Hag Head in 1841 was born ~1765, this would be consistent with him being the grandson of the will-making Martin West, so perhaps he was the third life, as suggested in reply #2. Then upon his death the lease was transferred to Francis Shiers?

Where did you find Francis Shiers?  I can't see him living in Bolton Abbey in 1851.

[AlanBoyd]

I stopped adding to the research because it seemed to be getting too far from your original question.

Francis Shiers died in 1845, aged 59. In 1851 his widow Hannah is a farmer at Hawpike living with her son Benjamin, aged 17. As I mentioned above, the Hagg Head tithe record dates from 1847.

I’m now thinking that the sequence of events was:
Martin West died in 1843 whereupon Francis Shiers took on the lease of Hagg Head, essentially combining two adjoining farms both owned by the D of D.
Francis Shiers died in 1845 but his son Benjamin was too young to inherit (and presumably Hannah couldn’t inherit a lease)
When the 1847 tithe record was made Benjamin was still too young to inherit so the annotation ‘Shiers’ on the records is some sort of shorthand for ‘Executors of Francis Shiers’.

Benjamin Shiers was still a farmer at Hawpike in 1891, but retired before 1901.

[DianaCanada]

I stopped adding to the research because it seemed to be getting too far from your original question.

Francis Shiers died in 1845, aged 59. In 1851 his widow Hannah is a farmer at Hawpike living with her son Benjamin, aged 17. As I mentioned above, the Hagg Head tithe record dates from 1847.

I’m now thinking that the sequence of events was:
Martin West died in 1843 whereupon Francis Shiers took on the lease of Hagg Head, essentially combining two adjoining farms both owned by the D of D.
Francis Shiers died in 1845 but his son Benjamin was too young to inherit (and presumably Hannah couldn’t inherit a lease)
When the 1847 tithe record was made Benjamin was still too young to inherit so the annotation ‘Shiers’ on the records is some sort of shorthand for ‘Executors of Francis Shiers’.

Benjamin Shiers was still a farmer at Hawpike in 1891, but retired before 1901.

Thank you, grateful for any information on the tenancy. 

[BushInn1746]

Bolton Abbey is not far from Skipton.

Could be he left the lease of the farm? He might have held it for "three lives" (his own, a son and grandson perhaps) and have left the remaining lease to someone else, perhaps a second grandson? I think that was possible.

This is the exact wording on the will: "Item I will that my son Martin with the Leave of the Lord and Owner thereof have the farm where I now dwell."

Leave of the Lord

Might also mean the property was Copyhold meaning that the Manor Court dealt with the Transfer, rather than the appropriate Yorkshire Deeds Registry (which survive from the early 1700s).

When my family were transferring Copyhold property we owned, my family would instruct a Solicitor to:-
1) approach The Manor Land Agent / Estate Office and get a valuation a % of the property value to be Admitted to the Manor.
2) Pay the Admission and get a Manor Court date.
3) Attend the Manor Court and while the Transfer and Admission took place, hold a straw in your hand if it was the Custom of that Manor (it was for us).
4) The Transfer was then entered in the Manor Court Rolls and The Admissions Book.

Quite a lot of Manor Court Rolls survive in Archives, University Special Collections and some have been found in the British Library Dept Manuscripts and places like that.

Some straws that people held in the Manor Court were affixed to the Transfer admission document and sometimes in Archive Collections you will see a description and it says ... with Straw attached or similar wording.

The Manor Court documents, are more likely to give more information about the exact type of Tenure and Transfer.

Mark

Added: Some Rented / Leased Manor property could also transferred from one family member to another. Let for a specific Term of Years.

Surviving Manor Rolls (Manor Court Rolls), Survey, Rentals can sometimes be really useful to the Family Historian and House researcher and give a clue to the exact type of Tenure and situation.

2nd Add
When the Manor sold our village pub in 1766, the first owners had to pay a Quit Rent for 35 years according to the Rental Books.

It was also noticed at another Archive (which also held some Manor MSS for 1764 - 1765) that the Pub Licensee had sat on the Manor Court, describing him as Owing Suit to the Court and naming him.

[BushInn1746]

The 1761 Burial is recorded in PR/BNA 1/1

Described as "Bolton Abbey Parish Registers" held at North Yorkshire County Record Office.

1761
July 7. Martin West buried

I was hoping the image might have more detail.

Yorkshire Archaeological Society (documents, usually held at Leeds University Special Collections)

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.yas.org.uk/Portals/0/Collections%2520Guide%252011Feb2018.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj8-7rDl8yPAxXcWUEAHUhsJBkQFnoFCIEBEAE&usg=AOvVaw2mPcfMFC_UC9-Sefigmmxd

MS 937 (1935)
List of Records belonging to the Duke of Devonshire formerly at Bolton Abbey, later removed to Chatsworth, made by G. E. Kirk. See also DD121.

But you would have to get the lists, before you could even determine if a type of document around the date might survive and then search those documents in the Archive to see if one might contain a reference to a named ancestor.

But sometimes a researcher can be fortunate to find a document of a named person in a Collection Handlist or bound Collection Indexes, but in Manor Documents, it can be an extensive search to find all the records mentioning an Ancestor (if the original Estate Collection has survived more or less complete)

Photographs, Information Leaflets and Documents etc., containing "Bolton Abbey" listed here as well (Held at Various Archives) ...
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r/3?_ep=Bolton%20Abbey&_dss=range&_ro=any&_st=adv

Mark

[BushInn1746]

North Yorkshire Archives, at Northallerton

https://archivesunlocked.northyorks.gov.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx

In the Quick Search searching:- Pickard Bolton

Collection Cat Reference

ZTJ PICKARD AND PECKITT RECORDS

Moor family of Oswaldkirk records including deeds relating to Oswaldkirk 1682-1750, Byland Abbey...

14th century-20th century

Has a very general undated reference to Bolton Abbey in a whole list of places in this collection.

I have tried narrowing it down to find where Bolton Abbey appears but no knack on this modern cataloguing.

I usually have to email them and they do it.

So I'll leave that up to you?

Mark