These Court Rolls are unique in several respects, most of those relaying to other manors having been lost by neglect, fire or flood. The project was completed in February 2020, just before the lockdown in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before this, local historians with no knowledge of Latin had to rely on secondary sources for overall views of Hampstead history. They now have access to detailed accounts of transfers of property, the prevalence of Christian and family names, the kinds of occupation that were most prosperous, and inflationary pressures.

The London Metropolitan Archives holds a complete run of the Hampstead rolls from 1620 to 1732, plus a few at intervals between 1572 and 1616. From 1733 to the present the court proceedings have, following the edict of George II, been recorded in English.

The manor of Hampstead included Hampstead town, Hampstead Heath and all the land from the edge of Kilburn to Chalk Farm. It belonged to a succession of individuals entitled the Lord of the Manor, who collected rent on all the properties within his boundaries, as well as a fee whenever the properties changed hands. The manor court was held annually in May and at irregular intervals in between.

Several members of the Society were involved. John Richardson, the founder and the then chairman of the CHS, inspired by a generous gift by Hampstead resident Robert Linger, set the project in motion in 2005. Mrs Pauline Sidell, a specialist in deciphering court records inscribed in a variety of variably legible clerkly hands, worked pn translating the fragile rolls in 3-day stints at the LMA. Peter Woodford keyboarded her manuscript translations into Word files and indexed them by property owners’ personal names, location of the properties, and people’s occupations when mentioned. Daniel Croughton later relieved Peter of the keyboarding. Lindsay Douglas converted the Word files into pdf form and uploaded them onto the CHS website that she had redesigned. Two accidents in 2019 prevented Mrs Sidell from finishing; Virginia Bainbridge brought it to completion in February 2020.

These English translations now enable anyone with an enquiring mind but no Latin to pose, and sometimes answer, many research questions which may go far beyond the borough of Hampstead. For instance, what was the system of local governance in 17th-century England?  When do copyhold tenancies begin to give way to freeholds? How could one become a lord of the manor? Could women own property? What effect did the Civil War and Commonwealth have on rural life (extraordinarily little, if these Court rolls are to be believed!)?

More parochially, what trades were the most lucrative? Was there a Hampstead manor house? Why did successive LOMs of Hampstead live at Charlton? When was Fenton House built? Why, amongst a plethora of biblical Christian names, is Peter so rare? What was a spheristerium (a bowling green)? Were the Hoar family, prominent members of the Homage for generations, progenitors of Sir Samuel Hoare the banker, Hampstead resident centuries later? Why was the mother of the infant Earl of Gainsborough not the Countess of Gainsborough but a mere Hon. Susanna Noel? On what basis did the Revd Robert Warren usurp the title and income of the lord of the manor from the legitimate heir, but only after the latter came of age in 1720?

The translations are freely available in searchable form via the Camden History Society website http://www.camdenhistorysociety.org/