This week it’s all about words and phrases found in genealogy, family and house history research beginning with the letter H.
HABEAS CORPUS – You may have the body – a write requiring a person detained by the authorities to be brought before a court of law so that the legality of the detention may be examined
habendum et tenendum – To have and to hold
HAIA – A Hedge
HALF BAPTISED – baptised privately
HAYWARD – Communal officer responsible for overseeing the making of hedges and the person responsible for regulating the cultivation of openfields and the use of the common generally
HEAD SUNDAY – Sunday after 6th July, known as Old Midsummer Day
HEARTH TAX – Tax introduced in England and Wales in 1662, colelcted between 1662 and 1689 (poor were exempt)
hec conventio facta inter – This agreement made between
hec est finalis concordia – This is the final concord
hec indentura facta inter – This indenture made between
HECKELL/HECKLE – Implement for combing flax or hemp
HECKLING – The refuse from hemp fibre
HEREDITAMENT – Property which can be inherited
hereditatio/onis – Inheritance
heredum et assignatorum suorum imperpetuun – Heirs and assigns for ever
HERIOT – Payment on teh death of a manorial tenant
HERES/EDIS – Heir
HIBERNIA – Ireland
HIDE – Originally a unit, varying between 40 and 1000 acres, thought sufficient to support one family.
hiett/herriot/herryott – Heriot –A payment due to the lord of the manor on the death of a tenant
hiis testibus – (list of names) These being witness
HITCHED LAND – Part of the common field withdrawn by common consent from the customary rotation and used for some special crop
hodie – Today
HOMAGE – The tenants who attended a manor court ALSO oral acknowledgement by a tenant of his loyalty and feudal obligations to his lord
homagium/i – Homage(s)
homagium presentant/putant/dicunt quod – The homage present/confirm/say that
HONOUR – Aggregation of manors
honor/oris – honour
HORARIUS – Clock maker
HORREUM – Barn of storehouse
HOVELL – Shed, outhouse, framework for cornshack
HUER – Person placed on the Cornsih cliff to indicate to the boats stationed off land the course of the shoals of pilchards and herrings
HUGUENOTS – French protestants who fled persecution in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (which allowed religious freedom) in 1685
HULT – Cottage or small house
HUNDRED – A unit of fiscal assessment and local government originally containing 100 HIDEs, intermediate between the county and the MANOR, roughly equivalent in size to the modern District; cantrefi in Wales
HUSBANDMAN – Usually a tenant farmer, distict from YEOMAN
HUTARDUS – Ram
I would love to hear what obscure words and phrases you have found in your research – sarah@spfhhistory.co.uk