This week it’s all about words and phrases found in genealogy, family and house history research beginning with the letter T.
TABERN – Cellar under a building
TABERNA -inn/tavern
TABERNARIUS – innkeeper
TACKMAN – Manorial officer responsible for collecting rents and fines due to the Lord
TALENT – a weight and denomination of money
TALLAGE – an arbitraty tax levied by the Normans early Angevin Kings on towns and DEMSNE lands of the crown
tandem – at length
TANTRELL – Idle, unsettled person
TANTUM – so much, so greatly, so; only, merely
TAPSTER – Archaic term for for someone who sells beer/ale
TASTATOR 9CERVISIE) – ale taster
TEMPLUM – Church
TENANT-IN-CHIEF – a LORD holding his land directly from the King.
TENANT AT WILL – tenants who paid a rent and whose tenure was entirely dependent on the good will of the lord
TENATURA – feudal holding, tenure, tenement
tenebat sibi pro termino vito sue – he/she held (it) for him/herself to the end of his/her life
TENEMENT – parcel of land occupied by a tenant
tenens/entis – tenant
tenens custumarius – customary tenant
teneo/ere – to hold
tenementum – tenement
TENTIO – holding a court
tenura/ae – tenure(s)
TENURE – the conditions upon which land was held under the FEUDAL SYSTEM by a VASSAL from a LORD who was a MESNE TENANT, a TENANT-IN-CHIEF or the King.
TERMINARIUS – Lessee (legal)
TERMINO – to determine, decide a case (legal); to terminate
TERRA – land, piece of land, tenement, strip; arable land; earth (as opposed to heaven)
terre arabilis – arable land
TERRIER – Topographical account of the manor, giving whereabouts and size of the lord’s and the tenants’ land
TESTAMENTUM – Will, testament
TETHINGA – TITHING
THEGN – a VASSAL, usually a manorial LORD, holding land by military or administrative services in Anglo-Saxon and early Norman England
TIED COTTAGE by a farm worker subject to his continued employment
TITHE – Ancient obligation of all parishioners to maintain their parish priest from the fruits of teh land in his parish (GREAT TITHES e.g corn, hay, wood; SMALL TITHES e.g. wool, fruit, eggs etc)
TITHING – group of usually 10 or 12 men under the FRANKPLEDGE system who were mutually responsible for the good behaviour of each member of the group
TITHINGMAN – one of a group of ten men with a mutual responsibility for their good behaviour
Totum illud – In total
TRADO AD FIRMAM – to farm, to let at farm (for a specified term and for a specified payment)
TRINKLEMENTS – Odds and ends, miscellaneous small belongings
TUMULATUS – buried
TUMULUS – tomb
TUN – vessel holding 252 gallons, usually of wine
TUNC – then
TUNC TEMPORIS – at that time
Turbary – Manorial right to cut turf.
TURNPIKE TRUST – Trust set up to build and maintain roads for which tolls were charged to use
I would love to hear what obscure words and phrases you have found in your research – sarah@spfhhistory.co.uk