In 1808 William Ralph Cartwright was the owner of the Duchy Manor, one of three in Deddington.  It’s likely that the document in the Cartwright papers from which this material was drawn was principally a tidying up exercise after the 1808 Enclosure Award. 

While Cartwright owned substantial land in Deddington, the Duchy Manor also entitled him to annual rents from some of the freeholders there. These were known as Chief Rents or Fee Farm Rents, the subtlety of the difference being beyond my ability to understand. 

As well as annual rents, when a Manor freeholder died. or the property was sold, a year’s rent also became due.

 

Click HERE to see a list of all the freeholders in the parish of Deddington (in alphabetic order) who paid Chief or Fee Farm rents to the Dutchy Manor (29Kb. pdf).

Click HERE to see the original image from which this list was transcribed.

 

Reproduced by permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.