Ladies of the Manor
Tracing the descent of a manor can be complicated. When the descent passed through a female line it can become very complicated indeed.
A widow would remain the Lady of the manor following the death of her husband. Zeals Clevedon manor was in the hands of Richard Chafyn in 1631, then by his widow Lucy in 1649, passing to their son Harry by 1654, to his widow Lucy in 1660, to their son William in 1664, who was followed by his widow Mary in 1695. Three successive generations saw widows in control.
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When sons were not available to inherit, the ownership of a manor would be divided among daughters. In 1455 the manor of Woodlands in Mere was jointly inherited by Joan, Elizabeth and Isabel, the daughters of John Clyvedon. The manor was owned by the descendants of these three women for two generations until it was reunited in the early 16th century.
At Kington St Michael and Kington Langley the situation was not resolved so easily. Here the large former Glastonbury Abbey manor had descended through the Snell family for a hundred years until the death of Charles Snell in 1651. The ownership of the manor was then divided between his sister Mary Gastrell and the heirs of his two deceased sisters Penelope Newman and Barbara Stokes. A manor divided in three was not too difficult to administer, but in the next generation Penelope Newman’s share was divided between her three daughters and a generation later Mary Gastrell’s share was divided between five daughters. It soon became impossible to reconcile these competing interests and the manor broke up.
When a daughter inherited a share of a manor it might be administered by her husband on her behalf and this might also be true of manorial tenants who held lands by copy of court roll.
At Kington St Michael in 1655, Samuel Tanner, Richard Hine and John Plant all held their lands through their wife’s inheritance. The widows had more control and are named in their own right as property holders: Jane Aland held a house, garden and 32 acres of land, Anne Tanner had a house and 22 acres, Alice Tanner had a house and 14 acres. Nine of the 58 tenants at Kington St Michael and Kington Langley in 1655 were widows, and around 15% of property being controlled directly by widows would have been common among manorial tenants across southern England.
They were not always widows who occupied a rundown cottage at the end of the village with a cat for company. Widows like Jane Aland, Anne Tanner and Alice Tanner had control over some of the more valuable properties in their village.