Historical – Wood Surname of Essex

Manorial Court Granted Seisin to Thomas Wood

Benjamin — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 03:37:09 +0000

Today the Researcher’s Corner discusses the transfer of property under the feudal system. Property records can provide clues to prove relationships. In 1795 Thomas Wood took perpetual possession of the Black Horse of Pilgrim Hatch.

What is a Seisin?

Seizin means “to possess a property” under the medieval Manorial or Signorial system of ownership. During the first days of feudalism, the “livery de seisin” was a medieval ceremony for “delivering possession” of property titles. The feoffer (the seller) would give the feoffee (the buyer) a handful of dirt from the land, which was a public act that constituted a contract. In later years in lieu of a handful of dirt, a rod was handed to the new owner of the property. Rod is also a term of measurement. 40 rods equal one rood, and four roods equal one acre.

Property Records

Property records are important tools to prove relationships and discover more about the lives of ancestors. Property records before 1852 were written on large pieces of parchment, often certified with seals and ribbons. These fragile parchments are difficult to digitize. Researchers who are unable to travel to archives have limited access to the trove of information available in property records. Wood Surname of Essex has a collection of property records whose transcriptions will be uploaded to the website over time. The pace at which they will come online is limited by the time it takes to curate them and prepare them for online publication. Please contact us if you have a question about the property records of your Wood ancestor.

Manorial Courts

The “livery de seisin” was supervised by the Manorial Court. The Lord of the Manor presided over this court, which regulated matters of property use, rights, and titles. Over time the exchange of titles evolved into a regularized legal process that was administered by the Lord’s Steward. The Lord of the Manor owned an estate which was called a demesne.

Admittance of Thomas Wood

If the lands of the manor were larger than what the Lord needed for his own support, the Lord could sublease a portion of his land to a subtenant, either for a perpetual or defined period. As the authority of the Lord was derived from the land, he also settled civil matters involving contracts and torts.

A tort is a legal term for a wrongful act that causes the claimant damages. Manorial courts were not designated to handle criminal matters. Lord of the Manor, however, could receive a Crown appointment, such as Sheriff, and so in some instances, Manorial records contain proceedings of criminal matters.

The Black Horse

In 1795 Thomas Wood took perpetual possession of the Black Horse in Pilgrim Hatch (parchment deed for the Black Horse in Pilgrim Hatch, South Weald, 1758-1857, ERO, D/DCh T19).

The Black Horse is a Pub still in use. In 1795 the Victualler of the Black Horse was Daniel Green. The Lord of the Manor was Christopher Tower and his Steward was William Bray. The recipient of the property was Thomas Wood of Romford, who was a Pawn Broker. The sellers of the property were James Hall and Lucy, his wife. For an unknown reason, the Manorial Court requested a private interview with Lucy before completing the transaction. Wasey Sterry of Romford was appointed as the “true and lawful Deputy Steward for this purpose.” We can infer that James and Lucy Halls were also residents of Romford because Wasey Sterry interviewed Lucy in Romford. Wasey Sterry reported to the court that after speaking privately with Lucy, he completed the transaction while in Romford.

Partial Transcription of the 1795 Black Horse deed

At this Court, it is also found and presented by the homage that on the twenty-fifth day of March now last the said James Halls and Lucy his wife (the said Lucy being first solely secretly and apart from her said husband examined by the said Deputy Steward and thereto consenting) did out of court surrender by the rod into the hands of the Lord of the said Manor by the acceptance of the said Wasey Sterry Deputy Steward as aforesaid and according to the custom of the said Manor All that customary messuage or tenement then known by the name or sign of the Black Horse with the outhouses shop yards orchards and other appurtenances thereto belonging situate lying and being at Pilgrims Hatch in the parish of South Weald.

And now at this Court came the said Thomas Wood in his proper person and humbly prayed of the Lord of the said Manor to be admitted tenant to all that the said messuage or tenement and premises with the appurtenances so surrendered to his use as aforesaid To whom the Lord of the Manor by his Steward aforesaid in open court granted seizin thereof by the rod to hand to hold the aforesaid premises with the appurtenances unto the said Thomas Wood his heirs and assigns forever of the Lord of this Manor by the rod at the will of the Lord according to the custom of the said manor by the yearly rent heriot customs and services before due and of right accustomed and he was admitted tenant thereof and paid to the Lord for a fine etc. and did his fealty.

(Transcription by Rosamunde Bott BA (Hons) Tracing Your Ancestors in the UK by commission of Benjamin Wood.)

Images by permission of the Essex Record Office (D/DCh T19)

The concentration of Wood surname was Bimodal

Benjamin — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 02:55:47 +0000

Today the Researcher’s Corner discusses the distribution of the Wood surname in England. The Wood families of Essex during the 17th and 18th centuries were somewhat autonomous from the large population of Wood families in the north of England.

North and South Regions

In the 19^th and 18^th centuries, the Wood surname was bimodal. Bimodal means a graph of data has two peaks. Using non-statistical language, the average person might say the Wood surname was not concentrated in one location but was found in two main areas. Two peaks of statistical data tend to infer two distinct groups. The distribution map shows a concentration of the Surname Wood in the North and in the Southeast. In the North, 45.4% of all individuals with the surname Wood resided in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire. In the Southeast, 23.2% of them resided in Middlesex (London), Kent, Sussex, and Essex. The North and Southeast regions account for more than two-thirds of people in England with the Wood surname on the 1841 census.

An Enclave

Another way of interpreting the census data is to calculate individuals with the Wood Surname per square kilometer. The data shows the density of the Wood surname in the North and Southeast is approximately the same, while the density in Essex is much lower than either region. Expressed numerically, the North has one person per km² (0.99) and the Southeast just under one person per km² (0.91). The rest of England has less than 1/5^th a person per km² (0.18). The county of Essex has 1,502 enumerations and 3,969 km², which calculates to be less than half a person per km² (0.47). The similar densities of the North and Southeast regions, which persisted during the 19^th century, reinforce the perception that the North and Southeast are distinct groups that independently grew over time at about the same rate of change. Moreover, the density of Essex is 50% less than either the North or Southeast regions, which tilts the analysis towards concluding that Essex is an enclave, even within the Southeast region.

Distribution of Spellings

On the 1841 census, the Wood Surname is spelled in 16 different ways. The dominant spellings are Wood, Wade, Wedd, and Weed. Understanding the variant spellings of the surname Wood is not an exact science. Spellings of a surname can vary due to many things such as local dialects, poor penmanship, aural mistakes, and language shifts. There are two basic types of variation: how a surname is spelled (orthography) and how it is heard (phonological awareness). Analysis of variant spellings must at a minimum consider phonetics, distribution, and frequency. In the table, “Match of Wood” shows spelling variance as a percentage and “Frequency of Spelling” is the total enumerations for all counties of England, excluding Wales, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. 1841 census of English Counties

Soundex

I am guessing that the Soundex code today is not as popular as it used to be because researchers have access to large, clean databases that can search for any exact spelling. Still, the Soundex is useful as an introduction to how surnames are mispronounced and misheard. After all, census records and parish records during the 19th and 18th centuries were created by someone saying their surname and the official writing down what they heard. The Soundex code disregards vowels (a, e, i, o, u and y) as well as the consonants h and w, unless these letters start the surname. The rest of the consonants are divided into six groups. Consonants whose sounds can be confused are assigned the same numeric code. Imagine you are speaking to senior citizens whose hearing is not as sharp as when they were young. For them, the letters in Group 1 (b, f, p, v) are hard to hear correctly. The only two consonants that are not typically confused with another consonant are the l (as in life) and r (as in run).

Wood versus Wade

The perspective of phonetics changes how we hear the surnames Wood versus Wade. In terms of spelling, Wade is only a 25% match with Wood but in terms of the Soundex they are the same W300 code. The Soundex code always starts with one letter followed by three digits. Zeroes are used if the surname lacks enough digits. In the case of Wood or Wade, the code begins with W. Vowels are ignored. The only consonant is d, whose code number is 3. Two zeroes are added because both Wood and Wade only have one qualifying consonant. In Essex, the 1841 census has 1,502 individuals with the Wood surname and 460 individuals with the Wade surname. If you are looking for a Wood record in a parish that has Wade, you might consider if Wade is really Wood. How to decide? The answer is something like “preponderance of the evidence.” If the frequency of Wade is low and the Wood surname is established in the parish, then the dangling Wade record might be a Wood. Or if the Wade record was created soon after a new parish priest arrived in the parish, the Wade record might be for a Wood.

Research Guidance

Using distribution and frequency patterns for the surname Wood and its variants, we can formulate tentative statements to help guide research. First, the branch or branches of Wood families in Essex appear, as a general observation, to be an enclave. Of course, there must be exceptions. For example, the Wood family of Ingrave has children who relocated to Yorkshire after 1800. This exception is explained by Catholicism. Many nonconformists cast a wide net to find their spouses. Second, only 1,502 individuals on the 1841 census in Essex had the Wood surname. The major variant spelling of Wade only had 460 individuals. The total for all other variant spellings is scant, which poses a research challenge to be vigilant to the possibility that individuals with variant spellings of the Wood surname could, in fact, be members of the Wood family. The tricky part is the “preponderance of the evidence.” Due to the small numbers, the starting point is a dearth of evidence. The weight of the evidence must rely on circumstances, such as marriages, witnesses of marriages, land records, and so forth. The variant spellings of the surname Wood in Essex pose a problem that is not straightforward.