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Information about the records of the manor court can be found inthe Manorial Documents Register, maintained by the National Archives. This can be found at: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/manor-search.
The great majority of the court rolls are to be found at Doncaster Archives, but twenty-five others are deposited at the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Leeds, (YAS) where they form part of the archives of the Dukes of Leeds, who were lords of the manor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Although the earliest surviving roll dates from 1265-1266, there are no rolls for the next ten years (1266-1275), and after a solitary survival for 1275-1276, those for the next thirty-four years, up to 1310, are also missing. In the hundred and forty years between 1310 and 1452, only thirty-one rolls are now to be found, two of them at the YAS. (The court year ran from October to the following September, and each roll deals with the business for one year up to the 1620s, when some of them begin to cover much longer periods.) There are rolls from most decades, but some substantial gaps, as there are no records between 1369 and 1380, 1384 and 1399, 1412 and 1428, 1433 and 1440 and 1441 to 1452.
They have survived best in the century between 1452 and 1555, where only ten rolls are no longer to be found, and then again from 1650 to 1699. From 1700, the records of the court, recorded on parchment rolls and then in parchment books are complete up to 1935, when the court ceased to function.The following table sets out the numerical survival for successive periods.
|
Period
|
Number of Years in the Period
|
Number of Years in the Surviving Court Rolls
|
|
1265-1299
|
34
|
2
|
|
1300-1349
|
50
|
17 [1 at YAS]
|
|
1350-1399
|
50
|
8 [1 at YAS]
|
|
1400-1449
|
50
|
8
|
|
1450-1499
|
50
|
44 [1 at YAS]
|
|
1500-1549
|
50
|
49 [2 at YAS]
|
|
1550-1599
|
50
|
27 [11 at YAS]
|
|
1600-1649
|
50
|
27 [13 at YAS]
|
|
1650-1699
|
50
|
45 [34 at YAS]
|
In addition to the court rolls, there are other manorial records for Conisbrough. The most notable of these are accounts, providing details of income and expenditure of the manor drawn up by manorial officials. Because the manor was in the possession of the Crown from 1347 until 1561 (although not until latterly directly administered as part of the Crown estates), there are accounts for 1401-1404, 1482-1487, 1490-1497 and 1503-1547 at the National Archives. In addition, there are accounts for 1384-1385 and 1618-1619 at Sheffield Archives, part of the Jackson Collection, the accumulation of three generations of nineteenth-century Sheffield surgeons and antiquarians. Doncaster Archives also holds other records in addition to the great majority of the court rolls, and these include rentals for 1441 and 1733 and suit rolls for 1671-1675 and 1688-1689. These list all those tenants who owed suit of court and were bound to appear before the court, those who offered essoins and those who were fined for default. The YAS has surveys of tenants for 1467, 1479 and 1689, although these are probably only the small number of those who held by knight service. Sheffield Archives has rentals for 1765 and 1794, as well as a 1805-06 survey listing tenants with their holdings, the names of the fields and the crops grown in each.
As well as
records produced by and for the manor itself, other records provide information
on all or parts of the manor. Parish registers provide a record of baptisms,
marriages and burials within each parish. Doncaster Archives holds a number of
registers for parishes within the manor: Barnburgh, Braithwell, Conisbrough,
Kirk Sandall and Warmsworth. Tithe awards are held for Barnburgh, Braithwell,
Bramley, Clifton, Crookhill and Butterbusk
close, Conisbrough and Conisbrough Parks
and Kirk Sandall. Enclosure awards survive for Braithwell, Conisbrough and
Clifton, Conisbrough Fields and Kirk Sandall, along with maps for enclosure
awards, providing both tenants' names and field names. Probate
close records,
including wills, relating to the manor before 1858 are located at the Borthwick
Institute of Historical Research, York, YO1 2PW. After this date, copies of
wills and annual indexes from the civil probate registry can be found at the
Headquarters, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Registry of Deeds, Newstead
Road, Wakefield, WF1 2DE. Other records include tax returns, like the poll tax
returns of 1379 and the Hearth Tax returns of 1672. These provide a list of
names and give some evidence of relative wealth. The quarter sessions records
of the West Riding of Yorkshire are available at the West Yorkshire Archive
Service Headquarters. There is a published guide: B J Barber, Guide to
the Quarter Sessions of the West Riding of Yorkshire 1637-1971 and Other
Official Records (Wakefield, 1984). Quarter sessions dealt with criminal
cases which required a jury but which were not serious enough to pass to the
assize court. They also provided the local prison (until 1878, when prisons were
nationalised), the county police force, the county asylums and bridge
maintenance.
This is far from an exhaustive list of records available. Further information on holdings can be obtained by searching relevant websites: Doncaster Archives, National Archives (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk), Borthwick Institute (https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/), West Yorkshire Archives Service (https://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk). These have pages dealing with family and local history.