surrender with straw

1) A tenant was said to surrender an estate when he relinquished his interest in copyhold lands, yielding them directly to the lord of the manor, or via the lord to another person. The piece of straw was a symbol of the crops the land was capable of producing.

1545 accordinge unto a surrender which I haue given upe with a strawe into the hands of Richard Mawde, Shelf. Its importance is explicit in the following Chancery case: 1671 Remembers the surrender with a straw into the hands of Henry Haigh ... all was upon the delivery of that very straw, Marsden.

places Shelf
dates 1545

Related Content Loading...

Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0