Call Book

Call book, New Hutton, part of Richmond Fee of Kendal Barony, 1758-1769

Source: Cumbria Record Office, Carlisle, D/Lons/L5/2/11/138,
with the kind permission of the Trustees of the Lowther Estate

Commentary:

This is part of a call book listing the tenants who owed suit of court in the manors of Scalthwaite Rig, Strickland Roger and New Hutton in Kendal Barony.  It was a working document, annotated in an attempt to keep abreast of changes of tenant.  For example, the second entry on the list records both the sale of part of a holding and two changes of tenant: the name of Edward Wilson, the original tenant, has been crossed out and replaced by ‘John Wilkinson’, beside which has later been added ‘(dead) Rich[ar]d Simpson his Grandson & Heir inr[olle]d 19th February 1767’.  Below Edward Wilson’s name is written ‘John Tarn bo[ugh]t of Ed[ward] Wilson some Peat Moss & inr[olled] 24 Feb 1758.’  In the column headed ‘Yearly Cust[omar]y Rents’ the original sum of £1 1s 0d has been divided, with 1d. being apportioned to John Tarn’s piece of peat moss, leaving the rent for the rest of the holding as £1 0s 11d.  The second purpose of the call book is illustrated in the columns on the right hand side, which record attendances at the courts held between 1758 and 1769: ‘a’ stands for ‘appeared’; ‘m’ for mortuus (i.e. ‘dead’); ‘ex’ for ‘excused’.  Those who were absent without excuse (none occur in this extract) were marked ‘d’ for ‘default’ and were subject to amercement by the court.

Follow this link for an example of a call list.

< Gallery