Russell Grant, the Lord of Ashford in Staines in Middlesex

Lordships – the oldest title in British history

LORDSHIPS of the Manor are the oldest existent titles in England and pre-date the Norman Conquest, begun by William I at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Russell's title, The Lord of Ashford in Staines in Middlesex pre-dates this regnal dynasty even as his title was created by the great King Offa of Mercia - and Middlesex.

Historians do not agreed on how the word Manor originated. It has been suggested that it is an import, manoir, or perhaps even older from the Latin, manerium, nor are historians sure whether it was a purely Saxon concept, its origins lying in the need for self-defence against succeeding incursions by Germanic tribes and later Vikings.

They are agreed, however, that the Manor was the pivot of the Feudal System. By the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-66), the Lord of the Manor be he the local leader or some powerful noble, such as Earl Godwinson of Mercia , was the most important person in village affairs whether for collecting taxes for the King or dispensing "high justice" with the power to inflict death in his courts.

Historians are also agreed that the Normans institutionalised the Manorial System in Domesday Book compiled for William the Conqueror in 1086 and listing 13,418 Manors and their owners. It took the 18th century, however, to come up with the expression "Feudal System". The Feudal System was versatile and diverse, which is why its form of landholding survived in many parts of England and Wales until the 1920s.

In return for his Lordship's protection and the land he gave them, the people on the Manor, from slaves to freemen, owed their Lord certain services, ranging from money rents to working so many days a week on the Lord's "home farm", or demesne, without pay (week-work). In theory, most men held their land "at pleasure", though in practice the "customary tenants", or villeins, were fairly secure provided they undertook their services: week-work, the harvest (precaria) when they helped with the reaping, used the Lord's mill to grind their corn and his fold for their animals so that he might benefit from the manure on his land.

If the tenants of the Manor disagreed, they went before the manorial court, presided over by one of the Lord's officers, usually the Bailiff, who decided and imposed fines often called "arbitrary" though, in fact, usually determined by custom. If some crime was committed, the Lord could arrest, try, and punish up to "pit and gallows", gibbet and mutilation.

The military aristocracy of the 12th century would, I suspect, laugh at the later concept of nobility through pedigree. Most would probably not even have known who their grand parents were. Nothing is known of the family of Hugh the Great, Duke of France, who ruled that cradle of the chivalric ideal. William the Conqueror's principal followers were opportunistic thugs, most of who are never heard of again after Domesday Book; whilst even of those who went on to be created earls and bishops later we know virtually nothing of their antecedents. Early pedigree charts are fragmentary. The Anglo-Norman period was one of great rises to, and falls from, fortune. There was no time to consider such niceties as "nobility" or pedigree. A great family is suddenly there: take the celebrated house of Bellême in Normandy, who rise to instant prominence; their "ancestor" of one generation seems to have been a crossbowman who becomes a Lord of Manors but, being practical, all that really mattered was his wealth. The Anglo-Norman and early Angevin monarchs were only interested in a man's landholding and territorial power.

In the High Middle Ages of the 12th century, a Lord could simply say: "it is my will" and there is surely no better basis for prestige than this. Indeed, the great nobles of the period expressed their power through the number of Manors they held, many becoming barons by tenure and by the reign of Edward I barons by writ of summons to Parliament. The English nobility was a caste whose power was based on the ownership of land through the Manor. Their peerages, unlike those on the continent, were purely honorific and they lost them if they lost their landed status.

When Elizabeth I instituted justices of the peace, it was the Lord of the Manor to whom she looked to fill this post as they had the status and local knowledge necessary to win respect. Manorial Lords are by no means
missing from the lists of justices, deputy lieutenants, or even Lords' Lieutenant today.

Lords would often apply to the King for special rights within the Manor. The most valuable of these was the monopoly to hold a market and fair in the Manor and these are the most common amongst Royal Charters to Manorial Lords: there were virtually no shops, apart from London, Norwich, and York, and retailing and business carried out at inns and markets, the Lord usually granting in his Charter, a Pie Powder Court by which he regulated the activities of buyers and sellers. He derived a financial benefit, first, from letting booths and stalls, and, second, from the profits of the justice his officers meted out.

There are charters for foreshore rights, rights of wreck, treasure trove, free warren (sporting rights), riparian and piscaries rights (river banks and fishing). These are all special rights governed and given by the Lord.

General rights were the copyhold income from the tenantry, manorial waste, common land, the profits of justice in the manorial court, heriots (payment of "the best beast or chattel") on death and inheritance, murage and scutage (a "tax" for self-defence), pontage (a "tax" for bridge repair), mineral excavation rights, and many others. It is easy to judge from this plethora rights how important the Lord of the Manor was not only socially but economically.

In 1922, the Government of the day enacted the most thoroughgoing legislation touching property in England and Wales . So far as the Lord of the Manor was concerned, the Law of Property Act abolished copyhold tenure, taking away his right to be Lord of the soil save that which he owned directly. He was compensated
and the copyholds were converted on 1 January 1926 into freehold, or 999-year leasehold.

But the Act went on to confirm many of the historic rights long enjoyed by the Lord of the Manor: the right to market and fair, mineral excavation (subject to the enfranchisement of the copyhold, the subsoil still belongs to the Lord of the Manor), fishing rights, sporting rights, manorial waste (principally the verges of the road and those areas in rural Manors which do not appear to belong to anyone), common land rights (subject to the Common Land Registration Act 1965), even the village green.

A Lordship is an ancient slice of British history and heritage. This was one positive reason why Russell chose to became and bear the title, The Lord of Ashford in Staines in Middlesex. On hearing that this ancient title was about to leave Britain to an overseas owner for an amount of money said to be £75,000 Russell decided to act, Being born, bred and living in west Middlesex he was involved on many levels in the Ashford, Staines and Middlesex community and the thought of losing a piece of the community's heritage was more than he could bear.

Russell was very aware of local opposition to problems exacerbated by gravel extraction. The Lordships bordering Ashford had fallen into the hands of people intent on extraction purely for profit. Russell was distraught at the local area being used thus so he declared he would also treasure the title to enhance and enrich the community and conserve and protect the area and not to profit himself through mineral or stone extraction. By taking the title it would prevent it falling into the wrong hands both at home and abroad.
Russell has breathed new life in the title created by King Offa the Saxon King of Middlesex and the Mercians and confirmed by King John at Runnymede (a couple of miles down the road!). Russell wears his title with pride, love and is honoured at carrying forward into the future an ancient and historic title. To paraphrase JFK, it's not what the title can do for Russell but what Russell can do for the title and community it identifies, and this - his Lordship - demonstrates daily.

For Russell the honour and privilege bearing a title lauding where he comes from and conserving his own little 1000 year old bit of British history is something that comes from his heart and is a part of his soul.