Lord-of-manor titles for highest bidder

Press, 4 November 1986, Page 38

Lord-of-manor titles for highest bidder

By

ROBIN CHARTERIS

in London Commoners with illusions of grandeur will line up in London on November 11 for the sale of no less than 85 Lord-of-the-manor titles. Starting price is £s6ooo ($NZ16,750) and with keen competition expected, especially from the United States, a well lined pocket is a necessity. Not so an ancient or exclusive lineage, though — it is a first-past-the-post, highest-bidder-wins race. Best prices are expected for five Irish titles, the first from that country to come on the market for many years. The five on offer are the Baronies of Kell, in County Killarney (granted in 1169), Herbardeston, Balscadden and Ballymadon, in County Dublin,

and Maydonhayes, in County Meath. The highest bid for an English Lordship of the manor is likely for the Lordship of Snodhill, which has a ruined castle and almost two hectares of land. American buyers should queue for the Lordship of Hingham in Norfolk. Once owned by King Athelston (921-941), it is more notable as the original home of the family of Abraham Lincoln, who emigrated to the colonies early in the seventeenth century. Sales of Lordships have become big business in recent years, with rare and historic titles fetching more than £30,000(5NZ85,750). Most are no more than a set of documents which cannot be exported and must remain in safe keeping. Owners of the titles are

entitled to call themselves lord or lady of the manor, apply for a coat of arms, and have their title inserted in their passports, and on stationery, cutlery and car ownership papers. Lordships of the manor date back to Saxon times. The system survived until the 1920 s when the tenancies granted by lords of the manor were made into freeholds in the hands of the tenants.

At the same time, the lords of the manor, who held their titles direct from the Crown, were deprived of most of their ancient rights and privileges.

Buying a title, therefore, no longer gives the right to extract minerals, or the droit de seigneur — the appropriating by their lordships of village maidens on their wedding night.