THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND LEGAL IMPORTANCE OF LATE SIXTEENTH-CENTURY MANORIAL LORDSHIP: THE BLOUNT FAMILY OF THE WEST MIDLANDS

Sixteenth-century manors are frequently neglected in favour of the parish in studies of the period, although there is an increasing understanding amongst historians that they continued to be important in local affairs well into the early modern period. This case-study of the Blounts, a prominent West Midlands gentry family, illustrates the continuing economic, social and legal importance of the manor in the sixteenth century, and demonstrates the ways in which such continuing vitality can be identified in surviving manorial records. Co-existing in the same physical space as the parish, the manor, which remained a unit of considerable significance until the early modern period, should not be overlooked.