LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Manor Courts
Courts were held for Minster Lovell manor by 1297.
Elsewhere in Chadlington hundred view of frankpledge
was held by the earl of Gloucester, but in Minster it was
held by the Lovels, whose other liberties included
infangthief (the right to apprehend criminals within
their lands) (fn. 1) and, from 1442, hunting rights in Minster
woods. (fn. 2) Courts baron and views of frankpledge, sometimes called lawdays, were still held regularly during the
16th and early 17th centuries; the last surviving court
roll dates from 1631, (fn. 3) although in 1711 the Cokes,
renewing the Wheelers' tenancy of the demesne farm,
reserved the right to hold courts at the manor house
once a year, the tenant providing food and drink for the
steward, his servants, and his horses, and a dinner for
the jury. (fn. 4) Business transacted, apart from copyhold
conveyancing, included imposition of fines for nonattendance, for neglect of the landlord's property or of
communal property such as the river or bridge, and for
the unlicensed sale of ale and disturbances to the peace.
Orders were made against tenants taking wood or
hunting illegally, and for repair of roads, bridges and
ditches. Courts usually elected a constable and a
tithingman, although in 1687 a constable seems to have
been appointed directly by the justices at the quarter
sessions. (fn. 5)
Parish Government and Officers
During the 18th century, with the disappearance of the
manor court, parish government was presumably increasingly taken over by the vestry, though the first evidence is
the levying of a poor rate in 1776, (fn. 6) and vestry minutes
survive only from 1857. (fn. 7) Officers elected by the vestry in
the 19th century included a surveyor of highways or
waywarden, two overseers, and two churchwardens, one
for the vicar and one for the parish: churchwardens were
recorded from 1642, (fn. 8) and existed presumably from the
Middle Ages. Until the Parish Constables Act of 1842 the
vestry presumably appointed constables, thereafter
nominating four candidates to the local magistrate, and
in 1866 it appointed an assistant overseer of the poor. (fn. 9)
All officers were drawn from among the chief farmers in
the parish, including at least three women in the 19th
century. In 1885 the joint surveyor of highways and sanitary inspector asked that his office be divided, since
together they were too taxing for one person. (fn. 10)
Until the 1894 Local Government Act the vestry also
dealt with repairs of roads and drains, maintenance of the
church, approval of accounts, and the setting of rates.
Thereafter its few residual civil powers, as elsewhere,
passed to a newly established parish council. From 1894
to 1974 the parish belonged to Witney rural district,
becoming thereafter part of the new West Oxfordshire
District. (fn. 11)