Feudal lordships of the manor exist today in English property law, being legal titles historically dating back to the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Involved in the lordship of the manor is a historic legal jurisdiction in the form of the court baron.

The lordship or dignity – this is the title granted by the manor,

The manorial – this is the manor and its land. Another name given to this land was a Fief. A fief was the land held by a vassal of a lord in return for stipulated services. In the work "Ivanhoe" the term "fief" is often used,

The seignory – these are the rights granted to the holder of the manor. In the seignory of Ivinghoe is the historical right to hold a market.

The owner of a lordship of the manor can be described as [Personal Name], Lord/Lady of the Manor of [Placename], sometimes shortened to Lord or Lady of [Placename].

The status of lord of the manor is associated with the rank of esquire by prescription.

It is a destiny that all of the last Lords of the Manor (at least from 1700) have been always historically interested and involved in the inner chivalric tradition, in the ethical, moral and symbolic sense. And we are honoured that Ivanhoe is "the" masterpiece in the chivalric modern literature.

The manor of Ivinghoe belonged before the Conquest to the demesne of the church of St. Peter of Winchester, and at the time of the Domesday Survey of 1086 it was still held by the bishop, being assessed for 20 hides and valued at £18. It is listed in the Domesday Survey as “Evinghehou”.

Succeeding bishops held the manor until the reign of Henry VIII. Lords included William Giffard, Henry of Blois, Godfrey de Luci, John Gervais, Nicholas of Ely, John of Pontoise, John de Stratford, Cardinal Henry Beaufort, William Waynflete, and Richard Foxe. In 1531 William Cholmeley was appointed to be bailiff of Ivinghoe, which had come into the king's hands by the forfeiture of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who was Bishop of Winchester. It was, however, restored to the bishopric almost at once to Bishop Stephen Gardiner, and so remained until in 1551, when John Poynet, bishop, surrendered it to the King. In the following month Edward VI made a grant in fee of the manor to Sir John Mason (diplomat), kt., and Elizabeth his wife.

After the death of Edward VI and the flight of Poynet, Ivinghoe, with other episcopal manors, was regranted to the see of Winchester, but was again taken by the Crown at the accession of Elizabeth, the grant to Mason apparently holding good, passing to his son Anthony.

The Egerton Family and Ivinghoe

Anthony Mason held the manor in 1582 and in 1586 alienated the manor to Charles Glenham who sold it in 1589 to Lady Jane Cheyne, widow of Henry Lord Cheyne. In 1603 she conveyed the manor to Ralph Crewe, Thomas Chamberlayn and Richard Cartwright, trustees for the Egertons, and Sir Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley, and Sir John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater, his son and heir, received Ivinghoe from the trustees in 1604.

Lord Ellesmere, who also bore the title of Viscount Brackley, died seised of the manor in 1617. In the same year his son was created Earl of Bridgewater and the manor descended with this title until the latter became extinct in 1829.

By the will of the seventh earl, who died in 1823, the estates were then held by his widow until her death in 1849, when they devolved upon his great-nephew John Egerton, Viscount Alford, father of the second Earl Brownlow, from whom the title and lands descended to the Barons Brownlow. The sixth Baron, notably served as a Lord-in-waiting to the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), as Mayor of Grantham, as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Aircraft Production Lord Beaverbrook and as Lord Lieutenant of Lincolnshire. As of 1995 the titles were held by his son, the seventh Baron, who succeeded in 1978. Edward John Peregrine Cust (b.1936), CStJ, seventh Baron Brownlow, was past Lord of the Manor of Ivinghoe. He married Shirlie Edith Yeomans (b.1937), daughter of John Paske Yeomans and Marguerite Watkins, on 31 December 1964. The seventh Baron Brownlow was the last of the direct Egerton line to hold the Manor of Ivinghoe. In 1995 he transmitted his title that in 2019 was conveyed again to a far Egerton Descendent. In 2021 the title was conveyed to dr. Marco Paret, member of various european Chivalric Orders: Officialis in the OSTJ, Grand Ambassador for OSGF and member of Saint Lazare (Outre Mer). Dr. Paret is the 54th and actual Lord of the Manor.

Dr. Marco Paret is an international writer, journalist and academic

The quo warranto proceedings of Edward I established a sharp distinction between the court baron, exercising strictly manorial rights, and the court leet, exercising the powers formerly held by the hundred court, emphasising that the ability to hold court leet depended upon a royally granted franchise.

However in many areas it became customary for the court baron and court leet to meet together, as a single operation. Although the Administration of Justice Act had abolished the legal jurisdiction of the other courts leet, it emphasised that "any such court may continue to sit and transact such other business, if any, as was customary for it". Schedule 4 to the Act specified the "business" which was to be considered customary, which included the taking of presentments relating to matters of local concer

Besides the Court Leet and the Baron Court, the Manor of Ivinhoe has also granted the right of a court of Piepowder.

Courts of piepowders existed because of the necessity for speedy justice over people who were not permanent residents of the place where the market was held. By the seventeenth century, most of their powers had effectively been transferred to the regular court system, for practical reasons rather than as a result of legislation, the standard district courts being well established.

The last "active" court of piepowders, at the Stag and Hounds Public House in Bristol, was abolished by the Courts Act 1971. It had not actually sat since 1870, but a proclamation was still read in the marketplace each year. All other courts had their jurisdiction removed by the Administration of Justice Act 1977, though they may technically continue to exist even in the absence of officers, cases, or premises.

On the left some Court Rolls of Ivinghoe, now conserved at the NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Acceed to the NATIONAL ARCHIVES to retrieve this ROLL and more informations on our Manor at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F242889

The Manor of Ivinghoe is well described in the Winchester Pipe Rolls . The Winchester Pipe Rolls, stored at Hampshire Record Office, are among 20 artefacts selected from UK archives. They have been listed by Unesco, the cultural branch of the UN, as representing the UK's heritage. The Pipe Rolls are the most complete set of manorial accounts in the country, dating from 1208/9. The accounts run almost unbroken to 1710/11. They depict a record of the Bishop of Winchester's finances across southern England, the richest episcopal estate in England.

The series includes 328 documents covering the accounts of more than 60 manors. Deposited at Hampshire Record Office in 1959, the Winchester Bishopric Collection is now one of Hampshire's most prized treasures. In addition to their immense value to historians, they form an important link between today's community and that of past centuries. For more infos see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-13629918