The farming out of manors: a new look at the evidence from Canterbury cathedral priory

In the mid-thirteenth century the cathedral priory of Christ Church, Canterbury, was still farming out its manors for either a fixed money rent or a composite bundle of goods and money, but using its own monks as farmers. Although Prior Thomas Ringmere stopped this practice at a time of great indebtedness, his main concern was to improve monastic discipline by keeping the monks within the confines of the cloister. The adoption of direct management did not immediately lead to any increase in revenues. After the Black Death, Christ Church, like other monastic houses, was very unsure of what path to take and switched back and forth between farming out its manors and keeping them in hand, before finally moving over to wholesale leasing in the 1390s. As earlier, the form of management, whether direct or leasing, did not make any significant difference to the amount of money available to the central treasurers. What may have finally persuaded the monks of the advantages of leasing was the willingness of some local lords, who served as farmers, to lend the convent money and then repay themselves out of their farm.     

Baldwin Hyde,Clerk of the Parliaments in the Readeption Parliament of 1470–1

Baldwin Hyde, who served as clerk of the parliaments in the assembly held during Henry VI's brief restoration in 1470–1, has traditionally been thought to have been a party‐political appointee, who displaced his long‐serving predecessor. This article presents new evidence based on an analysis of Hyde's career, that suggests that far from being a placeman, he may, in fact, have been Faukes's own choice of successor.     

The Whips of the Liberal Unionist Party in the House of Commons

This note provides the most complete list of Liberal Unionist whips in the house of commons, thus contributing to our understanding of the history of the party in parliament over the entire period of its existence from 1886 to 1912, and charts the extent of the responsibility of the party whip for the organisation of the party outside the house of commons, which peaked during the tenure of Lord Wolmer as whip from 1888 to 1892. The note concludes by observing that the division of labour regarding organisation implemented in the Conservative Party in 1911 mirrors that adopted by the Liberal Unionist Party in 1892, and that this was likely the result of Wolmer, now 2nd earl of Selborne, serving on the committee that recommended the 1911 reforms.