Interesting Web Sites and Speculation Involving Leetes and Leets
Draft: 2009-11-22
Introduction
These are links to web sites involving Leetes/Leets I've found interesting. They aren't "genealogy" pages, but involve Leetes or Leets in one way or another. In cases where the web sites are "fragmented" or many cover the same topic, I've created an "article" and placed it under attachments.
Court Leet
To me one of the most interesting historical "imprints" of the Leete/Leet family is its probable influence on the British legal system. There are three very solid indications of the influence of the Leete family. The first of these is the Court Leet. Here are some web pages on this topic:
- The Court Leet as "an English petty criminal court for the punishment of small offences. It has been usual to make a distinction between court baron and court leet 1 as being separate courts, but in the early history of the court leet no such distinction."
- Wareham Court Leet describes the ancient and recent history of a particular Court Leet, along with some details on how a Court Leet operated.
- An example of Court Leet records, giving insight into the responsibilities and operation of a Court Leet
- Another document on Court Leet, Southampton's. From this document: "The Court Leet originated in England in the Court Baron, a Court authorised by the King and presided over by the Baron or landowner. It mainly dealt with matters relating to the duties and services owed by the peasants or villeins (not Freemen) to the Lord of the Manor or Baron. The Court Baron's records, for example, would have details of how many day's service to the Baron each villein/serf owed, and how and when it was paid. It also would have dealt with personal actions within the Manor- one person against another - up to a claim amount of 40 shillings. (£2). Freeholders were not usually subject to its jurisdiction, but were liable under Common Law in other Manorial Courts. (See below) The Court Leet or " The View of Frank Pledge" to give it the proper name (See below) had extra powers to that of the Court Baron. It was a Recording Court granted to a Hundred, Lordship, Manor, or Borough by the Kings Charter. The term Leet is noted in Domesday Book (in East Anglia) as a division of a Hundred which was self-governing. Southampton had been a Borough since Saxon times, although its first known self government Charter was granted c.1199. Other Records show, however, that it had been self governing and separate from any other place long before that. Court Leet judgements all those centuries ago are often responsible for the base content of what we call today "The Local Bye-laws." The Court Leet's duties were " to enquire regularly and periodically into the proper condition of watercourses, roads, paths, and ditches; to guard against all manner of encroachments upon the public rights, whether by unlawful enclosure or otherwise; to preserve landmarks, to keep watch and ward in the town , and overlook the common lands, adjust the rights over them, and restraining in any case their excessive exercise, as in the pasturage of cattle; to guard against the adulteration of food, to inspect weights and measures, to look in general to the morals of the people, and to find a remedy for each social ill and inconvenience. To take cognisance of grosser crimes of assault, arson, burglary, larceny, manslaughter, murder, treason, and every felony at common law"
One thing that jumps out at a Leet is that most of the articles are puzzled about where the name Leet originated. Well, duh! If you trace Leetes (and Leets, and Leits) through history you'll find that , if they weren't farmers, their profession was lawyer or similar. Michael Leete, in chapter 5 of "The Family Face," provides some serious evidence that the surname Leet derived from the legal term, where Leetes/Leets were those who had hereditary offices in the legal system of leet at the time the practice of surnames took hold in that part of the world. Given what Michael presents as evidence for the hereditary origin of the name (Leit or Lete from Denmark), one can argue that the court leet derived from the family name and the family name ended up as the official surname.