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New research enquiry!

We have added another research enquiry to our collection here.

In his classic article ‘English Feudalism and Estates in Land’, S.E. Thorne wrote the following concerning succession – as opposed to inheritance – in early twelfth-century England: “Now in truth military tenancies often did pass from father to son, from ancestor to heir, but that does not necessarily imply heritability. If I  hire my gardener’s son after his father’s death, and my son hires his son after him, the place as gardener has descended through three generations of the same family. Yet it is obvious that it has come to each by  gift, and that the son and grandson of my gardener can in no way be said to have inherited it. What we have is a fief held by  successive tenants in return for service, each succeeding by  gift.’ The photo shows a memorial plaque from Bodnant Gardens in north Wales, showing commemorating just such a succession. Do you know of any further such images? Or do you know of instances where such family succession to a position stretched beyond three generations?