MANORIAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN
The Manorial Society was founded in 1906, and its original aims were to provide research into Manorial Lordships. However, since being taken over by Robert Smith about fifty years ago, whilst continuing to do much valuable research, it has also expanded into selling Lordships of the Manor through their sister Company, Manorial Auctioneers.
However, Robert Smith has now retired owing to ill health, and The Manorial Society is being run by Stephen Johnson, and is now mainly concerned with historical research.
If you are considering the purchase of a Manorial Lordship through them, I thoroughly approve of the fact that he insists that the purchaser has separate legal representation.
It is also worth pointing out that The Manorial Society is not an official body in any way, but rather a privately owned and run commercial organisation – and should be treated accordingly; though they do provide an enormous amount of valuable information on the history of Manorial Lordships and who they are owned by.
It is to be much lamented that there is no authoritative national record of the ownership of Manorial Lordships, and Robert Smith has done much valuable research into providing an alternative record.
It is important to realise, as explained on the Home Page, that buying a Lordship of the Manor does not entitle you to call yourself Lord or Lady, though, if genuine and the vendor has proved ownership, they are wonderful slices of British history. On rare occasions they have quite lucrative rights that are included with them; such as holding a market, owning verges of roads or even – in the most unusual case – the privilege of holding the right hand of the Monarch at the Coronation.
The Manorial Society has a membership of approximately 1,700 Lords of the Manor and Feudal Barons, Peers and Historians. For those who are particularly interested in finding out more about a Lordship of the Manor, they do have a useful History of Lordships on their site.
To find out about other, and less reputable, companies in the ‘title’ selling business go to Warning.