[a. AF. court baron, earlier court de baroun; in med.L. curia baronis, court of the baron or lord.] The assembly of the freehold tenants of a manor under the presidency of the lord or his steward.
Such a court had a jurisdiction in civil actions arising within the manor, especially in such as related to freehold land. This jurisdiction began to decay at an early date, and is now practically obsolete. (In modern times lawyers have distinguished between the court-baron which was the court of the freehold tenants, and the customary court which was the court for the copyhold tenants. The early history of this distinction is obscure. F. W. Maitland.)
[1292. Britton, I. xxvii. § 3. En nostre Court ou aylours, sicum en Counté ou en court de baroun ou de autre fraunc homme. Ibid., VI. iv. (heading), De Court de Baroun.
1461. Year-bk. 1 Edw. IV., f. 10 Mich. pl. 19. Il avoit une court baron.]
1542. Act 34–5 Hen. VIII., c. 27 § 23. Such leetes, lawdaies, and courtbarons, as apperteineth to the lordships and manours.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 15. The Court Baron, anciently called Heal-gemot, and corruptly Haylemot, that is … the Court of the Hall, Mannor, or chiefe place.
1683. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 24. To have and to hold a Court Baron, with all things whatsoever which to a Court Baron do belong.
1733. Court Roll of Manor of Aldenham, The Court Baron of the Most Noble Lord Thomas Holles Duke of Newcastle, Lord of the Manor aforesaid held … before Peter Walter, Steward.
1767. Blackstone, Comm., II. 91. Manors were formerly called baronies … and each lord or baron was empowered to hold a domestic court, called the court-baron, for redressing misdemesnors and nusances within the manor, and for settling disputes of property among the tenants.
1790. H. C. Robinson, Remin. (1869, I. ii. 20. I was out of town with Mr. Francis all day holding a Court Baron.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 364. At a court-baron holden for the manor of Featherstone in 1785, the homage presented the death of Sir S. Helier, and an entry of a proclamation on the rolls was made as follows.
1852. Court Roll of Manor of Park, At the General Court Baron and Customary Court of the Right Honble Arthur Algernon, Earl of Essex … Lord of the said Manor … before John Boodle, Steward.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., § 129 I. 399.
1875. Digby, Real Prop., v. § 6 (1876), 256.
