Chief rent is an annual sum payable on some freehold property common in North West England, but found throughout the UK. Despite its name it is not a rent.
Ground rent is a regular payment required under a lease from the owner of leasehold property, payable to the freeholder. A ground rent is created when a freehold piece of land or a building is sold on a long lease.
The annual Chief rent was due at Martinmas, which was on 11 November.
Red text shows words or letters of which I am not convinced.
| Cheife rents dewe ? ? ? at Martenmas 1587 | ||
| Chriche | ||
| George Sellers for cheife p Ann | 2s .. 2d | |
| Robt. Radford chiefe p Ann of Mr Pawle lands of Wakebridg | ob | |
| George Radford cheife of Mr Rabington lands p Ann | 12d | |
| Unclear text | Richard Fritchley for cheife of his lands received from wardley p Ann | |
| Thomas Woodward and Robert Taylor of Washington for chiefe p Ann | 30s .. 0d | |
| Frances Rolston cheife p Ann | 5s .. 8d | |
| Thomas Radford cheife p Ann | 5s .. 0d | |
| The chief rent of Ible p Ann | 5s .. 6d | |
| Marmaduke Babington for ye cheife of Collington p Ann | 14s .. 0d | |
| Jerman Pawle cheif p Ann Item more cheife one pound pepers1 |
5s .. 8d | |
| The common fyne of Chrich p Ann | 2s .. 6d | |
| John Kirkeland p Ann | 6d | |
| Raffe Wilcockson cheife p Ann | 6d | |
| Edmund Northrdy cheife p Ann | 3s .. 0d | |
| Wm Lea cheife to ye Lea channtery | 13s .. 4d | |
| Vidua2 Awrom chiefe p Ann | 2s .. 8d | |
| Henrye Ammott cheife | 20d | |
| Andrewe Allen cheife | 10d | |
| The cheife rentt of winttr p Ann | 7s |
1Historically pepper has been very valuable and equivalent to money. In 408 AD Alaric, King of the Visigoths, demanded a large price for sparing the besieged city of Rome. The tribute included fine garments, gold, silver and three thousand kilograms of pepper. Merchants of Venice would bribe tax collectors with a pound of pepper. King Ethelred collected a tax from ships that landed at Billingsgate in the form of bags of pepper. In France a pound of pepper was enough to free a slave. In Germany a nickname for the rich was 'pepper sacks'. When the ship Mary Rose, which sank in 1545, was raised from the sea-bed nearly every sailor's body was found to have a bunch of peppercorns in his possession.
Pepper was considered as a more stable form of currency than money! In England a pound of pepper was a commonly accepted form of rent from land tenants. The term "peppercorn rent” started off meaning that such a contract was taken very seriously based on the cost of a given weight of peppercorns per year. In later years, when pepper became cheap, a custom of handing a single peppercorn to confirm a tenancy came into existence. When Prince Charles became the Duke of Cornwall he received a pound of pepper as part of his tribute.
2 Vidua is a widow
'Sheffield City Council, Libraries Archives and Information: Sheffield Archives ACM /S /118. Reproduced with permission from His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, DL and the Director of Culture, Sheffield City Council'.
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