The Continuing Importance of the Manor in Late Sixteenth-Century England: The Example of the Blount Family of the West Midlands

ABSTRACT The parish is acknowledged by historians to be the political unit of fundamental importance to the people of early modern England, with the manor, which had been central to medieval life, traditionally viewed as in decline. Recent work has countered this view of the manor, identifying its continuing vitality in local affairs until well into the early modern period. Using the case study of the Blounts, who were a prominent West Midlands gentry family in the sixteenth century, this article will consider the evidence for the continuing economic, social and political role of the manor, alongside that of the parish, providing further evidence for the continuing importance of the manor in early modern life and as a political and economic unit of some significance.