LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Manor and Hundred Courts
The existence of a medieval manor court at Kencot can
probably be assumed, though the only recorded example
is a court baron of 1595 held by William Pope's steward;
its sole business was copyhold conveyancing. (fn. 1) In addition, courts for neighbouring manors with land in
Kencot exercised limited jurisdiction there: in the 15th
century the Knights Hospitallers' Clanfield court elected
a Kencot tithingman who was required to attend court
sessions, presumably in connection with the Hospitallers' Kencot freehold, (fn. 2) while in the 16th and 17th centuries a 2-yardland copyhold farm in Kencot belonging to
Bradwell St John manor was similarly granted in the
Broadwell court. (fn. 3) In 1500 Kencot's inhabitants were
fined for failure to send a representative to the annual
hundred court and view of frankpledge at Bampton,
which in the 16th and 17th centuries still elected a
tithingman and a constable for Kencot. (fn. 4) From the 17th
century regulation of Kencot's affairs passed increasingly to non-manorial bodies, in particular the parish
vestry and county authorities such as the quarter
sessions: maintenance of highways was enforced by the
quarter sessions in 1688 and 1810, and in 1724 Kencot's
inhabitants reported the constable of Broadwell to the
justices for allowing a fugitive to escape his custody. (fn. 5)
Parish Government and Officers
Though parish government in Kencot is ill recorded
before the 19th century, by the 17th century the parish
had the usual officers, and presumably its own vestry or
parish assembly. Two churchwardens were appointed
apparently by the 1530s, (fn. 6) and constables, appointed at
first by the hundred court at Bampton but later by the
vestry, (fn. 7) are recorded from the 1640s; the constable in
1641 served also as overseer of the poor. (fn. 8) Presumably
there were agricultural officers such as haywards, though
none are recorded.
Vestry (and later parish church council) minutes
survive from 1853, detailing parish affairs more
minutely. (fn. 9) By then the vestry nominated a constable to
the justices of the peace, and appointed a poor-law
guardian, two assessors and overseers, occasionally a
surveyor of highways, and a rector's and a parishioners'
churchwarden; in 1875 it decided that the parish was 'so
small' that it needed only one churchwarden, but the
decision seems to have been reversed the following year. (fn. 10)
Apart from routine repairs to the church and churchyard,
the vestry's other chief function before 1894 was setting
parish rates, usually at between 2d. and 4d. in the pound,
together with its residual responsibility for poor rates;
other matters dealt with were administration of the
Carter bequest to the school, (fn. 11) and disposal of the parish
pound in 1887, the materials from its inclosure to be used
for road repair.
Under the 1894 Local Government Act Kencot became
part of the newly formed Witney Rural District, (fn. 12) the
vestry's few surviving civil functions passing, as elsewhere, to a parish council, which continued in the early
21st century. The vestry and (from 1944) parish church
council continued to deal with church affairs, including,
in the 1950s, disposal of the rectory house, and ecclesiastical union with Broadwell; other matters discussed were
the erection of a public reading room with Amelia
Carter's charitable bequest in 1912–15, and local clubs
and societies. As earlier, parish affairs were largely run by
the more prominent inhabitants, by the mid 20th century
mostly professional incomers. (fn. 13) Under local government
reorganization in 1974 the civil parish became part of
West Oxfordshire District. (fn. 14)