Definition
A deputy steward is a person authorized by the steward of a manor to hold a court baron or other manorial court on the steward's behalf. Acts performed in a court held by a deputy steward carry the same legal effect as if the chief steward had presided in person. The authority is delegated rather than original: the deputy steward derives all power from the steward's appointment and cannot act beyond the scope of that authorization.
A further delegation is recognized in limited circumstances: a deputy steward may authorize a sub-deputy to hold a court pro hac vice — that is, for a specific occasion only. This narrow sub-delegation was not considered a violation of the maxim delegatus non potest delegare (a delegate cannot further delegate) because the authority conferred on the sub-deputy is strictly bounded to a single act or session, rather than a general transfer of discretionary power.
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Common Confusion
The deputy steward should not be confused with the steward of a manor, who holds original, ongoing authority over the manorial court. Nor should the term be confused with modern uses of "deputy steward" in labor union contexts, where it refers to a shop steward's assistant — an entirely unrelated usage with no historical or legal connection to the manorial office.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is almost exclusively a feature of English manorial law and will appear primarily in sources dealing with feudal tenure, the court baron, and copyhold land. Researchers consulting pre-twentieth-century English treatises, conveyancing manuals, or colonial American land records derived from manorial grants may encounter this office and need to understand its delegated character.
The key research insight concerns the interplay with delegatus non potest delegare. Historical sources uniformly agree that a deputy steward may sub-delegate for a specific occasion without violating this maxim, but the reasoning is worth tracing carefully: it turns on the distinction between a general delegation of discretionary power (impermissible) and a bounded, occasion-specific authorization (permissible). This distinction recurs across agency law and administrative law contexts and connects the manorial office to broader principles of delegated authority.
Researchers should also note that as copyhold tenure was abolished in England by the Law of Property Act 1922, the office of deputy steward as a functioning legal role effectively became obsolete in the twentieth century. Sources written after that date will treat the term as historical. American sources beyond colonial-era manorial grants (found primarily in New York, Maryland, and parts of the South) will rarely address this term at all.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Rapalje & Lawrence are in complete agreement, with the Rapalje & Lawrence entry tracking Black's nearly verbatim. Both sources cite Wharton as the underlying authority and reproduce the same core propositions: (1) a steward may validly depute another to hold court; (2) acts in such a court are fully legal; and (3) a further pro hac vice sub-delegation by the deputy does not offend delegatus non potest delegare.
Neither source elaborates on what formalities were required to constitute a valid deputation, nor do they address what consequences followed if a court were held by a person whose appointment as deputy was defective. For those questions, researchers will need to consult manorial law treatises such as Watkins on Copyholds or Scriven on Copyhold. The silence of the dictionary sources on defective appointments is notable, given how frequently title to copyhold land depended on the validity of court proceedings.
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Jurisdictional Note
This office is a creature of English manorial law and has no surviving American analog. In jurisdictions with colonial-era manorial history — principally New York under Dutch and English patroon grants, and parts of Maryland — the term may appear in historical title chains and land records, but carries no current legal significance.
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