The series contains nine rentals, one valor (EGR11/1/5) and five estate surveys (EGR11/1/10 & /12-15) for the Cheshire and Lancashire estates of the Booth and Grey families. Rentals are essentially lists of tenants and the amounts of rent due from each. While the basic format of rentals changed little over the centuries, the amount of information provided on the tenants' holdings varied considerably. The earliest rentals, compiled on parchment rolls, give only brief descriptions of holdings. The most detailed rental, from 1701 (EGR11/1/6), contains a wealth of information on the physical characteristics of tenements, and on the rents in kind, labour services and other incidents of tenure which the lessee owed to the lord. Most rentals are arranged geographically by township.
The valor is a valuation of the whole estate, including Dunham Massey Hall and demesne lands in addition to chief rents and the rents of tenants at will. It represents the theoretical annual value of the estate; it does not record the actual income derived from it. The surveys are verbal descriptions of the estate, or parts of it. They contain details of the buildings, fields and other parcels of land which constituted individual tenements, but they do not provide information on rents and the other income from the estate.
[Among the manorial records are three medieval extents or estate surveys for the barony of Dunham Massey, dated 1347 and 1411 (EGR2/1/1). Among the papers of George Booth (1675-1758), 2nd Earl of Warrington, is a rental for tenancies in Cheshire, written in his hand, 1743-5 (EGR3/6/2/10). There are also numerous rentals among the Estate Papers from the Stamford Estate Office in Altrincham (EGR14/6).]