I'm looking at the history of a John Kaye of Almondbury. He appears in his own right in as a suitor of the manorial court, with his abode given as Smithiehill which I can't trace and subsequently at Lowerhouses* which still exist. In 1637 he moves to "the Church gates"**. There are baptisms of children of John Kaye of "vill" at the time when John of Smithiehill appears in the MR and subsequently of Lowerhouses or Church gates. In the same court that John of Churchyates appears in the MR John Kaye esq of Grange, lord of the adjacent manor of Woodsome, is reported as being represented as a suitor by John Kaye "his farmer". Subsequently there were surrenders by John Kaye, late of Netherhouse and subsequently by John Kaye son and heir of John Kaye of Wellhead, lately deceased***. In both cases John's wife was Dorothy and the surrenders were in favour of John Kaye of Grange. Subsequently John of Churchyates is no longer listed as a suitor in his own right but he is from time-to-time empanelled as a juror or elected constable. During this period John of Grange and his successor, John Kaye 1st bart, are represented by their attorney, John Kaye; the last such representation is the court prior to the burial of John of the Church gates. I'm satisfied that John Kaye variously described as of the vill, Smithiehill, Lowerhouses and Churchyates are one and the same, the son of John of Wellhead and the John Kaye who represented the Woodsome branch of the Kayes in respect of their Almondbury holdings. What I'm trying to understand is his relationship with them. My understanding is that before "farmer" took on its present meaning of agriculturalist it meant one who would collect rents on a landlord's property and pay them on to the landlord at an agreed rate allowing him a profit for his efforts but putting him at risk of non-payment by the tenants. If this gave rise to a transaction at the court I'd have expected it to be one where he received the properties from the landlord for a term of years. Instead the transactions here are surrenders to the use of the Woodsome Kayes. Ian *Lowerhouses is the modern name, variations of both this and Netherhouse are found in contemporary sources. As there is no current variation of Netherhouse in Almondbury I take them to refer to the same place. **Churchyates is also used. Gate in Yorkshire dialect can refer to "way" or street, e.g. "Tha're in t'gate" = "You are causing an obstruction" and Westgate is the name of the street running past Almondbury church. Having the "yate" variation excludes the possibility that "Churchgate" means "Church Street". This description of John Kaye's abode seems to fit that of the cottage at the west end of the steeple provided for the parish clerk and apparently built by a John Kaye about the 1580s but whether this was a John Kaye of Woodsome or a John Kaye of Thorpe, the leading candidates, is not clear. Overlapping John Kaye's occupation of this house there was a parish clerk, perhaps inevitably called John Kaye, but who seems to have been distinct from the John Kaye with whom I'm concerned. ***I had already considered John of Wellhead to have been the father before coming across this transaction.