183 



debts, on which summons had been put into his hands, unless * he 

 paid the money, or good cause of discharge appeared by matter of 

 record. The payment, or excuse, were marked against the 

 charge, not only on the great pipe roll by the clerk of the pipe, 

 a species of clerk to the treasurer, but also on counter roll of the 

 I comptroller of the pipe, who was a clerk to the chancellor, 



and whose record checked the former. These were ca^t up in 

 his charge on the great roll, by the secondary of the pipe, together 

 ,^ "with the account of the green wax. This last was a process issued 

 upon estreated debts, by the clerk of the estreats, or summonister, an 

 officer appointed to assist the clerk of the pipe, upon the increase 

 of business of the Exchequer, and who received the answers of the 

 sheriff, on his apposal of the green wax before the foreign ap- 

 poser.-f 



I am confident that the three figures that are upon the left of the 

 drawing are the Judges, or three barons, of whom the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer in those days was always one, as appears from 

 apatentroU, 19 Ed. III. p. 2. M. 10. quoted by Archbishop Usher — 

 See his MSS. Bib. T. C. D. E. 3. 10 — a document which men- 

 tions that the number of barons was diminished from three, the third 

 being merged in the office of chancellor of the Exchequer. I do 

 not think the treasurer is represented here, as he did not at this 

 period sit often as a judge. 



Of the figures at the top of the drawing, I think that the person 

 viewing the pen is the treasurer's remembrancer, who took notes 

 of such rules, ^c. relating to the revenue, as were not belonging to 



* Hence the phrase " oneratur nisi," abbreviated to " oni ;'' " tot," signifies totum, or 

 the sum with which he is charged on each account ; the word " nil,'' (nihil habet in manu,) 

 is marked for sums which cannot be levied, as in cases of death, &c, 



f See Howard, p. 17, &c. 



