oo 



KF.COKDS 



of Ijuicaster ; (4) I'alatiniito of Durham : (5) 

 Palatinate of Lancaster; (li) Principality of Wales; 

 (7) State Paper* ami Ih'parlmrntal Records, in- 

 cluding the archive- of the Ailinirally, Colonial 

 oilice. Foreign Ollice, llomr t Mlice, Treasury, and 

 otln-r departments. 



Scxcral handlxMiks to this etiornions mats of 

 materials have been piilili-ln-d, of which tin- inoKt 

 useful are All Armani nf tlif iiiimt iniinirtdnt Public 

 Record* of <!r<-ii /' t-mi, Ky ('. Purton Cooper 

 (2 vols. 8vo, 1832) : Official ll'nndlntok to the Public 

 Record*, by !'. S. Thocui i *o. is'tf); Our Public 

 Record*, by A. C. Ewald (8vo, 1H73) ; ami A Guide 

 to thr l'rinri/ml Clones of Documents preserved in 

 the Public Record (iffirr, liy S. R. Scaiyill Bird 

 (8vo, 1891). An introduction to (heart of search- 

 ing for materials, whether historical, topographical. 

 genealogical, or legal, is affonled by the present 

 writer's Records anil Record-searching (8vo, 1888), 

 while a person not acquainted with the ancient 

 legal h. in. Is cannot do lietter than consult C. T. 

 Martin's edition of Wright's Court Hand Restored. 

 ThU contain- useful glossaries, lists of ahhrevia- 

 tions, ancient alphabets, and specimens of the old 

 handwritings, which vary greatly from century to 

 century. Sec PALAOCUUraT. 



The hulk of tin- national records may be 

 imagined from the fact that, to cite only two 

 classes of documents, there are more than 18,000 

 Close Rolls, and many thousands of Coram !:-_.- 

 and !> Uanco II, ill-, eivrh of the latter in the 

 Tudor period containing from 500 to 1000 skins of 

 parchment. 



The supreme needs of such a depository are 

 indexes, and indexes In indexes. The latter require- 

 ment is tolerably supplied 1 iy the ' List of Calendars, 

 Indexes, \c.' in appendix ii. to the 41st Reportof 

 the Deputy keeper (Xvo, IHSO); hut the indexes 

 themselves i,, which this list of 748 items in a 

 directory are sadly deficient. They do not furnish 

 guidance to a twentieth part of tho mass of 

 documents, and many of them are merely eclectic. 

 A recent addition to this series is 'General' 

 Plantagcnet Harrison's voluminous MS. Index to 

 the I)e Banco and other rolls, which haa been 

 acquired at the public exjiense. 



Numerous charters of the greatest antiquity are 

 to be found in the Public Record Otlice, and there 

 of course is preserved Domesday I look ; but, under- 

 standing by ' records ' a fairly continuous series of 

 otlicial documents, we may say that the earliest 

 are the Pipe Rolls or (ireat Kolf of the Exchequer. 

 That for 31 Henry I. stands alone, but is soon 

 followed by an unbroken series of Pipe Rolls 

 extending from 2 Henry II. down to modern days. 

 These are accounts of the revenue of the kingdom 

 Ixith as regards receipt and expenditure, and they 

 contain items of the greatest pos-iMc historical 

 inn-rest. The Pipe Roll Society (established 1884) 

 is gradually printing them. Next in older of 

 antiiiiiity are the Patent Rolls, which begin with 

 .'i John and come down to the present (lav, anil 

 tlie Clone Rolls, which present a similarly 1111- 

 hioken seric-. from I2O4. The former contain 

 matters nttrnt or open to the public, such as 

 grants of offices, crown lands, liberties, confirma- 

 tions of previous grants, grants to corporate liodies, 

 p.iN-nt* of honour, licenses, pardons, ratifications 

 "I lieiitii. proclamations, safe conduct-, presenta- 

 tions to benefices, icsiitnlions of lempoialitics In 

 bishops. ahl>cys, ,^e 



The Chme Rolls contain mandates, letters, and 

 writ* of a private nature which wen- clo-cd or 

 sealed up. and record the directions of the king as 

 to domestic and public matters, orders to the 

 "lierill- on all kinds of ouestions. and directions as 

 to raising snlwidies. The historical value of these 

 two -!- of Rolls is immense, as in the earlier yean 



all the state correspondence, both foreign and 



domestic, is recorded in one or other of them. 



Other records of great value which date either 

 from the reign of Kdward I. or fiom still earlier 

 times are the Cart;e Anliquie, early transcijpi- of 

 charters ranging from KlhcllM-rt, king of Kent, to 

 Edward I. ; Charter Rolls, containing the king's 

 grants of land, dignities, &c. ; Escheat Rolls, 

 accounU of lands and pro|x>rty forfeited to the 

 crown ; Feet of Fines, records of the ending 

 fictitious suits as to land, which are in reality 

 deeds of conveyance, ranging from 7 Richard f. 

 to William IV. ; Rotuli Curia- Regis, some of 

 w -hic.il are as early as Richard I., and are record- 

 of the cases decided in the King's Court up to 

 the reign of Kdward I., bv whom the court was 



divided into the King's Bench, Ci non Plea-. 



and Exchequer; Coram Rege Rolls, or records of 

 the crown side of the King's Bench, including 

 A i/.e, Eyre, Coroners, and Cool Delivery Rolls ; 

 l)e Banco Rolls, or records of the Court of Common 

 Pleas; lni|iiisiiioiies Post Mortem, a treble series 

 (Chancery, Wards and Liveries. F.xcheqner) of 

 inquiries as to the land held by tenants in fiif>itr at 

 time of decease, and as to their heirs; Originnlia 

 Rolls of the Exchequer, containing entries of any 

 service, rent, or salary reserved in grants or 

 charters ; Subsidy Rolls, also Exchequer docu- 

 ments, often containing the names of the tax- 

 payers under villages and towns, and most valuable 

 to the topographer ; Pell Records, including the 

 Liberate Rolls and Issue Rolls, consist ing of entries 

 of payments of salaries, pensions, &C. ; Custom* 

 Rolls for various polls; .Memoranda Rolls (Ex- 

 chequer), enrolments of write of Srire Farias, in- 

 formations, outlawries, and a multitude of other 

 matter- ; Pardon Rolls, enrolments of pardons up 

 to 2 James I.; Quo Warranto Rolls, respecting 

 usurpations of oflices or franchises ; t (Mala or Finn 

 Rolls, otl'erings to the king for renewals of churl, is, 

 enjoyment of lands, oflices, and privileges ; Parlia- 

 ment Rolls, petitions to and proceedings in parlia- 

 ment, beginning from the reign of Kdward I. ; 

 Statute Rolls, tho Journals of the Lords and 

 Commons from Henry VIII., and other parlia- 

 mentary records. 



The foregoing are more or less continuous records, 

 hut there are some of an occasional character or of 

 limited annual duration, hut still of great import 

 ance, such as the Hundred Rolls, presentments of 

 unjust claims of privileges such as free warren 

 frankpledge, and assizes of bread and ale ; the 

 Liber Niger, and Liber Kubcus Scaccarii, and Testa 

 de NevilT, lists of tenants in ca/nfi and knight's 

 fees j Taxatio l-'.c. lesi.-istica, an account (1291 ) of the 

 taxation of benefices ; Inuiii-ii lours Non.-u urn, which 

 included a valuation of benefices in the fourteenth 

 year of Kdward III. : French Rolls, Norman liolls, 

 ii Kolls, copies of tieati.-s. truces, order-, 

 summon-.--, grant.*, of safe-conduct, and other 

 items respecting the affairs of those parts of Frame 

 that were under the English crown; Valor Kcclesi 

 asticns, a valuation of lienelices in 'Jli Henry \ III. ; 

 Mag.-i de Secret is, trials for state offences of a 

 specially secret nature, from Anne Boleyn to the 

 Smart adherents of 171."iand 174."> ; Roxalist Com- 

 position Papers (1649-60), containing statements 

 as to estates and families of Royalists. 



Tho xtutr /m/irrx ( Domestic,' Foreign, Colonial, 

 Irish, an,| Scotch) originally sprung from the 

 Privy-coiincil ami Chancery, and include the corre- 

 spondence of tin' Privy council, secretaries of stale. 

 and other public departments, with miscellaneous 

 domestic papers from the time of Henry VIII. 

 These, lieing the correspondence of the highest 

 |Hilitical officers of the kingdom, relate to an in- 

 finite variety of matters. They have been care- 

 fully arranged, and more than 120 volumes of 



