n 



RECORDS, PUBLIC. 



RECORDS, PUBLIC. 



871 



tununl boxes, and htnapen, or "lumpen of twyggys," were also 





Inscriptions on labels, letters, and '* signs " furnished the means of 

 reference. We owe tlie fulluwing specimens of these "signs "to the 

 kindness of Sir Francis Palgrave. who has obliged ua with the loan of 

 the blocks, cut for hia calendars of the exchequer before mentioned. 

 These signs in most cases bear analogy to the subject of the docu- 

 ment. i which they are intended to mark. 



3 * * 



ir-a-- 



The rolls of the justices of the forest were marked by the sapling 

 oak (No. 1). Papal bulls by the, triple eiown rJ). Four canvas pouches 

 holding rolls and tallies of certain payments mado for the church uf 

 Westminster were marked by (lie church (8). The head in a cowl (4) 

 marked an indenture respecting the jewels found in the house of the 

 Minor in Salop. The scales (5), tile assay of the mint in 

 Dublin. The Briton having one foot shud and the other bare, with 

 the lance and sword (6), marked the wooden " coffin " holding the 

 acquittance of receipt* from Uewullin, Prince of Wales. Three 

 herrings (7), the " forcer " of leather bound with iron, containing 

 documents relating to Yarmouth, Ste. The lancer (8), documents 

 relating to Aragon. The \iuitc<l hands (9), the marriage between 

 Henry, Prince of Wales, and Philinpa, daughter of Henry IV. The 

 galley (10), the recognisance of merchants of the three galleys of 

 Venice. The hand and book (11), fealty to kings John and Henry. 

 The charter or cyrograph (12), treaties and truces between England 

 and Scotland Tlie hooded monk (IS), advowsons of Irish churches. 

 And the castle with a banner of the C'lare arms (14), records relating 

 to the possessions of the earl of Gloucester in Wales. 



Our ancestors before the Norman conquest pursued no system of 

 public registration. There are numerous charters of the Anglo-Saxon 

 kings and deeds between private individuals still existing : six volume* 

 of these were edited by the late most able scholar, John Mitchell 

 Kemble, under the title of ' Codex Diplomatics sevi Saxoniei, but even 



he did not exhaust the precious store. Historical events were chrouicleil 

 in monastic chartularies. 



The Anglo-Saxons, whoso judicial proceedings were conducted 

 had no records except the "land-bocs" or charters. The trans 

 of the folk-moots were not registered or recorded, and in the adminis- 

 tration of justice no reference was made to written precedents. In 

 such a state of society, though the actual possession of land cons! 

 one of the best titles to real property, still the "Und-boc " fui 

 evidence of it also. And so important were these hind-books con- 

 sidered, that whc-u the monks of Ely purchased seven hy.les and a half 

 of land, they gave three hydes, besides -thirty " aurei," to recover the 

 charter or " oyrogtaph " of the title. Duplicates and triplicates of these 

 land-books were made, and one " part " was delivered into the custody 

 of the llnrthegii, or chamberlain, to be preserved in the " hoi. 

 royal treasury. 



When a written account is made of any act, it is clear tliat it is made 

 not for the exclusive benefit of one party unly. In the Domesday Book 

 of the Norman conqueror, we see evidence that his power was far from 

 absolute. The financial registrations (Rutuli Pipy;) of Henry I., iti 

 whose reign the earliest example is found the n-conls of the judicial 

 proceedings of the " Curia Regis," which begin wit!. I -and 



the special acte of the monarch himself enrolled on the "close," 

 " patent," and " charter " rolls commencing in the reign of John are 

 all so many irresistible proofs how larger interests were gradually 

 trenching on the will of the king. The judicial records of the King's 

 Bench and Common Pleas, and the parliamentary records beginning 

 with Edward I., are further evidence of the increasing influence of the 

 nobles and commonalty of the realm. 



The king was legally considered as possessing the sovereign power. 

 His peace was broken when the subject fell by the hand of the mur- 

 derer ; his parliament was to be summoned ; his honour to be vindi- 

 cated ; and his army to be levied. It was the king's exchequer, the 

 king's wardrobe, the king's court, and essentially the king's chancery ; 

 for the chancellor's functions were originally those- of a private secre- 

 tary, combining duties both spiritual and temporal. Holding the 

 keepership of the king's conscience, the chancellor was necessarily of 

 the clerical body, and the chief of the king's chapel. The great seal 

 was in his custody, and the scope of his secretarial duties embraced all 

 those of modern times performed by our secretaries of state for the home 

 and foreign departments ; and of all the business transacted a systema- 

 tic and orderly registration was preserved in the several inrolments called 

 " patent,' " close," " charter," Ac. All records of these several depart- 

 ments formed part of the king's treasure ; and, in accordance with the 

 practice of the ancient Persians five hundred years before the Christian 

 era, when Darius caused a search for the decree of Cyrus to be " made 

 in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon " 

 (Ezra, vi. 1), were deposited in the king's "treasuries." * The mutual 

 interest of all parties naturally mode the preservation of the records an 

 object of general solicitude ; to the king, as they furnished indisputable 

 precedents for his calls of military service and taxation ; to the nobles, 

 in protecting them in their feudal rights and various privileges ; and to 

 the commons most of all, in limiting the powers both of king and 

 nobles, sheltering them from capricious extortion, and securing to them 

 a certain amount of consistency in the administration of justice. 



In Henry III.'s reign there were royal treasuries of records in the 

 Tower of London and the New Temple. From the latter place, in tho 

 20th of Edward I., out of a chest secured by nine keys, certain records 

 of the Chancery were taken by the king's orders. (' Hot. Glaus.,' 20 

 Edward I., m. 13 d.) The Tower hod certainly become a permanent 

 treasury for records in the 33rd of Edward I., when a transfer to it 

 was directed to be made of all the papal privileges touching the crown 

 or kingdom, from the treasury of the exchequer at Westminster. 

 (' Rot. Claus.,' 83 Edward I., m. 3.) Another " treasury " is described 

 by certain " memoranda," made 19 Edward III., as within the cloister 

 of Westminster Abbey, near the Chapter-House (thesanraria Regis 

 infra Claustrum Abbatiaj Westmonasterii juxta Capitulum). 

 "treasury" still remains. A single pillar supports the vaulted < li 

 which is yet to be seen, with its double oak doors grated an.! 

 with iron and locked with three keys, and its drawers and "tills" 

 labelled by Arthur Agarde, who was custos of the records it contained. 

 In his ' Compendium of the Records in the Treasury,' compiled 1610, 

 he says that "the recordes of the kiuge's majesties threasury at West- 

 minster, under the custodie of the lord-threosurer and the tu . ehami >er- 

 ,\cre lay'd up for their better preservation in fower scvcrall 

 thrcasauries under three severall kayes, kept by three sundry < 

 distinct the one kay from another, and tippon each doro three lockes. 

 The first in the Court of Receipt; the seacond in the Newe Pall 

 Westminster, over the Little Uittehousc there; the third in li 

 dissolved abbey of Westminster, in the Old Chapter-House ; the fourth 

 in the cloister of the sayd abbey." 



The contents of several " treasuries " at various periods seem to have 

 been consolidated in the Chapter-House of Westminster Abbey, which 

 was fitted up for the reception of records by Sir Christopher \\ ren. 



* Certain records of the Chancery followed the king in his migrations over 

 the kingdom aa lute aa Kichard II. Religious housed were called upon to 

 provide horses for the conveyance of them. Edward I., by win, tested the 4tli 

 July, in the twenty. eighth year of hii reign, commanded the abbot of Furncss 

 to provide n strong horse to carry the Chancery Holla to York. 



