24 INQUISITIONES POST MORTEM FOR DORSET. 



iii. The Exchequer Series, Henry VII. to James I., indicated 

 by a letter E. 



iv. The Court of Wards and Liveries Series, 32 Henry VIII. to 

 Charles I., indicated by a letter W. 



Thus for the bulk of the period under 'consideration it is 

 possible to find four Inquisitiones taken on the death of a person 

 holding lands in capite, so that if in one series an inquisition is 

 faded, or torn, or non-existent, we have the means of supplying 

 the deficiencies from one or other of the remaining series. 



The Chancery Series is, as before stated, a continuation of the 

 Calendar already printed. 



The Miscellaneous Chancery Series would appear to be a collec- 

 tion of Inquisitiones which have, from one cause or another, 

 got out of place in the general Chancery series. 



The Exchequer Series are contemporary and authentic tran- 

 scripts of the Chancery documents, and were returned into the 

 Court of the Exchequer to serve as a check on the fees and 

 payments due to this Department. A Calendar of them was 

 printed in the loth Report of the Deputy Keeper of Records. 

 They are arranged under the names of the escheators (or persons 

 appointed to take the Inquisitiones), but as the same escheator 

 served for both Somerset and Dorset, it is scarcely possible from 

 that Calendar to identify which documents refer to each county. 

 It has been necessary, therefore, to go through the whole lot of 

 documents and note those which relate to Dorset. 



The Wards and Liveries Series. These commence 32 Henry 

 VIII. (1540), when the Court of Wards and Liveries was 

 established to superintend and regulate enquiries upon the death 

 of any of the King's tenants in capite, who were minors, idiots, or 

 lunatics. The Inquisitiones are identical with the Chancery and 

 the Exchequer Series. The functions of the Court were sus- 

 pended during the Commonwealth, and it was finally abolished 

 by statute of 12 Charles II. 



By the help of the two Calendars now printed in the Dorset 

 Field Club's Proceedings, and which, together, cover a period of 

 some 430 years, reference can be made in as many minutes as 



