I9 11 -] Inclosure Awards. 163 



Inquiries are frequently addressed to the Board for information as 



to the whereabouts of Awards under Inclosure Acts passed prior to the 



General Inclosure Act of 1841;. 

 Memorandum as to 2 AU awards under the Act of ^ are 



the Custody of in the custo d y of the Board, and copies 

 Inclosure Awards. thereof are deposited with the Clerk of the 

 Peace for the County concerned, and also with the Churchwardens of 

 the parish or their successors in title. A list of all such Awards made 

 up to the year 1893 is contained in a House of Commons Return (455 

 of 1893). Awards made under Acts passed between the General In- 

 closure Act, 1801, and the Inclosure Act, 1845, were in the absence of 

 other provision in the authorising Act, to be enrolled in one of his 

 Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, "or" with the Clerk of 

 the Peace for the County, and inquiries as to their present place of 

 deposit and as to opportunity of inspecting them may be addressed to 

 the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane, London, W.C. The place 

 of deposit of Awards made under Acts prior to, or not governed by, 

 the General Inclosure Act, 180 1, can be discovered only from examina- 

 tion of the particular provisions of each Act. In many cases these 

 private Acts were not printed, and it would probably be difficult to 

 discover any existing copy of the Act. Lists of local Inclosure Acts 

 from 1727 to 1834 are contained in George Bram well's Analytical Table 

 of Private Statutes (2 Vols., London : 1813 and 1835). Reference to 

 the Index of Local Acts, 1801-1899 (H.M. Stationery Office : 1900) 

 may also be useful in an endeavour to trace information. 



3. It will be seen that considerable difficulty may be experienced 

 in tracing the Awards of Inclosure bearing date prior to 1845. Many 

 of them are included in the House of Commons Return (No. 50 of 

 1904) of Inclosure Awards deposited with Clerks of the Peace or 

 Clerks of County Councils, who may possibly in certain cases be in 

 a position to supplement the information contained in that Return. 

 Where this source of information fails, it may sometimes be possible 

 to obtain particulars from the Steward of the Manor or from the 

 Parish Council or Incumbent of the Parish concerned, or from Diocesan 

 Registrars or Chapter Clerks. 



4. A certain number of Inclosure Awards, or copies thereof, are 

 in the custody of the Public Record Office, the Duchy of Lancaster 

 Office, his Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and the 

 Ecclesiastical Commissioners. At the Public Record Office are kept 

 those Awards which were transferred from the Royal Courts of 

 Justice, as well as those transferred with the Land Revenue Records 

 from the Office of Woods and Forests. The Commissioners of Woods 

 and Forests have information only as to the whereabouts of such 

 Awards as affect Crown property. 



5. A very few Awards relating to lands in Middlesex are in the 

 keeping of the Land Registry, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C, 

 as successors to the Middlesex Registry of Deeds; and many relating 

 to lands in Yorkshire (East, North, and West Ridings) are at the 

 Registries of Deeds at Beverley, Northallerton, and Wakefield respec- 

 tively. There is reason to believe that some Inclosure Awards have 

 found their way into private hands, while a small number are under- 



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