INTRODUCTION ============== The Public Records of this country have been said to excel all others "in age, beauty, correctness, and authority." For a period of well nigh 800 years they contain, in an almost unbroken chain of evidence, not only the political and constitutional history of the realm and the remotest particulars with regard to its financial and social progress, but also the history of the land and of its successive owners from generation to generation, and of the legal procedure of the country from a time "whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary." Although many of them were buffeted about in civil wars and dissensions, and others hidden away for years in noisome cellars, to be the refuge and food of vermin, they have yet survived to form a magnificent monument of the past, mutilated here and there, it is true, by the ravages of time and neglect, but still speaking with authoritative voice to the centuries to come of the struggles for civil and political liberty and of the social and domestic condition of the English race from its earliest infancy to the present time. The history of their many vicissitudes, and of the alternate care and neglect with which they have been treated for centuries, has been so exhaustively dwelt upon by previous writers that its repe- tition here would be both tedious and unnecessary. Suffice it, therefore, to say that within the walls of the stately, albeit unfinished Record Repository, the construction of which on the Rolls Estate was commenced in 1651, are now collected together all the muniments of the Superior Courts of Law anciently preserved in their respective Treasuries (and subsequently in the several Record Offices established in the Tower of London, the Rolls Chapel Office, the Chapter House at Westminster, the King's Mews at Charing Cross, Carlton Ride, and other places of deposit), as well as those of Special or Abolished Jurisdictions from all parts of the country. To these have been added the entire contents of the State Paper Office at Westminster, which was amalgamated with the Public Record Office in 1804, and the Books Papers, and Documents of the various Government Departments to a comparatively recent date. The charge and superintendence, and, either by the Act itself or by a warrant in pursuance thereof, the custody also of the whole of these was vested in the Master of the Rolls by the Act 1 and 2 Vict., c. 94., known as the "Public Record Act," and by an Order of the Privy Council, dated 5th March 1852, all the Records belonging to Her Majesty, deposited in any office, court, place, or custody other than those named in the Public Record Act were placed thenceforth " under the charge and superintendence '" of the Master of the Rolls, subject and according to the provisions of the said Act. Some idea of the nature and extent of the vast collection now deposited in the Public Record Office may be gathered from the following enumeration of the several Sub-Divisions or groups of Records of which it consists: — CONTENTS OF THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. (1.) Records of the Superior Courts of Law, as follows : — The Court of Chancery. '' '' Queen's Bench. '' '' Common Pleas. '' '' Exchequer, with its Branches, Administrative and Judicial, as follows: — The Exchequer of Pleas or Common Law Side. The Queen's Remembrancer's Department or Equity Side. The Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Department (including the Office of the Clerk of the Pipe). The Augmentation Department (including the abolished Courts of Augmentations and of the General Surveyors of the King's Lands). The First Fruits and Tenths Department (including The Abolished Court Of First Fruits and Tenths). The Receipt Department or "Exchequer of Receipt" (including the Pells' and Auditors' Offices). The Treasury of the Exchequer or Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer. The Land Revenue Department. (2.) Records of Special and Abolished Jurisdictions, as follows: — High Court of Admiralty. Court of Chivalry. High Court of Delegates. Court of High Commission in Ecclesiastical Causes. Marshalsea and Palace Courts. Peveril Court. Court of Requests. Court of Star Chamber. Court of Wards and Liveries. (3.) Records of the Duchy of Lancaster. (4.) '' '' Palatinate of Durham. (5.) '' '' Palatinate of Lancaster. (6.) '' '' Principality of Wales (including the Palatinate of Chester). (7.) State Papers and Departmental Records, including : — Records of the Admiralty. '' '' Audit Office. '' '' Colonial Office including the Board of Trade). '' '' Foreign Office. '' '' Home Office. '' '' Lord Chamberlain's Department. '' '' Treasury. '' '' War Office. Records of various abolished Offices and expired Commissions. NOTE: The enormous bulk of the National Archives will, perhaps, be best exemplified by the .statement that one class of documimts alone, the Close Rolls of the Court of Chancery, comprises considerably over 19,000 rolls, whilst the Coram Rege and De Banco Rolls, which are also numbered by thousands, are frequently of huge size — a single roll of the Tudor and Stuart periods containing from 500 to 1,000 tkins of parchment. In order to afford some guide as to the manner and sequence in which the judicial document, which constitute the greater part of those described in the present volume, came into existence, a brief sketch of the nature and origin of the Superior Courts of Law and of such of the Special and abolished Jurisdictions as are represented in the Public Records, and also of the duties of the principal Officers attached to such Courts, is appended.* It must be borne in mind that the several Courts are described as they existed prior to the passing of the Supreme Court of Judicature Act of 1873. A brief account is also given of each of the remaining Sub-Divisions of the Public Records. DESCRIPTION OF THE COURTS OF LAW. The term Court, or Curia, was originally used to denote simply the Palace or Residence of the King, but came eventually to have a more especial signification, namely, that of the place in which justice was administered. In the process of time the King's Court became subdivided into four branches known as the Superior Courts, and generally held at Westminster, consisting of the King's Bench, the Chancery, the Common Pleas, and the Exchequer, all of which were Courts of Record. In addition to these there were numerous Courts having special or limited jurisdiction, some of which were Courts of Record, whilst others were not of Record, and therefore known as Base Courts. A Court of Record was one which had the power to hold pleas according to the course of the Common Law in real, personal, and mixed actions, when the debt or damage in dispute amounted to or exceeded 40s., and, being a King's Court, had authority to fine and imprison; while the Base Courts could only hold pleas relating to sums under the amount specified, and could neither impose a fine nor imprisonment, nor were their proceedings enrolled; of this description were the County Courts, Courts Baron, &c. The Role of the Superior Courts of Record were of such authority that no proof could be admitted against them, and they were triable only by themselves in pursuance of a Writ of Error; whilst in Courts not of Record the proceedings might be denied and tried by a Jury, and a Writ of false judgment be thereupon issued. All the inferior Courts of Law were regulated by the Court of King's Bench, which took care that they did not exceed their jurisdictions or alter their forms. * The statements relating to the nature, &c. of the earlier Courts of Law are taken from Sir Thomas Hardy's Introduction to the Close Rolls. The Curia Regis or Aula Regis. ------------------------------ This Court took its name from the place in which it was held, the Hall or Court of the King's Palace. It appears to have been of Norman origin, and the name was originally applied to an assembly exercising both legislative and judicial functions, which, under the Norman rule, supplied in all probability the place of the Saxon Wittenngemote or Common Council. In the Curia 1: were discussed and tried all pleas immediately concerning the King and the Realm, and suitors were allowed, upon payment of small fines to remove their plaints from inferior jurisdictions of Saxon origin into this Court, so that, in the reign of Henry I., it had become the regular Court of Appeal from all the Courts of ordinary jurisdiction. These inferior tribunals, such as the County Courts, Hundred Courts, and Courts Baron, were so numerous as to cause serious inconvenience, and the ignorance or partiality of the judges gave rise to much venality and debasement of the laws. To put a stop to these irregularities "men versed and experienced in the laws and constitution of the Realm*" were appointed in the reign of Henry I. as Itinerant Justices, to go on circuits through every part of the kingdom, and to hear and determine pleas, as well civil and criminal as pleas of the Crown, arising within the several districts assigned to them, and these appointments were finally established and the kingdom divided into six circuits at the Council of Northampton in the 22nd year of Henry the Second. [EDIT: in the year 1176] In the same reign the judicial business of the Curia Regis appears to have been separated from its legislative functions, and the Court definitely established as a legal tribunal. This step appears to have been taken by the King in consequence ot complaints made to him of the partiality of his "Justiciar" resiant in his Court, whose number he reduced from 18 to 5, and enacted "quod illi quinque audirent omnes clamores regni et rectum facerent; et quod a Curia Regis non recederent, Bed ibi ad audi- endum clamores hominum remanerent, ita ut, si aliqua qusestio inter cos veniret, qua per eos ad finem duci non posset, auditui regi prsesentaretur et sicut ei, et sapientoribus regni placeret, terminaretur."