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EXCHEQUER RECORDS

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 960 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EXCHEQUER RECORDS .—The records of the administrative and judicial sides of the Exchequer (q.v.) are here described under its several divisions. (1)UP PER EXCHEQUER,OR EXCHEQUER OF See also:AUDIT.—(a)See also:Lord Treasurer's See also:Remembrancer's See also:Office, or office of final audit. The result of the final audit is recorded in duplicate on the See also:Pipe and See also:Chancellor's Rolls. These consist of a solitary (Pipe) See also:roll for 31 See also:Henry I., and a duplicate See also:series extending from 2 Henry II. to 2 See also:William IV. The See also:Record See also:Commission has printed the following rolls: Pipe Rolls, 31 Henry I., 2–4 Henry II., i See also:Richard I.; Chancellor's Rolls, 3 See also:John. The Pipe Roll Society has printed the Pipe Rolls for 5–24 Henry II. See also:Foreign Rolls or Rolls of Accounts.—These contain the records of the preliminary audit of accounts other than See also:county accounts of the sheriffs; they run from 42 See also:Edward III. to See also:modern times: closely connected with them are the Enrolled Accounts, which See also:deal with the more important See also:accountants separately. It should be noted that the final audit is not recorded upon either Foreign Rolls or Enrolled Accounts, but must be sought on the Pipe Roll, unless the accountant is found to be quit or to have a See also:balance due to him. The Record Office has published a classified See also:list (No. XI.) of the Foreign and Enrolled Accounts taken from all the foregoing rolls of audit, but omitting the accounts of Customs and Subsidies. Declared Accounts.—A list (No. II.) of these records with an introduction has been published by the Record Office.

The series begins in the 16th See also:

century, and from the 17th century is fairly See also:complete. Originalia Rolls (20 Henry III. to 1837), or extracts from the See also:Chancery Rolls communicated to the Exchequer for its See also:information and guidance. Latin abstracts of the rolls from Henry III. to Edward III. were printed by the Record Commission as Abbreviatio Rotulorum Originalium (2 vols. See also:folio). Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Memoranda Rolls.—These contain the letters received and issued by the Exchequer and notes of the See also:general business of the See also:department. They run from t Henry III. to 1848. Edward See also:Jones's See also:Index to the Records contains a few scattered references to them; and many extracts will be found in the notes to See also:Thomas Madox's See also:History of the Exchequer. Judicial.—The only judicial proceedings on the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's See also:side are in cases connected directly with the See also:revenue. These are enrolled upon the Memoranda Rolls; and for the See also:period 35 See also:Charles II. to William IV. there are See also:Order Books. (b) See also:King's Remembrancer's Office, or office of preliminary audit. The most important See also:financial records of this See also:branch of the Exchequer are the class known as " Exchequer K. R. accounts, &c.," which comprise vouchers and audited accounts of See also:expenditure. Of similar accounts See also:relating to receipts, the Escheator's accounts have been listed in the loth See also:Report; but the inquisitions there described as filed with the accounts as vouchers are now kept separately, and are described with the Chancery Inquisitions in the calendars.

Accounts and vouchers relating to Subsidies and Customs are at See also:

present only described in See also:manuscript (see below under See also:SPECIAL COLLECTIONS). King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Rolls (1 Henry III. to 13 See also:Victoria).—These run parallel with those of the Lord Treasurer and to a large extent contain the same See also:matter. See also:Adam See also:Martin's Index to Exchequer Records contains a certain number of references to them. In the reign of Edward VI., returns were made into the Exchequer by commissioners appointed to take inventories of See also:Church Goods. Volumes of these for several counties are being published by the See also:Alcuin See also:Club (see Mely et See also:Bishop, Bibliographie generale See also:des inventaires imprimes, vol. i. p. 245). Judicial.—The See also:court of Exchequer on the King's Remembrancer's side was a court of See also:equity held before the lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer and the barons. The usual records of a court of equity, Bills and Answers, Decrees and Orders, Affidavits and other subsidiary documents exist for it. Martin's Index to Exchequer Records contains references to the Decrees and Orders. Of the proceedings under special commissions issuing from this court a descriptive See also:catalogue (See also:Elizabeth to Victoria) has been published in the 38th Report. Depositions taken by commission (Elizabeth to See also:George III.) are catalogued in the Reports 38-42. A catalogue of the later depositions exists in manuscript.

(2) See also:

LOWER EXCHEQUER, Or EXCHEQUER OF See also:RECEIPT.—The See also:principal financial records of this department are the Receipt and Issue Rolls showing the payments made to and by the Ex-chequer. The former consist of an exceptional roll for 14 John and a series from Henry III. to George III. The latter run from Henry III. to Edward IV. and from Elizabeth to George III. A See also:translation of the issue rolls (2) for 44 Edward III. was published by F. See also:Devon; who also published a See also:volume of extracts from the issue rolls of the reign of See also:James I., and another volume of extracts from the rolls for the period 41 Henry III. to 39 Henry VI. The other records of this department are very numerous. (3) EXCHEQUER OF PLEAS.—The barons of the Exchequer without the lord treasurer had a court of their own, where See also:process took See also:place by See also:common See also:law. A list of the Plea Rolls of this court (20 Henry III. to 1855) will be found at p. 64 of the Record Office List of Plea Rolls (No. IV.). A partial index to the tithe-suits on these rolls is contained in the 2nd Report. (4) EXCHEQUER OF THE See also:JEWS.—SUitS between Jews, or in which Jews were concerned, were tried before a special subordinate court.

The Plea Rolls (3 Henry III. to 4 Edward I.) are listed in the Record Office List of Plea Rolls. For specimens see Select Pleas, Starrs and Records of the Jewish Exchequer, edited for the See also:

Selden Society and the Jewish See also:Historical Society of See also:England by J. M. See also:Rigg. (5) FIRST FRUITS AND TENTHs.—After the See also:breach with See also:Rome, the See also:crown obtained a new source of revenue in the first fruits due to the See also:pope from every holder of a See also:benefice upon See also:appointment, and from the tenths payable during his See also:tenure of it. For a few years under Henry VIII. a special office administered this revenue. At the See also:accession of See also:Mary the business was transferred to a department of the Exchequer. The principal records are the following: Bishop's Certificates of Institutions to Benefices; See also:Composition books giving the names of incumbents and the sums paid by them in lieu of first fruits; and documents relating to the valuation of livings. The most important entries touching valuation were printed by John Ecton in the See also:Liber Decimarum (1711), which has passed through many See also:editions under the titles of See also:Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum and Liber Regis. The first fruits and tenths are now transferred to See also:Queen See also:Anne's See also:Bounty, and are managed by that office. (6) VALOR See also:EccLESIASTICUS.—In 26 Henry VIII. a commission was issued for a valuation of all ecclesiastical See also:property. The re-turns were made into the Exchequer and consist of eighteen volumes and three portfolios of rolls.

Of these abstracts were made in three volumes known as Liber Valorum or King's Books, and a portion was copied in two volumes known as Liber Regis. The See also:

original returns for the See also:diocese of See also:Ely, most of that of See also:London and See also:part of those of See also:Salisbury, See also:Lincoln, See also:Durham and See also:York are not now known to exist, and are very imperfectly represented by the abstracts and copies mentioned above. From these materials the Record Commission compiled six volumes folio known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus provided with maps and indexes. The introduction and general See also:map were published later (1834) in a See also:separate See also:octavo volume; but some copies were struck off in folio and inserted into Vol. I., which was published in 18io. (7) COURT OF AUGMENTATIONS.—This office was instituted to administer the property of the suppressed monasteries and the revenues of the duchy of See also:Cornwall. The records consist of the muniments of the suppressed houses taken over with them and of documents connected with their actual seizure and subsequent See also:administration (for the former, see SPECIAL COLLECTIONS below; the latter are in See also:great part calendared in the Letters and Papers relating to the Reign of Henry VIII.). There was also a judicial side of the office, in which the proceedings were by See also:bill and See also:answer. In 38 Henry VIII. this court absorbed an earlier one known as the Court of General Surveyors of the King's Lands, which had been set up in 33 Henry VIII. A See also:calendar of the decrees of-the court will be found in the 3oth Report. The court of augmentations was merged in the Exchequer in 1 Mary.

End of Article: EXCHEQUER RECORDS

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