How to write the history of a parish

by J. Charles Cox

The Hundred Rolls will often prove to be of the greatest interest for one period of manorial history. During the turbulent reign of Henry III., the Crown revenues had been much diminished by the Tenants in Capite alienating lands without license, and by powerful ecclesiastics and laymen usurping the rights of holding courts, and committing other encroachments. The people, too, had been greatly oppressed by exactions and oppressions at the hands of sheriffs and other officers, and by false claims to free warren and illegal tolls. One of the first acts of Edward I., on his return from the Holy Land, at his father’s death, was to remedy these abuses. The circuit of the itinerant justices was only usually made once in seven years, therefore the king appointed Special Commissioners for inquiring into these grievances throughout the realm. These rolls are the result of the inquisitions taken in pursuance of this commission. They afford evidence, upon the oath of a jury of each hundred and town of—all demesne lands and manors then or formerly in the hands of the Crown—all tenants in capite and tenants in ancient demesne—alienations to the Church—rights of free warren, fisheries, etc.—oppressions of nobility and clergy—exactions of excessive toll—unlawful trading—encroachments on highways, etc., etc. The whole of these rolls were published by the Record Commissioners in 1812-18, in two large folio volumes, but are not now to be purchased. “The genealogist may estimate the assistance these volumes are capable of affording, when it is mentioned that the Indices of Names contain references to about 70,000 persons.” The mis-spelling of place-names is sometimes a little misleading, but ordinary care will rectify this, as the returns are arranged in counties. The rolls, as printed, may be fairly relied on for historical purposes, without the trouble of collating the originals.

Placita. The pleadings of our several courts, with the judgments thereon, have been for many centuries entered on rolls. The greater part of these are termed Placita, or pleading Rolls. Their important bearing on manorial history is obvious. There is scarcely a manor in the kingdom that had not occasion, on an average of at least once a century, to put in an appearance in one or other of the courts on some matter involving litigation.

Under our Norman kings, all pleadings were originally heard Aula sive Curia Regis, in the hall or court of the king’s palace. In aid of the King’s Court, itinerant justices were first appointed temp. Henry I., and were finally established 22 Henry II. Towards the end of the reign of Richard I., the Curia Regis was subdivided into courts of Exchequer and Chancery, whilst the king’s court still retained pleas immediately touching the Crown, and also common pleas, both civil and criminal. The Magna Charta, 17 John, separated the Common Pleas from the royal court, after which the Curia Regis continued to be the superior court of law for criminal matters, and early in the reign of Edward I. lost its more ancient title and became known as the Court of King’s Bench.

The Rotuli Curia Regis have been printed in full, from 6 Richard I. to 1 John, by the Record Commissioners, in two 8vo. volumes. The same rolls, in addition to those of the King’s Bench, down to the end of the reign of Edward II., were, in 1811, elaborately calendared and indexed by the Commissioners in a valuable folio volume, under the title—Placitorum in Domo Capitulari Westmonasteriensi asservatorum Abbreviatio, but the rolls are now in the P. R. O. The abstract has been made after a fickle fashion, some pleadings are given in full, whilst many others of more importance are condensed into a couple of lines; and there is nothing in the volume to tell the student whether they are abbreviated or not.

The earliest provincial courts were those of the Itinerant Justices, or Justices in Eyre (from the Norman-French word erre, a journey); they held criminal and common pleas, and also pleas of the forest. These justices afterwards gave way to Circuit Judges, and the Justices in Eyre then became only another name for the Justices of the Forest. If there is or has been any royal Forest or Chace within the parish under consideration, special search should be made for its records. Most of the early proceedings relative to forests are entered on the Patent Rolls; a considerable number of the ancient perambulations and inquisitions have been printed in various reports made at different dates. Copies of these reports, bound in two large volumes, can be consulted at the P. R. O. Extracts from the rolls, relative to the forests, for special periods may be found both at the P. R. O. and the B. M. The forest perambulations for the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. have been completely indexed.

Those rolls that may properly be termed Records of Assize commence 6 Richard I., and end with the reign of Edward IV. In the B. M. are many MS. volumes of Placita Itinerum pertaining to different reigns and different counties.

In 1818 the Record Commissioners published an important folio volume, entitled Placita de Quo Warranto temporibus Edw. I., II., III., which forms an interesting sequel to the Hundred Rolls. The Hundred Rolls, as already mentioned, gave a great mass of sworn information as to abuses. Those persons thus charged were summoned to answer “Quo Warranto” such and such things were done or left undone? or by what right such and such manors, etc., were held? This volume contains a full transcript of the roll of the pleadings in answer to these summonses, and the judgments thereon. Its utility in manorial history cannot be exaggerated, as the descent of the manor is often traced back in these pleadings to the time of John or even earlier. The rolls are arranged under counties, and include the whole of England, with the exception of the palatinate of Durham.

The earliest records of the Court of Chancery are of the 17th year of Richard II., the previous documents having been destroyed in the Wat Tyler rebellion. There are no petitions extant to the Chancellor of the reign of Henry IV., and but few of Henry V., but from the beginning of the reign of Henry VI. they seem to have been kept with much regularity. Calendars of the Chancery proceedings of the reign of Elizabeth were published in three volumes folio, 1827-32. In the introduction to this work are many examples of the earlier proceedings of that court from Richard II. downwards. It is hardly necessary to add that the bills of complaint, and their answers, filed in this court, often contain abundant information as to manorial descent. Numerous MS. volumes of indexes to Chancery proceedings are at the service of the searcher in the P. R. O.

The volumes known as the Year Books contain reports in Norman-French of cases argued and decided in the Courts of Common Law. They form the basis of the “lex non scripta” of English jurisprudence, and are worthy of attention on account of the historical information and the notices of public and private persons which they contain. The frequent disputes about heirship cause them often to be of value in manorial history. These Reports begin in 1220, and an account of the different books, their dates, etc., may be found in Worrall’s “Bibliotheca Legum Angliæ,” 1788. Serjeant Maynard published an edition of early Year Books, in eleven volumes, in 1679. Several of those of the reign of Edward I. have been edited by the Record Commissioners. Lincoln’s Inn Library, and the University Library, Cambridge, have a great number of MS. Year Books. A work of much research, by Mr. Bigelow, has just been published, entitled “Placita Anglo-Normannica,” it is a history of the litigation and legal procedure of the temporal courts during the period from the Norman Conquest to the middle of the reign of Richard I. If there has been any early dispute about the manor or manorial rights, this volume should certainly be consulted.

Inquisitiones. Inquisitiones post mortem, are not unfrequently termed “Escheats,” from the writs being directed to the county official called the Escheator; but the term is incorrect, and should never be used, for there is a class of documents correctly called Escheat Rolls, which differ altogether from these inquisitions, and refer to the escheator’s accounts of lands and property escheated to the crown from various causes, and the profits and value of the same at different periods. The Inquisitio post mortem, on the contrary, was an inquiry held on oath by a jury of the district, summoned by virtue of a writ directed to the county Escheator, on the death of every tenant in capite. The jury had to inquire (1) of what lands the person died seized, (2) by what rents or services the same were held, and (3) who was his next heir and of what age; they had also to ascertain whether the tenant was attainted of treason, or an alien, in which case the lands reverted to the crown. The return of the jury, together with the writ authorising the inquiry, were returned to the King’s Chancery, whence a transcript was sent to the Exchequer, so that the proper officers might be able to levy the duties and services thereupon due; for on the death of each tenant in capite, a tax termed a “relief” was due to the crown, and the heir could not take possession until the relief was paid and homage done. Moreover, if the heir was a minor, the crown administered the estates until he could make proof of his legal age and perform homage. The Exchequer transcripts of these Inquisitions, together in most cases with the writ, are still extant from the time of Henry III. down to the end of the reign of Charles I., that is, until the feudal land system was finally overthrown. Calendars, or short abstracts of these Inquisitions, carefully indexed, have been printed in four folio volumes by the Record Commissioners, 1806-1828, up to the end of the reign of Richard III. These calendars, which are invaluable for reference, must be used with caution, and should never be quoted as proving the death of any person by a particular date, for unfortunately not a few inquisitions that are not post mortem, but ad quod damnum, are included amongst them. There are also many errors in nomenclature, and in assigning manors to special counties; it is therefore wisest to make the rule of never quoting these inquisitions, unless the original has been seen, or a full transcript obtained. The inquisitions subsequent to the time of Richard III. have not been calendared. Private enterprise has more than once announced that such a work would be taken in hand, and subscribers names obtained, but up to the present time (1879) there seems no immediate prospect of publication.