^> ■ rij iA '-' ' ^v;■^ ' > . '■-.'^. e"&=*>^. fi w CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, C. F. CLAY, Manager. ILonUon: FETTER LANE, E.G. aRjinbutflfj: loo, PRINCES STREET. leipjifl: F. A. BROCKHAUS. Bfrlin: A. ASHER AND CO. i^tto gorfe : G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. Jaombap. anU Calcutta: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. [/4// Rights reserved] STUDIES IN ENGLISH OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS BY HUBERT HALL, E.^rA: OF H.M. PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE READER IN Palaeography in the university of London *'.• Ai, J i* '•,••.'». 5 '»::. CAMBRIDGE : AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1908 Catiibriligt : PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. PREFACE AMONGST the numerous works which have dealt, at different ./i. times, with the history of the PubHc Records and with the description of their nature or uses, it is scarcely surprising that the great majority are due to the professional zeal of native archivists'. We should also be prepared to find that, with several important exceptions ^ these works have been produced by private and not by official enterprise. The bibliography of this class of antiquarian literature is, indeed, extensive^ and includes, besides the elementary essays of i6th and 17th century official antiquaries, several valuable works produced during the Victorian period. Moreover, during the last thirty years, these unofficial printed books may be supplemented by numerous articles and other periodical essays which are not ex- clusively published in antiquarian journals*. At the same time none of these publi.shed books or articles will be found to deal in a comprehensive manner with the several aspects of the national Archives which concern the historical student*. The practical Guide to the official sources does not indulge in any dis- quisitions upon their formulas or scripts. Similarly the hand-book of Palaeography is not concerned with the historical aspect of these documents, nor does the essay in Diplomatic deal with the principles of their classification. Doubtless the next few years will witness a ' A notable exception occurs in the ca.se of Edward Edwards' well-known Libraries and Founders of Libraries (1865). This author's Synoptical Tables of the Records, produced as an Appendix to the above-mentioned work, was in advance of his times. The hand-book of Mr Walter Rye and Mr W. J. Hardy's monograph on the Rolls House, &c. are conspicuous in more recent times. Treatises on genealogical and other special aspects of the Records are not included in this consideration. ' e.g. the well-known official Guide by Mr S. R. Scargill-Bird replacing the Hand-book of F. S. Thomas. Under this head would be included the Report on the Rolls Chapel and the Catalogue of the Public Record Office Museum by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte. * Cf. C. Gross, Sources and Literature (Section 1 7 and passim). Quite recently Mr L. O. Pike has published a notable monograph on the Public Records. * e.g. by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte, Dr Jas. Gairdner, Messrs S. R. Scargill-Bird, C. Trice Martin, R. A. Roberts, the late W. N. Sainsbury and W. D. Selby and several of the younger members of the Public Record Office Staff. * An exception may perhaps be made in the case of Mr Ewald's well-known work Our Public Records published in 1873 and dedicated to the Master of the Rolls. This deals not only with the history of the official Archives at large but also with their classification and philological aspect. 2d.00H0 vi Preface great activity in these directionsS and quite recently several in- structive essays have appeared of which the present writer has unfortunately been unable to avail himself fuUy^ In view of the frequent discussion of the subject in the past and the still closer attention which it has received in our own times, the author of this collection of desultory studies is fully conscious of their many and serious defects. The question to him was not, however, one of personal interest, but whether, in the absence of any other comprehensive treatise, such a work could be helpful to British students and to the foreign students whose teachers have so feelingly lamented the dearth of scientific writings on this subject. The substance of the present volume was in shape more than ten years ago, but the author found himself unable to give an assured answer to this question. He had indeed already resolved to await the opportunity for further study and revision that only retirement from official life could give, when a circumstance occurred which altered his resolution. A laudable ambition on the part of certain students to produce a much needed Formula Book of official documents^ rendered it desirable, for obvious reasons, that the authority for the arrange- ment and conclusions of that work should be forthcoming. For the rest, the exceptional scope in respect of date and matter of these single-handed labours in a three-field domain of historical culture may serve as some extenuation of the many defects that a scrutiny, made under more favourable conditions, must reveal in the work of every pioneer. The author has to express his acknowledgment of the kindness of his friend Professor T, F. Tout in reading the proofs, and of the proprietor of the AthencBum and Mr Murray in permitting him to reproduce in the present work a few passages that were originally published in the above journal and in the Quarterly Review. He is under many obligations to the Printers and Reader of the Cambridge University Press for their attention to the typographical requirements of very technical matter. H. H. August, 1908. ^ The article on Records for the new Encydopcedia Britannica should prove of special value. The Palaeography of the Records is also engaging scholarly attention. Record officers will be responsible for each of these, whilst they will also have encouraged the important studies of M. E. Deprez in the Diplomatic of the Records. But Diplomatic enterprises of an equally important character are promised by Professor T. F. Tout, Mr C. Davis and Professor Haskins. 2 Amongst others by M. L. Delisle and Dr J. H. Round, Professor C. Gross and Messrs L. V. Harcourt and F. M. Powicke. 3 A Fornmla Book of English Official Historical Doctiments. Part I. Diplomatic Documents. Selected and transcribed by a Seminar of the London School of Economics. Cambridge, at the University Press, 1908. TABLE OF CONTENTS PART I. THE SOURCES OF OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. Introduction to the Study of Official Sources. Definition of Historical Sources — Documents in Archives — Importance to students of their " discovery " as Sources — if preserved — and accessible —or pubUshed — The " unknown quantity " in these Sources — discoverable by the " Science of Archives" — Early neglect of Records — Losses of Records — Documents re- moved from official custody — The partial use of Records by historians — The question of a British Ecole des Chartes — The need of a historical "concord- ance" to the Archives. PP- 1 — 12 The History of the Archives. (a) Records. Evidences of the custody of Records in the pre-Conquest and post- Conquest periods — History of the ancient repositories of Records — at West- minster—at the Tower of London — at the Rolls Chapel — and Temple Church, &c. — Local repositories of Records— Early Record establishments — Official abuses— Projects of reform — The Public Record Office Act — Modern develop- ments — Local Records. PP. 13 — 29 (b) State Papers. Distinction between State Papers and Records — The transition period under Henry VIII— The king's "Study" or Library at Westminster or Whitehall — The early custody of State Papers— Sir Thomas Wilson— His office and career— Sir Joseph Williamson — Reorganization of the Office during the 1 8th century — The Collector and Transmitter — The Methodizers— Position of the Papers in Whitehall— John Bruce and the new Paper Office — The State Papers placed under the custody of the Master of the Rolls — transferred to the Rolls repository. PP. 30—43 {c) Departmental Records. Growth of the State departments— before the Re- storation—and after — Effect of their vicissitudes upon the preservation of Archives. PP. 43—62 The Classification of Archives. (a) Records. Existing systems of classification— A "diplomatic" classification— "Judicial Proceedings"— "Ministerial Proceedings"— Diplomatic Documents — Precedent Books — Miscellaneous documents acquired or deposited— Advan- tages of a "diplomatic" classification. PP. 63 — 60 (p) State Papers. Their definition, as distinguished from Records— and from Departmental Papers— The Secretarial collections— System of classification adopted by Sir T. Wilson— and by Sir J. Williamson— Attempted classification viii Contents by the Methodizers (1763 — 1800) — Early ofiicial Lists of the State Papers — The "State Paper Office List"— The Public Record Office Lists— Theory of an historical classification of the State Papers. pp. 60 — 70 {c) Departmental Records. Difficulty of classifying departmental Archives — Theory of their classification — Departmental groups — Modern systems of official classification. pp. 70 — 74 The Analysis of Archives. {a) Records. The historical importance of Records — recognized in modern times — Limitations of this historical source— Survey of the legal Records — in con- nexion with historical study — The use of Indexes and Lists — Research-forms for the use of students — Record sources still to be explored. pp. 75 — 82 {])) State Papers. Their exceptional position as a later historical source— owing to the series of published Calendars — Miscellaneous contents of these collec- tions — Their relationship to the legal Records and departmental Archives — Distribution of the State Papers in the 17th and i8th centuries — Their relative extent — in official or private custody. pp. 82 — 89 (^) Departmental Records. Difficulties of study — due to the obscurity of their official history — also to their unequal preservation and to official restrictions — Characteristics of the several classes — In-Letters — Registers — Minutes — Reference Books — Reports — Out-Letters — Letter-Books — Warrants, Commissions, Orders and Instructions — Precedent Books — Miscellaneous or deposited documents — The use of " Blue-Books " and other printed sources. pp. 89—100 The Bibliography of English Official Historical Documents. Neglect of the subject of Archives in this country — Classification of the existing Bibliography — Features of the Bibliography of mediaeval Records — of later legal Records, State Papers and Departmental Records — Foreign and Colonial publications relating to British Archives — Classification of the Bibliography of Archives — Bibliography of Bibliographies — Treatises on Archives — Lists and Indexes — Calendars — Texts and Reproductions — Original Compositions. pp. 101—110 Appendix I. A. Table showing the Evolution of the Public Record Office. p. Ill B. Metropolitan Record Repositories (showing the distribution of the Records before the Public Record Office Act of 1838). pp. 112—114 C. Repositories of Welsh Records (before the removal of the Records to London in 1854). p. 115 D. Existing Repositories of legal Records. pp. 115, 116 E. List of existing Repositories of legal Records, additional to the Public Record Office. pp. 117, 118 F. Chronology of the Custody of Official Records. pp. 118—120 Appendix 1 1. Chronology of the custody of the State Papers. pp. 121, 122 Contents ix Appendix III. A. List of Public Departments whose historical Records (including those of abolished Offices under their jurisdiction) have been mainly transferred to the Public Record Office. pp. 123—127 B. List of Public Departments whose historical Records have not yet been transferred to the Public Record Office or only partially transferred. pp. 127, 128 Appendix IV. A. Outline of the existing or proprietary Classification of the Records in the custody of the Master of the Rolls. pp. 129, 130 B. A structural Classification of Records. pp. 130, 131 Appendix V. A. Outline of the Classification of the State Papers, c. 1545. p. 132 B. Outline of Sir Thomas Wilson's Classification of the State Papers, 1619 — 1629. pp. 132, 133 C. Outline of Sir Joseph Williamson's Classification of the State Papers [1682]. p. 133 D. Outline of the Classification of the State Papers by the Methodizers, 1764 — 1800. pp. 134, 135 E. Outline of the State Paper Office Classification, 1848— 1862. pp. 135, 136 F. Outline of the Departmental Classification of the State Papers, 1873 — 1889. pp. 136, 137 G. A structural Classification of the State Papers. p. 138 H. Heads of a Proprietary Classification of the State Papers. pp. 138 — 140 Appendix VI. The Classification of Departmental Records. pp. 141—143 Appendix VII. Specimen Research Form for a Historical Subject in various Official Sources. pp. 144—146 Appendix VIII. The several references to the State Papers of a single year (1697) remaining in official custody. pp. 147, 148 Appendix IX. Outline of the principal sources from which the Departmental Records in official custody might be supplemented. p. 149 Appendix X. Outline of the Bibliography of Official Historical Documents. pp. 150-153 PART II. THE DIPLOMATIC OF OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. Introduction to the Diplomatic Study OF Official Documents. Causes of the neglect of the study of Diplomatic in this country— Its recent progress— The deficient "apparatus"— Importance of the subject for the study of Palaeography — Not specially treated of by foreign authors — Value of the existing teaching— Recognition of diplomatic formulas of legal Records- Limitations of the following essays. PP. 167—162 Contents The Anglo-Saxon Charters. (rt) The Old English Chancery. No mention of any official establishment before the Conquest — with the exception of certain so-called " Chancellors "—The position of these examined — Possible allusions in charter formulas —Absence of a royal seal — The " Great Seals " of the Confessor examined — The non-use of pre-Conquest seals recognized by mediaeval writers — Continental analogies — Conclusion as to the nature of pre-Conquest sealing — No provision for the custody of royal Acts before the 12th century — No class of professional writers known to exist — Charters probably " home-made " by the churches. pp. 163—177 ij)) Old English Diplomata. Chiefly known to us from printed Codices — Their fitful preservation — and unequal distribution — Possible deductions from these circumstances — Composition of the Codex examined- Question of the credi- bility of the Anglo-Saxon Charters — Tests to be applied to them — Their position in point of merit — Mediaeval diplomatic criticism— Motive for the preservation of "land-bocs" by the churches — Possible connexion of this motive with their composition — Inconsistencies of this theory — Missing link in the practice with regard to lay grants. pp. 177 — 189 {c) Old English Formulas. Obscurity of their origin — Contrasted with conti- nental types — Proposed re-arrangement — The characteristic features of the Old English Formulas — Survey of these Formulas between the 7th and nth centuries — with special reference to the reign of Athelstan — Appearance of a new type of diplomatic instrument — The Old English Writ — The resemblance to continental diplomata — Its distinctive Formulas — Possible derivation from the Old English " Convention." pp. 189—207 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs. (a) Anglo-Saxon survivals. Analogy between the pre-Conquest and post-Con- quest Writs and Charters — English and Latin " Versions " — Confusion between "Charters" and "Writs" — Bi-lingual Charters — Evolution of a "new-model" Charter. pp. 208- 211 {b) The Anglo-Norman Charter and Writ. Distinction between " Charters " and "Writs " — Use of the Anglo-Norman Writ — Development of diplomatic instru- ments, pp. 211—214 {c) The Anglo-Norman Diplomatic Apparatus. The post-Conquest Chancery and Camera — Anglo-Norman Charters — Methods of study — Attachment of the seal — How the parchment was cut. pp. 215 — 219 {d) Anglo-Norman Diplomatic Formulas. The Writ formulas — Their influence on Charter formulas — Evolution of the Writ-Charter — Its formulas derived from vernacular Writs. pp. 219 — 222 {e) Special Charter Forms. The post-Conquest Charter adapted to special purposes— Grants in "Free alms" — Grants of Office — Grants of Markets and Fairs— Forest Charters and "Assart" Writs — Grants of Warren — Distinctive features of the above specialized types — Charters of Liberties — Interpolations facilitated by recurring ititroits. pp. 222 — 224 Contents xi (y) Private Charters and Deeds. More numerous than royal instruments in the post-Conquest period — Characteristic Formulas of Charters of Feoffment and Confirmations — Charters of Foundation and Frankalmoigne — "Concords" or "Conventions" and Bonds — Quit-claims, Releases or Surrenders — Charters of Attornment — The above not to be regarded as official instruments. pp. 225, 226 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments. (a) The English Chancery from the i2,th to the i6th century. Difficulties of study — The Chancery at the beginning of the 13th century — The Curia Regis, Exchequer, King's Chapel, Camera, Wardrobe and Council — Chancery enrol- ments—Estreats and Memoranda — The significance of per — The several series of Chancery Rolls— Special enrolments— The confused nomenclature of diplomatic instruments — A remedy proposed. pp. 227—235 {b) Charters and Confirmations. Transition from the 12th century "Writ-Charter" to the "conventional Charter" of the 13th century — Later modifications of its formulas — Its functions usurped by Letters Patent — The distinctive formulas of Charters and Patents — Origin of royal Confirmations of earlier Charters — Simplicity of the earlier forms — Innovations during the minority of Henry III — Analogy between the Inspeximus and the Vidimus — Transition to the conventional Inspeximus— Tht Inspeximus by Letters Patent — The Exemplifi- cation, Constat and Innotescimus — Semi-official instruments — based upon private instruments — utilized by the Crown in the interests of the new State- craft — Conveyances and Contracts— Certificates — Petitions — Other types of private instruments used in the business of the State — Conventions, Oaths, Fines and Recognizances; Affidavits, Mainprises and "Statutes Merchant"; official Certificates — "Statutes Merchant" and "Statutes Staple" — Significavits — "Institutions" — Petitions, Specifications, Parliamentary Proxies, Pensions and Corrodies. pp. 235—248 {c) Writs under the Great Seal. Evolution of the old "Executive Writ" — The Writ and Returns of 1 166— The same procedure followed in the 13th century — Legal writs differentiated from this form — Derivation of the term Letters Patent — The formula Teste tne ipso or Teste Rege — Distinctive Formulas of Letters Patent — Evolution of the conventional Formulas — The enrolment of Letters Patent — Their diplomatic nomenclature — Later developments — Ano- malous forms — "Versions" in French — The use of Latin or English in the composition of later Letters Patent — The position of Letters Close — Their distinctive Formulas — Their official use — Alternative Formulas of Letters Close — shown in a Table — The later history of Letters Patent and Close — Letters or Writs under the Great Seal for special purposes — Fiscal Writs — Instruments relating to Ecclesiastical, Parliamentary and Military business — Legal Writs enrolled in the Chancery — Tendency towards the disuse of the Great Seal and the official use of the Smaller Seals and Sign Manual — Notarial instruments under the Great Seal connected with the business of the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts and the proceedings of Parliament. pp. 249-258 {d) Instruments under the Smaller Seals {Missives). Origin of the use of a Smaller Seal by English kings — The Privy Seal — Personal Seals occasionally substituted for the Great Seal — Distinction between Missives and Warrants xii Contents for Issue — Early use of the Privy Seal to authenticate royal instruments — Its early connexion with business of State transacted in the Exchequer or Ward- robe — Convenience of the use of a Smaller Seal — Formulas and language of these Missives — Letters of Privy Seal — Methods of affixing the Privy Seal or "Secret" Seal — Dimensions of Privy Seals — The Signet — Its description and use — Signet Letters — Their character and Formulas — Dormant Writs of Privy Seal — Sign Manual Warrants — Their characteristic Formulas — Proclamations — Their exceptional character. pp. 258 — 263 {e) Warrants for Issue. How distinguished from Missives under the Smaller Seals and Sign Manual — Distinction between Bills and Writs or Letters — Origin of Chancery Warrants — Irregularity of the early procedure — Normal procedure during the 14th and 15th centuries — Variations in practice — Formulas of the Warrants — Their tri-lingual form — The Fiat — Departmental Warrants — Neglect of the conventional procedure previous to the Act of 1535 — Objects of this Act — Its effect — Later procedure — Departmental Docquets — The use of " Immediate Warrants " and " Signed Bills." pp. 263—269 Letters, State Papers and Departmental Instruments. {a) Mediaeval and Modern Official Letters. Transition from Diplomatic to Epistolary forms — The early use of an Epistolary style — Origin of the vernacular Letter — Versions of earlier forms — Evolution of the mediaeval Letter — Changes of style between the 13th and 15th centuries — Formulas and phraseology of the official Letter— Later uses of the trilingual style. pp. 270—274 {b) Secretarial Instruments. Difficulty of distinguishing between later Diplo- matic and Secretarial instruments — Transfer of State business from the Chancery to the Secretariat— Diplomatic documents preserved in the Secretary of State's department — Formulas of later ministerial Despatches — Later Signet Letters and Sign Manual Warrants. pp. 275, 276 (jc) Departmental Instruments. The conventional official Letter produced by departmental Boards — Its Formulas — Departmental Warrants issued by the Secretaries of State and Household Officers — Treasury, Admiralty and War Office Warrants — Special forms of Warrants — Departmental Orders and Instructions — Departmental Commissions — Subsidiary departmental Records — Registers, Minutes, References and Reports. pp. 276 — 280 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments. (a) Agrarian Surveys. Analogy of the post-Conquest Royal Inquest with the Frankish capitularies — especially for agrarian Surveys — Other continental analogies — Traces of Old English Surveys — The Domesday Survey — 12th century Surveys — 13th century Surveys known as royal Extents — Their con- ventional development. pp. 281 — 284 {b) Fiscal Inquisitions. Frankish analogies and diplomatic relations of the "Geld" Inquest and its successors — The Writ, Form of Inquisition and Return — Diplomatic descriptions of the Domesday Inquest — The relations of the Exchequer MSS. and "satellites" of Domesday Book — The Inquisitio Cantabrigiensis, Inquisitio Eliensis and Liber Exonicc — 12th century Inquisi- tions — Breviates of Domesday Book — Official and local Hidage Books — Contents xiii Inquisitions for the assessment of Carucage — Assessments for local taxation — The institution of Scutage — Its Diplomatic aspect — Equivalent assessments on the Knight's Fee — Aid, Tallage and Compositions for Knighthood — Assess- ments by Tithe or Poundage. pp. 284 — 295 {c) Feudal Jnquisitions. Their Diplomatic construction — Feudal inquests of serjeanties, wardships, marriages, escheats, assarts, purprestures and lunatics — Their Diplomatic features. pp. 295 — 297 {d) Statutory or Political Inquisitions. Their Constitutional and Diplomatic relations — Administrative or remedial Inquisitions of the I2th and 13th centuries — Connexion between the Royal Inquisition and the "Old Chapters of the Eyre" — Relations of the "New Chapters of the Eyre" and the "Hundred Rolls "of 1255 — The remedial Inquisitions between 1255 and 1279 — Relation- ship of the "Hundred Rolls" of 1255, 1274 and 1279— Connexion of the "Hundred Rolls" with the Inquisitions Quo IVarranto, De Ragemannis and. De Ministris — The devolution of the Chapters of the Eyre — Later statutory Inquisitions — " Kirkby's Quest" and the Nomina Villarum — Political or puni- tive Inquisitions of the 13th and 14th centuries — Forfeited possessions of Normans and Bretons, of Jews and Templars, of "rebels " (1265), "Contrariants" (1322), "malefactors," &c. — State Trials and later Special Commissions or Surveys. pp. 297—306 Royal Accounts. Antiquity of official reckonings — The Frankish manorial inventories — Diplomatic features of the Account — Component parts of an Account — Procedure of its preparation — Subsidiary and miscellaneous forms. pp. 307 — 310 Judicial Proceedings. (rt) Judicial Records. Definition of a Record — Monastic Law Reports regarded as prehistoric Records — Pleadings in diplomatic form — The antiquity of curial Records— Isolated survivals of 12th century Records. pp. 311—314 ip) Judicial Inquisitions. The Diplomatic aspect of judicial proceedings — The importance of Inquisitions and Returns — Difficulty of distinguishing between Ministerial and Judicial Inquisitions— Records composed in Diplomatic form — Coroner's and Escheator's inquests — Ancient Indictments — Criminal Inqui- sitions — Presentments to the Chapters of the Eyre — Pleadings on fiscal Inquisitions — Pleadings on an Agrarian Survey — Judicial Inquisitions con- nected with the "Hundred Rolls" — Inquisition on the "Robbery of the Treasury" (1303) — Inquisitions connected with the State Trials of 1289 — 91 — Coroner's Inquests — Dearth of later Eyre and Assize Records. pp. 315—321 (f) Pleadings on Inquisitions. The Diplomatic aspect of Pleadings — Connexion of the Original Writ with judicial developments — Pleadings connected with the Domesday Inquest — Fragments of Pleadings under Henry II— The Diplo- matic character of "F'inal Concords"— Pleadings on Political Inquisitions in the 13th century — The Templars' Corrodies— The Inquisitions De Rebellibus (1266)— Pleadings connected with "Kirkby's Quest" (I285)-The expansion of Pleadings from official Memoranda —Later developments. pp. 322-386 xlv Contents Appendix I. A Classified Table of Diplomatic Instruments. pp. 327—338 Appendix II. Early Diplomatic Criticism. pp. 339, 340 Appendix III. The Charters of King Athelstan (Concordance of Formulas) pp. 341—346 Appendix IV. Table showing the Relationship of the Pre-Conquest and Post- Conquest Diplomata. p. 347 Appendix V. Documents connected with the Issue of the Great Seal (1662). p. 348 Appendix VI. Fees of the Seal. p. 349 Appendix VII. Note on the Bibliography of English Diplomatic, pp. 350, 351 PART III. THE PALAEOGRAPHY OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. Introduction to the Palaeography OF Official Documents. Importance of the study of the Origins of the Handwriting of Western Europe — The value of Palaeography for the study of English official documents — Methods of Palaeographical study. pp. 355—359 Palaeography. {a) Old English Writing. The origin and development of English writing — Majuscule writing— Minuscule writing — Cursive writing — Mixed writing — Influence of Half-Uncial and Half-Cursive writings on the English style — Misconceptions with regard to Cursive writing — Supposed conversion of the Anglo-Saxon Half-Uncial hand through foreign influences — The alleged reforms of Alfred the Great — Insufficiency of evidence for this — Anglo-French writing in the loth and nth centuries — Influence of the Anglo-Saxon school abroad explained by French scholars — The predominance of vernacular writs in the nth century — Possibility of a native reform of angular script — Conclusion. pp. 360—365 {b) Mediaeval Writing in Latin. Influence of the Franco- Roman and "elegant Saxon" writings in the nth century —Characteristics of 12th century official writing— The writing of 13th century Rolls and Registers — Appearance of Gothic writing — "Clubbed" strokes and "Bows"— Half-Cursive Gothic — Later official writing. pp. 365 — 368 {c) Mediaeval Writing in Old French. Linguistic difficulties — The orthography of Old French — Contractions — Versions. pp. 368, 369 {d) Later Official Writing. Changes in the character of mediaeval writing — Revival of Calligraphy in the isth century— Use of the vernacular Cursive —Artificial writings— "Court-hand" — "Chancery" hand— "Secretary" hand — "Humanist" Calligraphy — Survival of Gothic forms in the vernacular Cursive — Characteristics of i6th and 17th century vernacular writing. pp. 369—373 Contents xv {e) The Royal Scriptorium. Effects of the non-existence of an Old English Chancery — The Royal Scriptorium — Clerical departments — Clerical perform- ances— C/^^r/Vwi' and Scriptor — Employment of official scribes — Rules of the Scriptorium — Capacity of mediaeval scribes — '* Register-hand." pp. 374-379 (/) Palcuographical Terms. Distinctions between the terminology of English and continental MSS. — Confusion caused by synonyms — Technical descrip- tions applied to official writings. pp. 379 — 382 {g) Palaeographical Tests. Difficulty of determining the date of handwriting — Rules in use for this purpose — Defects in the script — Peculiarities of scribes — Causes of error — The identification of modern holographs and memoranda. pp. 382—386 {h) Contractions. Relative prevalence of Contractions in official and literary MSS. — General characteristics of Official Contractions — Distinction between the covipendia used in Latin and Old French MSS. — Duration of Contractions in official writings — Special forms of Contractions in Departmental Records. pp. 386— 389 (/) Extensions. Attitude of modem scholars towards the practice of extending Records — Advantages and disadvantages of this J)ractice — The system em- ployed in official publications — and in the publications of Learned Societies — The position of Historical Students — Archaic typography — The future of Facsimiles. pp. 390—394 Appendix I. Table showing the Evolution of English Writing. p. 395 Appendix II. Classification of the Bibliography of Palaeography. pp. 396, 397 Table of Matters pp. 399—404 ERRATA. p. 249 note I, For "Histoire de Diplomatique," read'' Manuel de Diplomatique." p. 289 note 2, For "Lindsay," read "Lindsey." p. 299 last line but one, For " reve," read " reeve." p. 304 1. 1 1, For " Rhyddlan," read " Rhuddlan." PART I THE SOURCES OF OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF OFFICIAL SOURCES. A DEFINITION of the subject-matter of historical study appears to be both simple and desirable. But unless our phrase is very closely guarded, we run the risk of appearing to discuss the vexed definition of history at large. This is certainly not the intention of the present essay. It will be readily conceded that the historian may present any fact that bears upon the history of the human race, and it must follow that he may place his own interpretation on this fact. Though the correctness of this interpretation may be a matter of opinion; even though its presentment may indicate an imperfect method of study, the author may be assured of a patient hearing. But there is one stipulation that is made by modern science — that the historical fact shall be, as far as possible, a scientific fact. It is not enough that these facts shall be weighed and tested by the most perfect apparatus that the historian's craft has devised. Every possible precaution must also be taken that individual facts are not forthwith discredited by rebutting evidence. Now it has come to be accepted as a general proposition that history, or historical com- position, is founded upon facts that are usually derived from historical documents. Therefore, in connexion with historical study and the search for facts which it entails, our attention is forcibly directed to the documents which play such an important part in the whole matter. These documents, as we know, arc of various aspects and of several eras; but we are here concerned only with the national Archives of this country. These, again, may be regarded, from the student's point of view, according as they arc (i) existent or non-existent, (2) accessible or inaccessible, (3) printed or inedited. Of the above types it may be remarked that the existent and non-existent documents are equally an unknown quantity. The use of the term " Heuristic " to distinguish the method of discovery of the recognized sources of history from the methods of [s-y '•''.' 'Intvodkuc-tSon to the Study of Official Sources historical analysis and composition is in keeping with the marked tendency to treat history as a science, which has been a frequent subject of discussion in the present day. Whatever the value of such terms may be, any method that will facilitate the discovery of the true sources of history clearly deserves our close attention ; for without recourse to such a method the historian is in danger of being carried away by the literary impulse of his art. The result of this is seen in the waste editions and worthless texts which He scattered through our streets, the wrecks of many able enterprises upon the stubborn rocks of fact. This tendency to evade the preliminary investigations, which we are all agreed should be exhaustive, is probably the result of the necessary refinement which must be made in the definition of history as a science. In collecting the facts which will be used for the pur- pose of historical composition, we are unable, in most cases, to proceed by actual observation. Instead, we are compelled to infer the facts from the evidence of documents, and so, from the outset, the rigid requirements of scientific study can be dispensed with, anid the most conscientious student is rapidly demoralized. It is in vain to urge that, before we proceed to analyze and use the facts that have been distilled from a mass of documents, it is desirable that the whole crop should be gathered, sorted out, and strictly accounted for. The man of letters who has made these quasi-scientific researches is naturally reluctant to spend the best years of his life in this drudgery; and so the documents continue to be taken more or less at random to supply the exigencies of each new occasion. Nevertheless, the mere discovery of documents connected with any historical period or subject can only possess an importance that is relative to the extent of the whole of the existing sources of information ; that is to say, we must not be content to assume that only certain sources are available ; far less are we at liberty to limit the scope of our researches herein at pleasure. We must examine, if we do not utilize, every known historical document that concerns the period or subject under treatment ; and we .should, for the purpose of estimating the value of the evidence available, even take into account such documents as are known to have formerly existed. For the latter, though not necessarily capable of supplying material facts, may still possess a scientific value. Thus the student may have occasion to ascertain what documents formerly existed for a given subject, just as it is of importance for the study of comparative anatomy to ascertain the existence and construction of extinct forms. Introduction to the Study of Official Sources 3 The accidental or deliberate destruction of documents is, however, a subject that is commonly disregarded, though it is one that is calculated to give rise to serious reflections. The inferences that we are accustomed to make from documents do not depend wholly upon the existing sources apart from their environment. We associate Master Brown with the "Third Roll" of the twelfth-century Exchequer, although we are ignorant of its real contents. On the other hand, whilst we attach a sentimental value to certain fragments of ancient records which we have discovered through desultory researches, we disregard others which would throw much light on the constitutional procedure of early times. A whole treatise might be written on the subject of these lost sources of history, and the hypotheses that might be based upon their partial evidence can be easily imagined. It is a commonplace that, by the loss of documents, certain historical sources have been eliminated. This bare statement, how- ever, requires some qualification. A document is only valuable relatively to its importance and its unique character, and the de- struction of large masses of documents containing duplicate or trivial information may prove of actual benefit to the student. It is well known, indeed, that the wealth of sources for the later period of European history is viewed with some dismay by writers on historical method, and nothing short of a rigorous selection will enable the student to overcome this congestion of materials. But it is essential that this selection should be made intelligently and with a full appre- ciation of the requirements of posterity, whilst the arrangement of documents is to be regarded as a necessary prelude to their safe custody. The mere mechanical process of sorting will serve as the best protection against the decay which has been the fate of many buried treasures. Their numeration and classification will guard them from wholesale spoliation or ignorant destruction as well as from undeserved neglect. These administrative questions, to which the continental text-books attach much importance, do not directly concern the historical student, except so far as they enable him to appreciate the actual or potential value of the sources. In the next place, it is necessary for him to ascertain what documents are accessible and what are not, in order that he may make his dis- positions accordingly. It has been assumed by continental writers that for the most part historical documents are preserved in public institutions. This as- sumption, however, is scarcely justified in the case of our own national sources. Yet their actual ownership is a small consideration to the I — 3 4 Introduction to the Study of Official Sources practical student, provided that the documents themselves have been carefully preserved and are accessible under reasonable conditions. Here, as in the preceding aspect of historical research, the student has ever been at the mercy of the forces majeures wielded by official bodies and lawful owners. In his negotiations with these irresponsible powers he will assuredly gain nothing by a clamorous insistence on a public right. It is true that the inherent title of the State to control the preservation or disposition of national documents might easily be vindicated. But even if the removal of official papers by former ministers of State could be shown to amount to a public mis- demeanour, a sweeping Act of Resumption could not be enforced without recourse to an inquisitorial process that would be not only costly, but also ungracious in view of the facilities afforded by many enlightened owners. Something has, indeed, been done during recent years to encourage the voluntary restitution of official documents or to effect their purchase when exposed for sale. Much more, however, is needed to secure the reversion of these documents to the nation as well as to render them immediately accessible to students ; for it is intolerable that permission to examine such documents should be refused, because their value for the purpose of private sale to foreign libraries might be depreciated. The further consideration as to the form in which the existing documentary sources are available is also to some extent connected with this proprietary consideration. It is well known that the chief agencies whereby, at different times and for distinct purposes, the original documentary sources were produced have been the State departments and the great corporations which employed a similar clerical method. Below these, at a considerable interval, may be placed the muniments of private persons, of whom some few, indeed, deserve special recognition as statesmen or clerks, lawyers or men of business ; we must not forget, too, that the literary activity that produced the mediaeval chronicles was largely applied to the com- pilation of official records and registers. Now just as the first of these two classes has bequeathed to us a great store of records and official muniments, and the other a miscellaneous mass of documents of varying quality, so, in the course of time, each class has concerned itself with the reproduction of these original sources. It is only natural to expect that the State should take the lead in this enter- prise, although it is by no means certain that this lead will be maintained in an age of individual activity. As yet, however, the disparity between the production of printed texts or abstracts of Introduction to the Study of Official Sources 5 historical documents by the State and private owners, respectively, remains considerable. A keener competition will be found to proceed from the learned zeal of those who have no vested interests in the subject-matter of their labours — the private workers or learned societies who print all documents within their reach that contain matter of academic interest. And so in one direction we have already reached the climax of the mechanical procedure which gives us printed Law Reports and Parliamentary Papers, by-laws and official forms. In another direction we still complain of an insuffi- ciency of printed matter in the shape of texts and inventories, which constitute the printed sources of history ; though in respect of com- mentaries of various kinds we are perhaps suffering instead from a plethora of materials. It has often been remarked that earlier historians carried out their preliminary researches at a great di.sadvantage by comparison with the resources of modern scholarship. The statement is obviously correct, although it should not be forgotten that we possess some exhaustive and valuable historical treatises that are based upon a unique series of documents. Again, some of these early texts must stand in the place of the original document, which is not extant or else is seriously mutilated. This indeed is a position that we have scarcely yet realized, although the realization will some day move the nation profoundly. On the whole, therefore, the distinction between the printed and inedited sources is still very real. But we have this advantage in dealing with the former, that it is at least possible to account for all the published forms which have been based, to a greater or less extent, upon documentary evidence. For this we have to thank the authors of the great historical bibliographies of our own time, which have far outdistanced the repertories of original documents actually available for permanent reference. But to render his investigations effective it is essential that the student should be able to form some conception of the unknown quantity in the shape of documents that he will have to reckon with. Certainly the most practicable means of arriving at this knowledge is the use of a scientific scheme of classification in which every species of historical document will find a place. For this purpose it is necessary to include at least the whole body of national documents in our survey, and the magnitude of this undertaking will perhaps explain the want of such a classified list, and the consequent defects of the various " Lists of Authorities " which are prefixed to most modern historical compilations. 6 Introduction to the Study of Official Sources The admitted deficiency of repertories would doubtless be regarded by many learned scholars as a sufificient answer to a plea for more strenuous methods of research. " We must wait," we shall be told, "until these repertories have been completed." There was a time when editors were accustomed to concern themselves with such codices only as librarians chose to lay upon their tables. That time has long gone by ; but those editors would have been justified in their own generation by the want of proper facilities for their work. We read in the latest text-book on the " literature and sources " of our national history that this country unfortunately possesses no adequate treatise on its unrivalled archives, whereas considerable attention has been given to the subject abroad. The same remark has more recently been repeated in the official introduction to the admirable Report of the Treasury Committee on Local Records, but its full significance appears to have escaped the attention of English scholars. To foreigners the fact has long been known, and has frequently been the subject of unflattering comment. But although the moral which our own officials have offered for our consideration is sufficiently obvious, it must in justice to ourselves be remem- bered that even on the Continent the " science of Archives " is a comparatively new one. Moreover, we could point to much solid work accomplished by official antiquaries since the reign of Queen Elizabeth, while throughout the whole of the eighteenth century greater attention was probably paid to this subject in England than could be spared by the militant and evanescent states upon the Continent. Finally, the prodigious feat accomplished in the last century by the centralization and rearrangement of the Public Re- cords, has excited general admiration, and the merits of the modern official inventory or " Guide " have been gracefully acknowledged in many lands. Even holiday students are unconsciously imbibing the rudiments of the new science. The manuscript exhibits in the British Museum and in the Record Office Museum founded by the present Deputy Keeper have proved an invaluable object-lesson to the masses, whilst many " educated " persons are now aware that Magna Carta was not signed by King John with a quill-pen, and that Domes- day Book is not inscribed in " black-letter." It might be thought, therefore, that hitherto we have, on the whole, got on very well without a " science of Archives," and that the impatience of the modern student of history with the present rate of progress in the discovery and arrangement of sources is due to a failure to appreciate the conditions under which the work must in- Introduction to the Study of Official Sources 7 evitably be performed. The neglected bibliography of our own " archive economy " would perhaps reveal the appalling crisis through which we have yet scarcely passed. In the works of older antiquaries we have complacent references to the just appreciation of the Records by intelligent sovereigns as " the chiefest jewels of their crowns." In all times the sanctity and authority of these legal evidences have been admitted and maintained by every party in the State, and on occasion they could serve as a bond of interest to unite the whole nation in opposition to foreign pretensions or internal abuses, whilst their authority has been eagerly cited on either side in every constitutional crisis of the State. Yet in the face of this general recognition of the value of the national Records, we have the damning evidence of the irreparable losses which they have sustained. These were due partly to the personal neglect of their official custodians, and equally to the wanton refusal of Parliaments and ministries to adopt the simplest precautions for their safe keeping. The whole scheme of the custody and arrangement of the Records was subordinated to the exaction of fees by Patent officers and their needy deputies. The Repository became a commercial warehouse where the articles for which there was a ready demand were duly preserved, and even temptingly dis- played in official catalogues. The residue, consigned to some dusty attic or noisome vault, was allowed to moulder and rot unheeded. At length the day came when the Government ceased to haggle over the refitting of the lofts and cellars, the tanks and stables, which had become the last refuge of the greatest national treasure possessed by any country in the world. What was left of our national Archives was transferred to a central repository, and we began to count our losses. These were indeed heavy ; but they were not the only ones that had been suffered. When, after centuries of neglect, the Archives were to some extent arranged and catalogued, it was found that the injury sustained by the nation could not be measured by these gaps alone. In one direction the local Archives had been pillaged by enterprising antiquaries. In another quarter the official correspond- ence of the State continued to be carried off by successive ministers almost down to our own times, and from this private custody number- less documents have found their way into some great library or national collection. The results of this devolution have, on the whole, been surprisingly favourable from the point of view of the preservation of these sources. At the same time, this independent survival is attended with one great disadvantage to private students. The originals of these historical 8 Introduction to the Study of Official Sources manuscripts are often inaccessible, and they have in many cases been inadequately described in memoirs or reports, whilst their relationship with the parallel series in official custody has rarely been indicated. It will be evident that these grave irregularities, which were only too easily condoned, have thrown a heavy burden upon the modern archivist and student alike. The one has had to evolve order out of chaos, and to close the gaps which he can no longer fill up. The other, after he has grasped the endless intricacies of an official classifi- cation based on an Edwardian system, when he is at length acquainted with the official sources which exist for a particular episode in the history of the last two centuries, has still to reckon with the external documents which fill the gaps in the official series, or which supple- ment its evidence. For this purpose he must embark upon a new enterprise, not unlike some that will be familiar to the readers of a modern detective romance. He must connect a certain statesman or official body with the possession of these papers, and then trace their descent, often through numerous ramifications. Failing this, he must watch for their inevitable devolution to the national Archives or to a public library. For it is not enough that we should merely find and use a docu- ment ; we should also know its manuscript relations. By treating every document as a separate unit we are in danger of making " docu- mentary " history in a spasmodic and desultory manner. When a new document has been " discovered " our histories are made to accord with its evidence. Then another document is found, and our latest views must be modified, and so on, without any assurance of finality. These new discoveries and new views, ever shifting with the progress of research, are not only prejudicial to the reputation of the historian, but also exercise a demoralizing influence on our historical method. The above reflection is not intended to convey the vague proposal of an impossible ideal, or to obscure the limits of historical research imposed by the requirements of literary proportion. The student of history must of necessity be sternly practical ; but that he should secure himself against possible surprises would seem a measure of common prudence. Otherwise he would resemble a general advancing into the interior of an enemy's country by easy stages along a broad highway, leaving on either side woods and defiles unreconnoitred — the Archives that may conceal an army of hostile facts. The fact is that whilst all that pertains to the ethical or philo- sophical consideration of historical facts or problems, to analytical and Introduction to the Study of Official Sources 9 synthetic criticism, and to the auxiHary studies necessary for the equipment of the thinker, the worker, or the critic, has been brought to a high degree of perfection ; whilst time and money and still more precious scholarship have been lavished upon the publication and republication of historical texts which possess a conventional or a sensational interest, comparatively little attention has been paid to the outlying sources. In this particular instance, however, we have not sinned alone. The historians of every country in the past have dis- played a notorious lack of initiative in the discovery of materials. Even editors and commentators have preferred to ring the changes upon a few groups of famous Records or MSS., whilst bibliographers and cataloguers have seldom found an interest in describing or classi- fying documents the historical or literary value of which was not well established. There lies a famous manuscript, as sound and fresh as though this were the decade of its compilation. It is sumptuously bound and it is protected by a glass case. It has been honoured by countless sittings to photographers and artists, and it has been painfully transcribed by many generations of eager antiquaries. It has been printed and edited with all the skill and learning known to modern historical science, and, again, it has been utilized as the groundwork of many an original treatise, the materials of which have been selected with the nicest scholarship and its plan constructed by a master mind. Finally, the manuscript itself, its facsimiles, its transcripts, its published texts or commentaries, have been described and classified by archivists and bibliographers in many works of reference. Here we see the recogni- tion of a single document, but it is a process that has occupied the attention of several generations of scholars. As far as preliminary researches are concerned, the student's work is already done for him ; but what proportion do these edited pieces bear to the whole mass of historical documents } If we sift the corn from the chaff by with- drawing obsolete texts and worthless inventories, the handful of grain is a small one. These instances of the disadvantages under which our archivists have laboured, as well as of the capricious zeal which our scholars have frequently displayed in the cause of historical research, are by no means exhaustive. But if we admit that the existing conditions under which that research is carried on are unsatisfactory, it naturally concerns us to seek for some remedy, whether it be partial or complete. Now anyone concerned with the general subject of the adminis- lo Introduction to the Study of Official Sources tration of our national Archives, would doubtless be able to offer us numerous suggestions inspired by the scientific literature which, as our official mentors have reminded us, is devoted to this subject abroad. He might, for instance, suggest the necessity for a de- scription of the manuscript sources of our national history, like that which has recently been produced in France under very able direction. He might urge the practical success of the foreign missions historiqiies , both public and private, as an inducement for attempting to produce a comprehensive inventory of historical sources abroad. He might endorse the recent dictum of MM. Langlois and Seignobos that historical MSS. are of comparatively little use to students outside of a public collection, or he might emulate the courage of these admirable authorities when they broadly hint that although an archivist should be the first to discover a rare document, he is, whilst catalogues remain on hand, the last person by whom it may be edited. He might still further occupy our attention with a variety of abstruse and purely technical subjects which are handled with consummate skill by foreign experts ; but it is obviously undesirable to discuss these administrative questions here. Indeed a passing reference to this matter need not have been made if there was not an apparent disposition in some quarters to regard an Ecole des Chartes, with the drastic reforms in our archive economy which its establishment would necessarily involve, as a panacea for our national shortcomings. But the continental and the English Archive systems have scarcely a single condition or a single feature in common, and we are tempted to wonder if this rudi- mentary fact is generally known. We have no Ministry of Public Instruction, no national college of professors or doctors of history, and no departmental Archives providing the chief employment of archivists. Surely there is no opening here for an Ecole des Chartes ; but if for us French science is unattainable, we can still call German learning to our aid. There is a middle course between the worship of fortune and the cult of Archives, and that leads to the plain study of sources. For after all what chiefly concerns the student is that he may be able to ascertain with speed and certainty the existence of particular sources, and their precise description for the purpose of reference. This information he will be able to obtain, in the case of printed • sources, from the scientific bibliography which should furnish him with a key to every historical library. But with the exception of the general headings in official inventories, there exists no key to the IntrodMction to the Study of Official Sources 1 1 historical subjects respecting which information may be found amongst our Public Records. One explanation of this omission may be that the modern student is, comparatively speaking, a new-comer to our Archives. In former days these were regarded as the special province of the legal practi- tioner and the legal antiquary, who shared with the zealous genealo- gist and the laborious topographer the mercenary attentions of their ill-trained custodians. Some devoted scholars there doubtless were whose learned monographs still excite our wonder and despair ; but these men were neither trained historians nor efficient archivists, and their historical method was necessarily limited by the meagre resources at their command. At length, some fifty years ago, the modern historian appeared upon the scene, as a patron of Archives, but not as yet an original investigator. Like the dexterous crustacean that finds a covering for its vulnerable parts amongst the dSris of the shore, our historian made shift to fortify his conclusions with the derelict texts and calendars of the old Record Commission. Later still, his wants have been supplied through an enlightened official regime by faultless texts, exhaustive calendars, and descriptive catalogues. It is, therefore, scarcely surprising that the need for an historical subject-index to the Archives at large has been scarcely felt until our own time. But now the history schools of our own, and still more of foreign universities, have begun to send out a daily increasing army of students bent on exploring the innermost recesses of our Archives. The time, then, has surely come when some attempt must be made to bring the mere student into touch with the skilled archivist. Abroad, as we have seen, it is contrived that each should understand the technical language of the other ; for in default of such a system, it is scarcely reasonable to expect that the historical student should manifest a deep interest in a purely professional subject, or that the archivist should be pre- pared to grasp at once all the bearings of an abstruse historical thesis. Here, then, there seems to be room for a complementary study of the science of Archives which may one day furnish us with an historical inventory and concordance of subjects and sources. The usefulness, if not the necessity of such a work, will scarcely be denied, but of its feasibility some doubts may well be entertained. And yet the problem has been fairly solved by a foreign scholar in the case of our mediaeval printed sources. Our historical bibliography is the product of half a century of painful experiment, and its beginnings were suffi- ciently humble. This would furnish a ground-plan for such a work 1 2 Introduction to the Study of Official Sources as we have contemplated ; for the sources that we have in view are but historical texts yet unpublished, and for the most part they will merely supplement our printed literature. The difficulty will lie in the concordance of technical terms with historical ideas. But although the harvest is so large the labourers are still few. It would seem that for the present we must largely rely on alien workers, but fortunately some of our ablest teachers have both the knowledge and the will to provide the preliminary instruction which facilitates the use of these original sources. The better equipment of our students from the light of our own hard-earned experience is a duty that we owe to ourselves and to posterity. THE HISTORY OF THE ARCHIVES. (a) Records. The ancient treasury of the English kings with its multiform contents in the shape of money and plate, regalia, relics and records has been described with considerable minuteness by many generations of native antiquaries and the titles and duties of its custodians have been set forth in numerous establishments^ Further than this, the eventful transfers of records to new repositories or from one centre of official activity to another have been duly noted, together with the causes and effects of the periodical reforms in the method of their custody^ Finally, after tracing the gradual recognition, in later times, of the interest of the whole community in the safe-keeping and accessibility of the national Archives, the great transformation scene in the early years of the past century has been illustrated by a wealth of official and polemical literaturel At the same time the story of the housing of the Public Records is one which has given rise to few reflections and it remains without a moral. This circumstance, however, is of less moment than the loose and indefinite descriptions of the position and contents of the ancient record repositories of the Crown which pervade the voluminous official Reports on the Public Records published during the first half of the nineteenth century. After wearily turning some thousands of folio pages, the modern antiquary who seeks more definite information than the chance allusions which may be found in the official memoranda of con- ' Red Book of tfu Exchequer (Rolls), pp. cclxxxviii sq., ccciii sq., cccxxxi sq. ; Black Book of the Exchequer (Exchequer T. of R.), Vol. n. passim; Palgrave, KalencLtrs and Inventories of the Exchequer, Vol. i., Introduction ; Antiquities and Curiositits of the Exchequer, p. 77 sq. ' Ihid. and Edwards, /libraries and their Founders, p. )ii sq.; Thomas, History of Public De/ktrtments, p. 117 sq. ' See lielow, p. ]; sq. ; and C. Gross, Sourtes attd Literatttrt, section 11. 1 4 The History of the Archives temporary archivists, will probably find himself without any exact ideas upon the subject. Perhaps it would be impossible, at this late date, to supply the deficiency or to attempt a reconstruction of these early repositories from existing remains. Yet something more may be learnt from a careful examination of such notices as are still available. Not less than a thousand years ago, if we may believe the traditions of its guardians \ the royal treasury contained a hoard of records of which some few fragments have been happily preserved though the greater part is lost to us for ever. How far these traditions are borne out by the evidence of contemporary documents, or how far, again, they are based on forgeries or interpolations of a later age are questions which can only be decided by a critical examination of the existing texts. Taking these evidences, however, as they stand, we find the existence of such royal Archives positively asserted in several Old English charters dating from the ninth century I These documentary allusions do not of course enable us to ascer- tain the position and nature of the collections referred to, but we can gather that they were preserved with the royal treasure and relics in charge of an official who appears in later times as the recognized custodian of the Public Recordsl On the other hand it might perhaps be suggested that it is scarcely necessary to take the evidence of these early notices too seriously. The incidental description of an Anglo-Saxon "duke" engaged in researches amongst the royal Archives^ or of the Confessor's " Bed- thegn " watching over a repository of treasure and records, are characteristic pieces of by-play in the serious business of diplomatic composition. Doubtless there must have existed from a period long antecedent ^ Dialogus de Scaccario, I. 14, and below, Part II. ^ C.S. 575, preserved in the late nth century cartulary of Worcester. CD. MCCLXXXVii, which begins in 12th century fashion Domino meo karissimo Regi Anglortt7n Edgaro. CD. DCCCCXXXil, an Ely charter in which we read Hiec saipta tripliciter consignantur ; tinum est apud Ely; aliud in Thesaurum Regis; tertium Leofleda habet. What purports to be an original charter of Cnut i^A.S. Foes. III. 41) has the statement ei harum breviut?i tria sunt ; unum in ecclesia Christi; alterum in vionasterio Saudi Augustini ; et tertium in thesauro Regis cum reliquuis Sanctorum. In C.S. 421 two copies of the record of the Council at Kingston (a.d. 838) are ordered to be preserved by the kings present ctim hereditatis eorum scripturis. Cf. below, Part 11. ^ Ejusdetnque scripti medietatem in gazophilacio, ttbi qucEcunque habebat pracipua et preciosa erant reposita, ab Hugulino Cubiculario stio diligent er conservari (Chron. Rames. p. 1 7 1 ). For the significance of this gazophilacium cf. Wattenbach, Schriftwesen ( 1 87 1 ), p. 359. * CS. 575- The History of the Archives 15 to the Conquest some repository for the regah'a and relics which graced the state even of the rudest monarchy. If the existence of such a repository can be assumed we need look no further for a muniment room in which the hereditarii libri of Anglo-Saxon kings were deposited ^ To these might be added later, if we could credit the earliest establishment of the royal treasury with definite official functions, such rescripts as formed the nucleus of the later series of Chancery enrolments^ This, however, is necessarily a pure supposition. The real significance of these legendary notices does not lie in their reference to particular documents which are no longer preserved in official custody, and which are for the most part only represented by later copies derived from a tainted source. They serve to remind us of the indisputable fact that the records of the State were still preserved at a considerably later date according to a precisely similar method. In the royal castle of Winchester and beneath the royal abbey of Westminster ; in the tower of Caesar and beside the Hall of Rufus ; in the very wardrobe and "chamber" of the court, which followed the king in the days when the king's house was prepared in many shires ; in each of these in turn the royal treasury would be found near to the royal presence ; for where the king's treasure lay, there would his heart be also*. After all, however, the evidence which exists as to the preservation of actual Records before the reign of the first Angevin king is some- what vague and inconclusive. We know indeed that the record of the Domesday survey was placed in the royal treasury at Winchester by order of the Conqueror*, and that it was officially referred to in the reign of Henry I*. Then there were Tallies and Pipe-rolls and other official instruments of the ancient Exchequer during the same reign', and Exchequer buildings which were already ruinous in the middle of the century'. It is true that these references are meagre and indistinct, and that they are derived in some cases from secondary authorities ; but only twenty years later we have a graphic and circumstantial description of the preservation and employment of an elaborate series of fiscal and judicial records, which can, to a large extent, be identified with the existing series'. Even at this date, however, there docs not appear ' Above, p. 14, n. 4. ' DialogMSf I. xiv. ' Dialogiis, I. vi. * See l)clow, Part It. ' Chron. Abingdon, II. 116. Cf. J. H. Round, Feutial England, p. 143. " Diitlofftis, I. i. anndon. ' Dialogtis, I. xiv. Cf. below, Part tl. 1 6 The History of the Archives to have been any repository of Records in the modern sense. This indeed was the characteristic feature of their custody^ and one which was equally characteristic of the custody of treasure including relics of intrinsic worth. Like the miser's hoard ^ these were secreted in many wrappings within divers uncouth receptacles, and here some have remained until the present day I Bags and pouches, hanapers and skippets, filled with deeds and conventions under seal, with rolls and files of writs, were placed in pixes and chests, and these in turn were stowed away in the great arks^ or hutches which stood in the ante-rooms of the treasury or chamber, to be removed on occasion with the coined treasure, plate, and regalia, from one administrative centre to another. It is essential for a clear perception of the nature of the divided custody of the State Archives, prior to the Public Record Office Act of 1838, to distinguish between the official jurisdictions of the several repositories in use from the close of the 12th century to the beginning of the 19th. In addition to the earliest hoarding of Records in the royal treasury or in any one of its branches, we find the term "treasury" used from the 13th century to denote several independent repositories associated with distinct classes of Records. There was a "treasury" of this kind in the Tower of London and "treasuries" of the King's Bench, of the Common Pleas and of the Receipt of the Exchequer within or adjoining the palace of Westminster, besides the ancient royal treasury in the cloisters of the Abbey^ Again there are further repositories to be accounted for, such as the Wardrobe, which also had its branches at the Tower and at Westminster, together with the royal chapels or churches (other than the Abbey itself) where Records were certainly deposited from a very early date. ^ Literary manuscripts, on the other hand, were preserved in monastic libraries in presses such as are still used for private muniments. « The monkish satirist compares Harold to a usurer gloating over his treasure {Lives of Edward the Confessor (Rolls), p. 151). ■■* These have been described by Sir F. Palgrave (Kalendars, &'c.. Vol. i. Preface), but much more accurately by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte in his Catalogue of the Museum of the Public Record Office (1902). ■• Archa was the 12th century designation of these receptacles, and "hutch" was apparently the 17th century official rendering of the later term " huchea." A fine specimen, though of later date than the 1 2th century, is still preserved as the so-called ' ' Domesday chest" at the Public Record Office. The " Ark of the Judaism " at York conveys an even wider meaning, equivalent to the modern " Archives." " For the archaeology of the ancient palace of Westminster and its precincts see Archceologia, LX. (i) p. 131 sq. and H. Hall, Court Life, p. 114 sq., and Antiquities of the Exchequer, ch. i. — Tii. The History of the Archives 1 7 These several repositories have been very loosely distinguished by ancient and modern writers alike ; but although their contents in the shape of Records and treasure are frequently seen to interchange* it is possible to make some important distinctions. In the first place, we have the central treasury found in historical times at Westminster and comprising the two main " treasuries " of the Exchequer of Receipt adjoining the Palace and the "great treasury" in the cloisters of the Abbey. The former of these was probably, in early times, merely the strong room of the Exchequer during the sessions of the court, becoming eventually the permanent receptacle of the more important Records in frequent use. The latter was apparently used by the Exchequer oflficials for the safe custody of the Regalia and the original instruments which might be regarded as the title-deeds of the crown 2. Besides these two ancient treasuries at Westminster, there were, as we have seen, the departmental " treasuries " of the King's Bench and Common Pleas also situated within the Palace precincts. These may be regarded as mere "over-flows" of the Exchequer treasuries to which the judicial Records had always been consigned for pre- servation when handed over by the justices. Before the i6th century the royal treasury described by the author of the Dialogiis had split up into four well-marked "treasuries" within the precincts of the Abbey and the Palace of Westminster*. These were eventually reduced to one, the chapter-house, as the older functions of the treasury were superseded by the " general repository " and "Record office" of later times. From this converted treasury the original diplomatic instruments of the crown with the great bulk of the fiscal and judicial Records were transferred to the Public Record office together with many of the chests and pouches in which they had been preserved for some 500 years. In this sense therefore the history of the ancient royal treasury can be traced from first to last ; but in another direction we have to follow out the gradual formation of other central repositories containing in time a still larger and even more important class of historical Records, those which were derived directly or indirectly from the Chancery of the English kings. * The 1800 Report on the Public Records shows that a few Chancery Rolls were still preserved in the Chapter House whilst a considerable number of judicial records had found their way to the Tower. Cf. Cooper, Proposals for a Gttural Retard Office, for an account of the Tower Records in 1831. * Palgrave, /Calendars, i. 156. Powell's Repertorie (1631) mentions the ancient kejn of this treasury as still preserved in the custody of the Exchequer officials. * Powell, Repertorie, p. 15. H. 3 1 8 The History of the Archives The close connexion of the Chancery of the Frankish and Norman kings with the royal chapel is well known \ In the same connexion we find from a very early period the Wardrobe or ante-chamber of the primitive Camera serving as a bureau or secretariat in which Records of the Chancery and Exchequer were frequently deposited for imme- diate use^ It was through this channel that a considerable portion of the contents of the old royal treasury was drafted into new repositories. But although for certain purposes of state the Wardrobe provided the machinery for the custody and distribution of the royal treasure and Records alike, the latter were presumably compiled by the king's clerks in the Chancery or chapeP. Long after the other courts of law had taken up a permanent habitation at Westminster, the Chancery continued to follow the king, so that like the king's court itself, in an earlier period, it was compelled to deposit the bulk of its Records in some central treasury. Here again a distinction seems to have been made between Records which concerned the dignity of the Crown, and those which were required for official use. The former were consigned to the " great treasury " of the Wardrobe in the Tower of London, while the latter were bestowed in some temporary repository, such as the Temple Church. The connexion of both these repositories with the Wardrobe can be clearly recognized and, as of old, the custody of Records was associated with that of treasure and regalia. Even as early as the reign of Edward I the Wardrobe appears to have had the custody of a large collection of royal plate together with the relics in contemporary repute*, and we may also suspect that the notices of Records in several local repositories must refer to temporary branches of the " removing Wardrobe." But although the position of these repositories of the Chancery Records can be identified from the reign of Edward P, no attempt has apparently been made to locate the same class of Records in a still earlier period. Now a considerable mass of these Records must have accumulated since the reign of King John* and it is only 1 Du Peyrat, Hist. Eccl'esiastique de la Cour ; Wattenbach, op. cit. ; Red Book of the Exchequer, pp. xix sq., ccciii sq. and 807 sq. ; Palgrave, Kalendars, Vol. I. xv. "^ Red Book, p. xxi. * As late as the reign of Edward III we find the Chancery clerks at work in the Church of St Peter at York, the court and seat of government being then at York. (Close Roll, 7 Edw. Ill Pt I. m. 3 d ; Ibid. P' II. m. 4 d). ■• Palgrave, Kalendars, I. Appx.; Hall, Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 28. * Close Roll, 33 Edw. I m. 3. * Of Chancery enrolments alone the number must have amounted to some hundreds, and in addition to these there was an extensive collection of writs and returns and miscellaneous The History of the Archives 19 reasonable to assume that some permanent repository was provided for such Archives during the greater part of the 13th century. We know indeed from the evidence of these very Records that throughout the reign of John and again during the first years of the reign of Henry III the king's "houses" or "chambers" both in the Tower and in the New Temple were used for the preservation of treasure whilst the former was also the principal seat of the Wardrobe'. Again the Temple Church had been utilized as a branch treasury as early as the reign of Henry H", and Chancery Records were certainly deposited here during the reign of Edward I. On the other hand there is no direct reference to the preservation of Records either in the Tower or the Temple before the latter reign, and it is by no means inconceivable that during the whole preceding period the Chancery Rolls were preserved in the Exchequer, where the fiscal work of the Chancery was transacted in the 12th century*, or in the ancient treasury within the Abbey where there was also a branch treasury of the Wardrobe*. However this may be, it is clear that the Chancery itself still followed the Court and that its Records were not regarded as a fixture as were those of the Exchequer. The latter were examined on occasion by the royal writ directing search to be made by their custodians in situ ; but when reference was required to the Chancery Rolls we find that they were usually despatched bodily to the king wherever he might be. The distinction is certainly significant*. documents, apart from the documents in the custody of the Clerk of the Wardrobe or the Keeper of the Privy Seal (cf. Foedera, i. 531). 1 Calendar 0/ Close Rolls John and Henry ///(Record Commission), pp. 141', 351, 450, 508. » Exchequer Receipt Roll (1185), pp. vi, 31. Cf. Pat. 9 Henry III m. 5 for the use of the strong-rooms of religious bodies by the Crown. In the reign of Henry HI we find Hubert de Burgh's private treasure stored in the New Temple and seized there by the king (Matt. Paris, Chron. Majora, in. 732). An important political convention was executed here in uSi (Liber B. fol. 309*'). Wat Tyler's rebels are reputed to have burnt records here. Cf. also Close, 20 Edw. I m. 13''. ' Dialogus, I. v., vi. The diplomatic work of the Chancery was doubtless performed in the Camera Clericorum, which would be found in every royal palace. * Above, pp. 16 and 18. Payments made during the reign of Henry III for the working expenses of the Chancery and Chapel occur in the same entries with payments for the Palace and Exchequer at Westminster (Close, 55 Hen. HI m. 7). Madox however regards the separation of the two establishments as dating from the beginning of John's reign. Cf Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 83. ' Searches were made in the Chancery Rolls as distinguished from Exchequer Records in the reign of Edward II (A'«/ Book, p. 953). Original treaties together with Papal Bulls appear to have lieen regarded as worthy of preservation with the traditional treasures of the realm. These instruments however properly concerned the Chancery alone. In fact it appears from an official memorandum in the i8th year of Edward II that the originals were 20 The History of the Archives It is in this aspect, as we have seen, that the Chancery Records are associated with the Wardrobe during the second half of the 13th century. In another aspect the departmental activity of the Chancery is seen to be transferred before the close of this century to a new centre, the later Chapel of the Rolls, which may thus be regarded as superseding the old official establishment of the king's chapel at Westminster or elsewhere. The nature of this change is involved in the greatest obscurity, but it is perhaps possible to connect it with the financial operations of the Crown associated with the Temple and the strategical importance of the Tower during the civil wars of the periods At the same time this settlement of Chancery clerks in the houses adjacent to the Domus Conversoriim must not be regarded as a migration from an earlier judicial centre at Westminster, since the con- nexion of the Chancery itself with that palace cannot be clearly proved. It is certainly curious, however, that the later judicial overflows both of clerks and Records were in the same direction^. In both cases probably the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane was the site most readily available for this purpose. In any case the fact remains that the three modern repositories, or Record offices, situated in the Abbey of Westminster, the Tower and the Rolls Chapel respectively, were the lineal successors of mediaeval repositories on the same sites, and that distinct classes of Records were preserved in each of these repositories. From the end of the 13th century, then, we find the Chancery Records in current use preserved in the vicinity of the Inns of Court where the Chancery masters and clerks had their habitation^ Owing to the departmental character of the business of this Court, the custody of writs and returns, petitions and pleadings, was naturally assumed by particular clerks or groups of clerks. Probably the line which divided the king's clerks from a college of notaries and the latter in turn from a corporation of cursitors was not very sharply drawn in the 14th century*. Thus the successors of the clerks who allowed to accumulate in the hands of the king's clerks before they were transmitted to the Exchequer Treasury {Red Book, p. 1042). Cf. also I'algrave, Kalendars, I. 1. * The New Temple was accessible both from the Tower and Westminster by water. The House of the Friars Minor in Chancery Lane was another repository of bonds connected with these financial transactions in which the City merchants were subsequently concerned and which were entirely managed by the Chancery and Wardrobe. There was also in the 13th century a close connexion between the king's clerks and the Church of St Paul's. * Cf. Appendix il. * For the history of the clerical settlement in Chancery Lane see G. J. Turner, Lincoln's Inn. * The famous dictum of Matthew Paris — Ars notaria non habetw in Anglia — must certainly be discounted before the close of the Middle Ages. The History of the Archives 2 1 dwelt about the Chapel of the Rolls in the 13th century were still found there in the 19th with current Records in their private custody*. But as these Records accumulated it must have been found desirable from a very early date to collect the more important classes in a local repository where they could be readily accessible I Now the Chapel of the Domus Conversorum, a familiar landmark even in the time of Matthew Paris, served this purpose admirably. From the year 1307 we can date the long succession of Chancery clerks who were at once keepers of the Domus Conversorum and of the Rolls of Chancery', both of those preserved in the Chapel of the Rolls and of those from time to time transferred to the Tower. This assimilation of the offices of Keeper of the Converts and Master of the Rolls was formally completed in the year 1377^ We are indeed assured by older antiquaries' that the Master of the Rolls was charged with the custody of the Chancery Rolls dating from the reign of Richard III, the earlier rolls being preserved in the Tower, which thus served as the ultimate repository of the Chancery Records. To this repository transmissions were made between the reigns of Edward III and Richard III*, but in course of time these Records were placed in the custody of a separate keeper, and a fierce dispute was carried on in the 16th century between the latter and the Master of the Rolls with regard to their respective jurisdictions'. The history of the provincial repositories of Records is a subject which properly belongs to the department of the local historian. It is possible indeed to trace the more important transfers of the Records from one strong-place to another since the reign of Henry II. With * 1800 Report of the Commissioners of Public Records', Red Book of Exchequer, p. 1041. ■■^ Searches made by the Keeper of the Rolls for departmental purposes are referred to as early as the 19th year of Edward II (AW Book, p. 956). * Adam de Osgodeby, who had been appointed Master of the Rolls in 1J95, was made Keeper of the House of Converts in 1307. The two offices may have been held together from a still earlier date. * Pat. 51 Edw. Ill m. 20. For the history of the Rolls Chapel see the accoants by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte in the Fifty-seventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records and by Mr W. J. Hardy in Middlesex b'c. Notes and Queries, II. 49. * Powell, Repertorie of Records, p. 5. * Ayloffe, Calemlar of Tower Rolls, p. xxvi. Cf. Pat. 1 1 Edw. IV P I. m. 34. The accounts of the clerk of the Hanaper contain inventories showing that a "king's messenger" with a pack-horse and groom were regularly maintained on the establishment of the Chancery for this purpose. ' Edwards, Libraries, p. 147; Cooper, Proposal for a General Record Ofice, Appx. D. The question seems to have been decided in favour of the Master of the Rolls in the case of Sir Roger Wilbraham, whose independent appointment as Keeper of the Tower Records was vacated by the Privy Council in 1604 but only in virtue of the jurisdiction of the Master over the Chancery Rolls (R. Hist. Soc. Camden MisteUany, Vol. X. p. 80 n.). 22 The History of the Archives the exception, however, of the temporary removals of the whole or the greater part of the curial records in connexion with the transfer, of the administrative machinery to the north or west during the wars with Scotland and Wales respectively^ these removals have no influence upon the continuous custody of the State Archives in the capital itself At one time or another Winchester, Northampton, Southampton and other strongholds were utilized as repositories of treasure and Records alike, but no traces of their position have survived ^ More interest, perhaps, attaches to the transfers of Records from Scotland* and Ireland* to London, and to the preservation of Welsh Records in the Edwardian Castles or later Sessions Halls ^ but these questions concern the history of other national establishments. It has been previously stated that the history of the mediaeval Record repositories in this country can be traced in outline from the middle of the I2th century. It might even be conjectured that in a still earlier period the " Keeper of the Chapel and Relics " was responsible for the safety of the few manuscript treasures which were preserved in the immediate vicinity of the itinerant court, although we can scarcely suppose that the Magister Scriptorii, who appears in the reign of Henry II, had a position analogous to that of the Custos Rotulorum in a later period. Naturally we learn a great deal more about the personnel of the Exchequer treasury than about the corresponding staff of the Chancery repositories, but in each department we find great officers of State associated in the charge of the Records whose lieutenants gradually assume the sole responsibility for their safe keeping*. In the one case we have the Treasurer and the Chamberlains, and in the other the Chancellor and the Keeper of the Rolls. Below these are the ushers and Serjeants who have the actual handling of the Records, * Cf. Dialogus (Oxford ed.), p. 44 ; Hall, Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 74. Cf. Pat. 16 Ric. II P' II. m. 21 ; Close, 28 Edw. I m. 6d; Ibid. 20 Edw. I m. 13d; Ibid. 7 £ie turrets and to obtain another room on a lower level underneath the passage between the two galleries which connected Whitehall Gate with the western area, whilst accruing Papers were to be provided for by building a room over the gallery next the tilting yard. It is interesting to hnd that Sir Christopher Wren recommended these expedients as an alternative scheme when the question of abandoning the Whitehall Tower was raised in 1 706. 38 The History of the Archives least of the warrants for Sir Thomas Wilson, drawn by Sir Thomas Wilson, or of the numerous confidential letters which purport to have been addressed by the same enterprising official to the king and to the great officers of State are anything more than trial drafts for his fixed design to educate official opinion upon the urgent question of the writer's personal merits and the dignity of his office. But in spite of a pushfulness in which the knight excelled even his contemporaries, the recognition of his services was somewhat scanty. His office was a new one and its importance was scarcely appreciated, but in any case it was probably felt that with this patent and allowances for "extraordinaries," together with a political pension of ^100, Sir Thomas might be regarded as decently provided for, in view of the crowd of hungry suitors who remained unsatisfied with reversionary presentations^ These sordid details have a real importance for the history of the office, because here, as in the case of the legal Records, an efficient custody is found to depend to a very large extent upon a suitable official establishment. Keepers of Records and State Papers who were not in receipt of a living wage, or whose wages were paid with extreme irregularity, will usually be found devising some other means of subsistence to the grave detriment of their charge. Thus Wilson, whose salary was at one time seven years in arrear, was reduced to beg and cringe in an unseemly manner and to curry favour with the Court by the discovery of papers and books belonging to attainted or discredited courtiers. Judged by his own admissions Wilson might not appear to us as an official custodian to whom marketable antiquities could have been safely entrusted, but as a matter of fact his bitter jealousy of other official antiquaries and his strong sense of self-importance proved of ^ In addition to his interest in the patent salary of 3^. \d. per diem as Keeper, Wilson seems to have claimed £(>o yearly for the clerical establishment and expenses of his office under a dormant Privy Seal of 6 Nov. 1608, but this allowance w^as very irregularly paid, and it is not clear whether Wilson elected to be paid under this warrant or by the bills of costs for extraordinary expenses in making transcripts, searches and binding MSS. which he presented from time to time as lump sums. Wilson himself informs us that he kept two clerks engaged in searching and transcribing as well as a binder (6". P. Docts. i. 41, 43, 45, Si> 52. 75). In the next patent granted in 1629 to Wilson's successors the salary was raised to 8j. ij%d. per diem, or £\6o yearly, at which figure it remained till the beginning of the last century, the proportion due to the Keeper for salary being apparently reckoned at £60, with ;[f 100 for office expenses. As a matter of fact it is more probable that the establishment of £\(>o was taken from that propounded by Wilson himself during the last years of his keeper- ship, the proportions being £60 for his office and ;[^ioo for his fee. The next Keeper, Raymond, was put in the same position as his predecessor by the grant of a pension of ;^ 100, and thus a definite precedent for the salary of ;^i6o was founded. The History of the Archives 39 inestimable service in recovering and securing the State Papers of his own time. Moreover he chose to make an ostentatious honesty his chief recommendation for advancement as an official pluralist, and, failing due recompense for his labours by the State, he had conceived an ingenious scheme for receiving fees from the public by instituting two branch offices in connexion with his post as archivist', an expedient which was successfully resorted to by the greatest of his successors'. The interval between the death of Sir Thomas Wilson in 1629 and the appointment of Sir Joseph Williamson in 1661 is chiefly interesting for the efforts made by each of the political parties in power during the period to recover State Papers which were in danger of falling into private hands. These efforts, however, were attended with very slight success', and it is not altogether reassuring to find that Sir Joseph Williamson, good scholar and zealous official as he was, contented himself with noting from time to time the alarming deficiencies in the transmissions of Papers to the office at Whitehall. Williamson indeed appears to have regarded the Papers in his custody as a source of historical and official information in his capacity of Secretary of State, chiefly using for this purpose those which passed through his own department. Thus, although he was able to endow the Office with an enormous number of curious but really useless commonplace books as the result of his life-long industry, the State was the poorer by many hundreds of volumes which passed out of official custody during this periods Similarly whilst we may bestow some praise upon the comprehensive classifica- tion of the Papers which Williamson laid down and to some extent carried out by an actual arrangement', we learn that at his death the Papers were found in a very neglected state, whilst no catalogue of any sort existed. In fact, if we may credit the statements of his successor in the Office, Williamson seems to have treated his appointment as a sinecure, employing the clerks who should have attended to the Papers in the lucrative business of publishing the London Gazette ^ A search office in connexion with the monastic cartularies, largely "embezzled" by his enemy Sir Rol)ert Cotton, and a registry of the orders of knighthood. ' The I^ndon Gazette and the Office for Newsletters managed by Sir Joseph Williamson. » S. P. Docts. II. 58. * "Sir Joseph Williamson's" collection has now been broken up, but many miscellaneous volumes can still be identified amongst the "State Papers Miscellaneous." Some of his MSS. were apparently received by Queen's College, Oxford. • See the plans of the office in i68i in S. P. Docts. ii. 49. 40 The History of the Archives and in writing Newsletters to subscribers in the provinces i. Both these departments of the Office were apparently conducted with a sole view to the profit which they afforded, though at this date it would probably have proved impossible to maintain a clerical establishment without some such device for making good the de- ficiencies of a bankrupt Exchequer. With the reign of Queen Anne- we find the condition of the Paper Office a matter of concern to the Lords' Committee for considering the state of the Public Records, and in the year 1706 steps were taken to improve their housing and a new repository was prepared at considerable expense, in the Cockpit, from the plans of Sir Christopher Wren=*, This building, which was afterwards known as the Middle Treasury Gallery, became in turn the repository of the Treasury Records. The accommodation thus provided was insufficient, but the change averted the imminent destruction of the Papers in the unglazed attics which were henceforth abandoned as pigeon- lofts ^ Throughout the i8th century the history of the State Paper Office runs on parallel lines with that of the repositories of legal Records. There is indeed this general distinction to be observed that, whereas the latter were continuously preserved in an official custody which permitted the worst ravages of damp and vermin, the former suffered still heavier losses, not from natural causes but from their permanent abstraction from a custody which was plainly enjoined. To find ^ Cf. ^. P. Docts. II. 30 and Edwards, Libraries, p. 193. ^ No mention occurs in any of our authorities of the appointment by William III of John Chamberlayne to succeed Sir J. Williamson. This statement occurs in the former's \\&\\- VwaviVi. State of Great Britain, 1704, p. 147. * The Report of John Tucker on the state of the office as received by him at Williamson's death is in the S. P. Docts. 11. 69, and full particulars of the enquiry will be found in the Lords' Journals and in the records of the Treasury and Board of Trade. This new receptacle comprised the floor with an area of 80 ft. long by 25 ft. wide over the Lord Chamberlain's lodgings in the "White Building" in the Cockpit; but it has also been described as the floor over the Treasury Chambers which had been recently used for the sittings of the Commissioners for the Union of England and Scotland {S. P. Docts. ii. 108). It was better known at a later date as the Middle Treasury Gallery, which led from the Treasury to the Board of Trade. * Some of the Council Records and miscellaneous State Papers were left behind and were rescued from their perilous position in 1763 or [764 according to the received account, though as the Whitehall Gateway is said to have been removed in 1759 this statement must be accepted with caution. The Methodizers themselves state in their report of 1764 that the Gateway was removed some years ago (cf. below, p. 42, n. 1). In Hawkin's Index to the Records published in 1739 '^e Paper Office is stated to be "over the Gate by the Tilt-Yard," whilst the Records of the Council were kept in the Council Chamber in the Cockpit. In 1732 we also have a list of the Foreign Papers of recent date then preserved "in the Turret" which can only refer to the Whitehall Gateway (S.P. Docts. il. ii6). The History of the Archives 41 a parallel we must imagine the systematic removal of the rolls of the courts by the judges to their country seats ; but it must be admitted that the possibility of such losses was chiefly due to the inept pre- cautions devised during this period by the party of reform. Here again we have a close parallel with the proceedings and undertakings for the better arrangement of the legal Records. Instead of utilising all their available resources for the improvement of the housing of Records and State Papers, for their thorough repair, and for their systematic arrangement, the Committees and Com- missions of the 1 8th century preferred to serve the immediate interests of literature and history by employing experts to " digest " and "methodize" the contents of the State Archives'. At the same time a dual control was established in the case of the State Papers by the re-appointment of a "Collector and Transmitter" to secure the regular consignment of the Papers to official custody^ The result of these experiments was disastrous in the extreme, for the Collector and Transmitter appears to have enjoyed a virtual sinecure in respect of both collection and transmission, while the methods of the " Methodizers " were beneath contempt. The dis- tribution of the Papers between two independent repositories simply facilitated the process of abstraction by officials of all classes, and the recognized Keeper finding himself stripped of many of the former privileges and powers of his office resigned himself with a ' These " Methodizers" were not actually appointed as generally supposed, in consequence of the discovery of papers in the abandoned repository at Whitehall, but as the result of enquiry into the condition of the legal Records which was extended to the State Papers. The term "methodize" is found in the 1732 Report, and it is only fair to admit that the system was useful in the case of private collections. It was also hinted in certain official quarters that the reform was intended to prevent a recurrence of such an incident as the supposed abstraction of papers by the elder Pitt on resigning office in 1761. ■•' The most extraordinary misstatements have been made and accepted with regard to the date of the first institution of this office, which has been assigned to the year 1713, Edward Weston being described as the first Collector and Transmitter. Klsewhere the date is given as 1714, and this has been conjecturally emended as 1741 in the 1800 Report. The first appointments were however as follows: George Tilson by Patent dated 20 Jan. 1735; Edward Weston and Andrew Stone by Patent dated 18 May, 1738; Edward Weston and John Couraud by Patent dated 26 June, 1741 ; John Couraud and T. Ramsden by Patent dated 4 Jan. 1742. As Couraud and Stone were successively Keepers of the Papers, in 1738 and 1741 respectively, it would appear that the two offices were held more or less in common. The Transmitter received a salary of j^400 — £fioo- The ostensible object of the new system, namely to ensure the regular transmission of the contents of the Secretaries' Offices to the Paper Office, seems to have been completely lost sight of at an early date. The practical effect of the change was that the Transmitter's Office, which l)ecame the headquarters of the "Methodizers," got possession only of such modem papers as were spontaneously trans- mitte Cf. Sir Ed. Ilertslet, The Old F. O., Appx., and Sir W. Anson, CoHitihUional HUttry (ed. 1907), Vol. II. Part i. (1907), and below, Appx. ill. 48 The History of the Archives department might be regarded as rightfully possessed of the entire series of State Papers prior to 1782, but this is an academic question which need not be discussed here. However, it is material to note, in connexion with the Records of the period, that the War Office con- tinued to be attached to this department till the year 1794, when a new Secretaryship for War (dealing with the regular army only), was created, being continued as a joint department with the Colonies from 1 801 to i854\ The reorganization of some other departments, including the Offices of Works, Woods and Forests, and the Mint during the same period does not affisct the custody of their existing Records ^ but since 1816 the Commissariat was left in a doubtful position towards the War Office and the Treasury respectively. Certain semi-isolated Offices like the principal Revenue departments =*, the Victualling Office, and the important fraternity of Auditors, Comptrollers and Imprest officers can be conveniently relegated to the central departments of modern times*. The new offices erected towards the close of the i8th century and in the early part of the 19th were to some extent of a similar nature, the Emigration Board and Alien Office Records having been absorbed by the Colonial and Home Offices respectively and those of the Board of Control being subsidiary to the main collection in the India Office. The National Debt and Stationery Offices have, however, continued to exist as separate establishments, though no Records from the latter have come to hand. The sweeping reforms effected in 1832 brought several interesting series of Departmental Records to an abrupt close. Amongst these were the Correspondence and Accounts of the Navy Board and its 1 The military business assigned to the new War Department in 1794 was sharply distinguished from the control of the auxiliary military forces which was exclusively exercised by the Home Department down to the year 1854. On the other hand the management of Colonial affairs was relinquished by the latter department in 1801 in favour of the combined War and Colonial Department. From 1816 this department confined its attention more especially to Colonial affairs, its official supervision of the War Office being continued only till the office of Secretary-at-War was merged in that of a new Secretary of State for War. * The Offices of Woods and Works were amalgamated between 1832 and 185 1 under a single Board of Commissioners. For the history of the Mint see the well-known Report of the Commission of 1848. * e.g. the Tax Office, Stamp Office, Hawkers' and Pedlars' Office, Hackney Coach Office and Salt Office. There were three Boards for Excise, Stamps and Taxes respectively. * i.e. the Exchequer and Audit Office, which unites since 1867 the old functions of the Comptroller General of the Exchequer and the Auditor General, who in turn replaced the several Commissions for the Audit of the Public Revenue and Expenditure, including the Commissioners for Auditing Public Accounts, Auditors of Colonial Accounts, Auditors and Comptrollers of Army Accounts, &c. The History of the Archives 49 subordinate departments, which were transferred to the department of the Accountant General of the Navy as a branch of the Admiralty Office*. Some twenty years later the Ancient Board of Ordnance shared the same fate, whilst a number of smaller offices, hitherto semi- detached and semi-independent, were gradually merged in the central organization of naval and military administration. At the same time the remodelled departments of the Paymaster General* and Auditor General* absorbed other isolated branches of the Ancient Exchequer of Receipt and Account, though for some not very obvious reason the nominal duties of the King's Remembrancer and of the Comptroller of the Receipt of the Exchequer were continued down to modem times*. Again the Office of Works, as we have seen, was temporarily united with that of Woods and Forests in 1832 and the various branches of the Inland Revenue were finally amalgamated, whilst the nearly related business of Probate and Registration was brought into close proximity to the Revenue departments at Somerset House. On the other hand the Commissariat department was separated in 1853 from the Treasury, by which it had been administered since 1 8 16, but the Records of the Commissariat and Treasury Chest were continued till 1876. It is interesting to notice that the Commissariat as an independent department, from 1790 to 18 16, occupied the same auxiliary position towards the military service of the country as was held by the old Victualling Office in connexion with the Navy. A large number of new departments have been added during the last half century to the old establishments of the Civil List and the public service. Two of the most noticeable additions, however, the two Secretary- ships for India and War had existed for a long time previously in other forms". The same observation, indeed, applies to other depart- ments which were formally erected in this period. The scheme sanctioned in 1838 for a Public Record Office, with which the State ^ Five new departments were created at this date, Accountant General, Surveyor General, Storekeeper General, Comptrolling of Victualling and Physician General. ' The Paymaster (General's Office was reformed in 178a and remodelled in 1836 to consolidate the several departments of the Paymaster General of the Forces, the Treasurer of Chelsea Hospital, the Treasurer of the Navy, the Treasurer of the Ordnance and the Paymaster of the Civil Service. ' Cf. above, p. 48, n. 4. * Cf. below, p. 117, n. 1. The Office of the Exchequer Seal was not abolished until 1849 and its Records were not transferred till 1904. ' The Board of Control and the Secretary at War. H. 4 50 The History of the Archives Paper Office was incorporated in 1854^ merely consolidated the existing keeperships and repositories of the legal Records with which the Archives of the public departments were now conjoined*. From a general point of view the Public Record Office might be regarded as a department of the Courts of Law, but its true descent is from the Household, and moreover, as a public department, its Archives must be distinguished from the Records at large^ Of the more recent departments whose establishments swell the pages of the modern official Calendars, it is enough to remark that with few exceptions they do not possess Archives which are likely to prove of any historical value, a circumstance which is presumably due to their purely administrative and political nature and to the fact that the chief information which their Records could convey has for the most part been printed by the Government press. It may indeed be accepted as a general principle that, just as the place of the State Papers is taken in the i8th century by the Records of the public departments, so the historical use of the latter is superseded in turn by the printed Blue Books. This is a consideration which may materially affect the eventual survival of the modern Departmental Records, and it is one which has in fact already led to the judicious clearance of an accumulation of superfluous documents and official forms. At the same time, owing partly to the conservative instincts of the race, and partly to the ceremonial requirements of international relations, there are certain exceptions to this rule. The most notice- able of these is found in the case of the diplomatic and Colonial correspondence, which has clearly shown no tendency to diminish either in volume or in importance during the last century, and which cannot for obvious reasons be neglected for historical reference. In addition to these it must be remembered that there are archives of the British Legations in the capitals of Europe which in a few cases only were transmitted to London before the close of the Napoleonic wars, whilst some are still outstanding. With the exception of such isolated documents as were preserved ^ The Signet Office, which like the State Paper Office itself had been for three centuries a sub-department of the Secretaries of State's Office, was abolished by the Act of the 14 and 15 Victoria c. 82. The Privy Seal Office, which enjoyed an independent existence as a department of State, was abolished by the same Act. - Nothing can be said here on the subject of the several departmental "Paper- Rooms," which were chiefly responsible for the custody of Records previous to their transfer to the Public Record Office. Most of these departmental Registries or Libraries in fact still exist. 3 These administrative Records include those of the State Paper Office dating back to the 1 6th century. The History of the Archives 51 in company with the old State Papers, the Departmental Records now preserved in the Public Record Office were mainly transferred to that safe custody between the years 1846 and i860. Since the latter date new additions have been made to this central collection from time to time, the details of which will be found in the periodical Reports of the Deputy Keeper. The very serious questions which will inevitably arise whenever a complete survey of these later sources shall be attempted cannot be mooted here. Such an enquiry would include the circumstances connected with their official custody and the causes of the irreparable losses which so many of the series have obviously sustained. Here again we should find a repetition of the flagrant abuses which have been unsparingly condemned in earlier official Reports dealing with the preservation of the legal Records and State Papers. Unfortunately no pains and penalties were in- curred by the abstraction or wanton destruction of these later Records, nor was the mischief likely to be ended until the intention of the Public Records Acts had been fully realized. Several important private collections have, however, been recovered or deposited from time to time, and these are notified in the Deputy Keeper's Reports. The chief conclusions at which we shall necessarily have arrived from the above rapid survey of the chief incidents connected with the evolution of the public departments and the custody of their Records may perhaps be stated as follows : In the first place we have found that certain departments have now ceased to exist, and that their Records have been transferred to some other custody in which they may be identified with varying success. Secondly, other departments appear to have been absorbed or reorganized by a natural process, their Records being in nearly every case transferred or retained without loss from that cause. Again a third class of public departments has preserved its departmental position unchanged, with its Records intact, and these have been either transferred to the national Archives or retained in the possession of the department itself Finally it may be presumed that, with a few exceptions, no Departments constituted since 1858 are possessed of Archives in official custody which would prove indispensable to historical students'. ' For the convenience of certain of these departments a few documents of value, though of no historical importance, have been received at the Public ReconI Office for safe custody. These are noted iu the Deputy Keeper's Reports. 52 The History of the Archives A nearer view of the condition and prospects of the modern Archives of the State is forbidden by the well-known rule whereby certain State Papers of the past century are withdrawn from a critical examination. But events move rapidly in this direction. Less than a hundred years ago few even of the legal Records or of the more ancient State Papers could be inspected without a license or the payment of almost prohibitive fees, whilst the chief opportunity of inspecting Departmental Papers was by reading their context in the memoirs of some public official who had removed them from his own departments Possibly before the close of another century the historical value of these contemporary documents will have ceased to exist; but before that time has come it is also possible that many gaps in the earlier and more essential series will have been filled. ' See Memoirs of J. W. Croker and D. K. lOth Report, p. xxi. But this is nothing to the void caused by the abstraction of official papers in the first quarter of the 19th century, some of which are offered for sale every day, whilst others are bestowed in family collections that are inaccessible to the student. Fortunately (as remarked above) the tendency is for these collections to be acquired by the British Museum. Thus the important State Papers and departmental Records formerly acquired by the founders of the great Stowe collection have been fortunately preserved to the nation, though not it is true in the custody contemplated by the Act of 1838 and the reiterated ordinances of earlier times. THE CLASSIFICATION OF ARCHIVES. (a) Records. A CLASSIFICATION of our national Records has already been to some extent attempted by the able officials who have from time to time described their nature and extent. This official classification, however, has been necessarily confined to a technical and artificial arrangement of the contents of the old Record repositories, and a purely scientific or " diplomatic " reconstruction of these Archives has not yet attracted the attention of English antiquaries. We are still content to take the Records as we find them. Rolls and Registers, Charters, Writs and Warrants, Inquisitions and Returns, Accounts, and all the rest, are what they have been since they were first written. There is no room for abstruse theory in the closely printed pages of the encyclopaedic handbook which forms such an admirable Guide to the existing arrangement of the Public Records, The relationship of one class to another, the construction of the subsidiary documents from which the formal Record is derived, the position of the derived documents which may be grouped around these, and the history of the mere excrescences, no longer nourished by the parent stock and clogging its avenues of light and air, none of these considerations has entered into the philosophy of the ancient or modern archivist. It might be objected with some force that such questions are neither very practical nor very urgent, and that there is no demand for a scientific classification of Archives. But it is not even sug- gested that the existing arrangement might be superseded with any real advantage. The student of history has certainly no cause for gratitude to those who rashly remove the landmarks of antiquity. If the old proprietary classification of the Records of the Courts of Law is an artificial one necessitating a multitude of cross-references it also has its uses. It will at least be found to have preserved a clue to the provenance of the several series, whilst it allows ancient references 54 T^^^ Classification of Archives to be preserved intact. Neither of these advantages can perhaps be claimed for the system of specialization which has already made considerable inroads on the departmental collections of the Courts of Justice. On the other hand this system certainly facili- tates the production of detailed lists forming a series of scholarly monographs which are duly appreciated by the public. Moreover of late years there has been a tendency towards grouping the main divisions of Records under their characteristic subjects. Thus the Plea Rolls of the Courts of Law have been distinguished by the title of "Judicial Proceedings," whilst for composite groups such convenient catch-words have been devised as " Ecclesiastical Matters," " Monastic Foundations," " Feudal Tenures," " Escheats and Forfeitures," " Army, Navy and Ordnance," " Parliamentary Pro- ceedings," " Forests," &c. Such a system of recognized passwords for the chief sources of our institutional history may in the near future enable us to scrutinize the contents of the darkest recesses of the repository by a reflected light. The old press references will remain, but they need not possess any greater significance than the titles of the Roman emperors with which a famous antiquary embel- lished his stolen volumes. Eventually there are certain problems to be solved in connexion with the intricate system of Record com- position that will require nothing less than a complete structural classification of the ancient Records of the realm ; the relationship of one class to another, and the part that each distinct species of Record is designed to play in the economy of the mediaeval Scriptorium. Such a reconstruction, however, will be regarded as a purely Utopian scheme, and the utmost that may be attempted here is an innocent re-grouping of the several classes of Records in the interests of diplomatic study. Let us begin with the essential Records, the " ProtokoUrolle " or final acts of the Courts of Record themselves. These can be dis- tinguished at a glance when they are produced to us, and we know that they He in their thousands on the shelves of the Repository, an unequalled series of term-rolls of the Courts of Law, extending from the reign of Richard I to that of Queen Victoria. These form the most important portion of the "Judicial Proceed- ings" above referred to, and for the purpose of convenient subdivision they may still be allowed to remain under their respective Courts. Here are the "Plea Rolls," distinguished by the several titles of "Curia Regis," " Coram Rege," " Crown," " Controlment," and " Assize," which last includes of course the ordinary business of the Eyres, " Oyer and The Classification of Archives 55 Terminer," " Gaol Delivery " and " Nisi Prius," together with the extraordinary business connected with " Quo warranto," " Trail- baston," " Rageman," " Labourers," or Special Commissions, such as that which investigated the judicial scandals of 1289^ and the State trials contained in the so-called Baga de Secretis. These are for the king's Courts alone''. For the Common Pleas we have the " De Banco " Rolls and their sequel in the " Plea " and " Recovery " Rolls of a later period, and there are also those abnormal Records the Fines. The Exchequer Court furnishes a closely allied series of Plea Rolls, whilst its Memoranda Rolls (if we must exclude Pipe Rolls) are f)ossibly the most ancient of all judicial Records^ In later times its equitable jurisdiction has produced a long series of Decrees and Orders*. Then there is the Chancery with its slow judicial development' and its eventual encroachments, affording, instead of Rolls, a few early Pro- ceedings and a mass of later Decrees'. All these are familiar types; but the list is not yet complete. For the purpose of a logical classifi- cation we must certainly include the Plea Rolls of the "Judaism" and of the Forests, together with the formal proceedings of the Palace Courts, and the pleadings within palatine jurisdictions. Possibly too we ought to include the Placita Parliamentaria, although the depart- mental connexion of these pleadings is with the Chancery, whilst the Acts or Sentences of the Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Courts are still further removed owing to their alien characteristics. In any case, however, they should be enumerated in a diplomatic collection of the final instruments of a judicial system. So far we have, on the whole, been able to keep our classification within the beaten track ; but the remaining " Records," as they are commonly regarded, those other "judicial proceedings," the Indict- ments, Bails, Essoins, Affidavits, Interrogatories, Bills, Answers and the rest, together with the Writs and Returns, Petitions and other documents of a diplomatic construction, besides the great army of Accounts; all these, which we have declined to place "cheek by jowl" ' See below, p. 144 sq. ' Some of the above, such as the proceedings under the Statute of Labourers, are really Rolls of the Justices of the Peace. » See Part U. * The departmental Courts of Augmentations, General Surveyors and First Fruits and Tenths and the cognate jurisdiction of the Court of Wards and Liveries are included under the Exchequer in the modem classification of the Records. ' From the "Common Law" practice recorded in the "County Platita." • The special jurisdictions of the Courts of Star Chamber and Requests are closely allied to that of the Chancery. The surviving Records are however chiefly subsidiary proceedings. 56 The Classification of Archives with the completed Record, remain to be disposed of. These, as we have premised, must be regarded as " subsidiary judicial proceedings," leading through successive stages and by divers processes to the con- summation of the Record. An exception should perhaps be made in the case of the Accounts which are subsidiary to the compilation of the Great Roll and which also furnish the chief subject matter for the legitimate business of the Exchequer Court. The whole of this class however, though it is easily recognized by its general characteristics, presents many diffi- culties owing to our present imperfect knowledge of the minute details of the judicial and administrative systems of an earlier periods For several reasons these Accounts may be included in the following class of Ministerial Proceedings. The class of Records referred to above may be distinguished broadly from the remaining Archives by their judicial environment, but it must be remembered that amongst these judicial Records there are certain types which present a purely diplomatic construction although these instruments were nevertheless employed solely in a judicial connexion. A well-known instance occurs in the case of the Final Concords, whilst the Coroners' Rolls are returns to inquisitions in diplomatic form. Finally there are the innumerable Writs and other diplomatic instruments which constitute a large portion of the recognized judicial proceedings of the Courts. These forms, however, are truly represented in the next section of our classification, which will include the originals or enrolments of diplomatic documents, including a large number of Inquisitions and Returns. The relationship in which these diplomatic documents stand towards the true judicial Records and their satellites is not easily explained. From one point of view few if any of them should be included amongst " Records " at all, for they are for the most part the products of the Chancery and Exchequer in their secretarial or ministerial capacities and include the well-known mediaeval " State 1 In theory, at least, every branch and item of the Revenue was returnable in the Treasurer's budget, and each was authenticated by "Particulars of Account," a large proportion of which has survived to form one of the most extensive classes of our Public Records. These are the vouchers not only for the sheriff's farm, but also for the accounts of individual debtors, returnable through one or the other as accountants. In course of time the main sources of the Revenue ceased to flow through this main channel and were intercepted by ' ' Foreign " enrolments and later still by ' ' Declared Accounts, " prepared and examined by new fiscal departments. These later enrolments, however, were based in turn upon "particulars" and "ledger-books" which have been more or less capriciously preserved. From this one source then we have a vast mass of disconnected documents, the accounts of sheriffs, bailiffs, clerks, ministers and receivers, customers, collectors and escheators. The Classification of Archives 57 Papers," of which some are still preserved amongst the modern series which bears that title. And yet the originals of these diplomata were received, preserved and occasionally enrolled by the Courts themselves which by degrees reproduced their formulas in the composition of their own Records. In fact for certain purposes the apparatus of the Chancery was not more efficient than that of the Exchequer or the Courts of Common Law. From the reign of Henry II (if not earlier) the King's Court and the Exchequer possessed distinctive seals, and several of the great inquests of the 12th and 13th centuries were apparently carried out through the sole agency of the latter juris- diction \ In the case of other Inquisitions the Chancery certainly exercised a sole or at least a dual control, and by degrees, especially with the decay of the feudal system, the activity and political impor- tance of the king's clerks superseded the functions of the Barons in this direction. The " Petty Bag " becomes a permanent institution, like the " Hamper," and the Exchequer confines itself to " special commissions" and obsolete inquests. But although the natural com- munity of mediaeval clerical labour will easily account for the occasional interchange of Records between the two courts, the Chancery in its secretarial capacity has an absolute control over the composition and preservation of the domestic and foreign State Papers. Of these the originals and drafts, where they have been preserved, form the great class of Diplomatic Documents, whilst the copies alone constitute a considerable proportion of the Chancery Enrol- ments. It is as we have seen a matter of some difficulty to draw a sharp distinction in any scheme of classification between the diplomatic forms of certain legal Records such as Fines and Recognizances and the Inquisitions and Returns which present like forms without any judicial connexion. This difficulty may, however, be to some extent obviated by the reflection that Pleadings and Returns alike have a common diplomatic origin as the products of a royal writ, which is here merely distinguished according to its judicial or administrative nature'. Moreover the proprietary claims of the Courts in respect of many important examples of ministerial proceedings are very ill- defined, and here as in other cases documents have been assigned to particular jurisdictions from the confusion attending their early custody. ' e.g. the feudal inquests preserved in the Red and Black Books of the Exchequer and the Tt.Ua de Nevill. ' See below, Part II. 58 The Classification of Archives Less difficulty may be felt in disposing of the group of Records now under consideration since royal charters and writs, with their Returns, and Royal Letters, with divers ordinances and notarial instruments, may clearly be classed together in accordance with their structural and technical characteristics. Indeed as we have seen it might be fairly questioned whether their mere environment should suffice to distinguish many of these reputed Records from the State Papers and Departmental Records of a later period, for after the lapse of a few centuries the latter in turn may appear as archaic as the Patent and Close Rolls of the 13th century. Purely diplomatic forms are also represented by a third class of documents, which must not be placed on the same footing with judicial Records or even with diplomatic documents on account of the informality of their execution and preservation, although in many cases they will not be found to differ from either of the above in their form and purpose. These are the well-known Precedent Books, or " Books of Remembrance," semi-official compilations which have preserved valuable and authoritative, in some cases unique copies or notes of judicial and political proceedings. Although for the most part compiled in the shape of books, some rolls are found in this class which is chiefly represented amongst the Records of the Exchequer and the Chancery. Doubtless many cause-books and precedents were in daily use in the courts of law, but it is scarcely surprising that so few of these have been preserved in official custody, though numerous examples have survived in private collections. Amongst these Precedent Books we may perhaps distinguish between works which are practically transcripts of official Records, such as Domesday Book itself, the Testa de Nevill, Kirby's Quest and other well-known Feodaries and Surveys, the Vetus Codex for proceedings of the Parliament, or mere transcripts of Statutes, and compilations of a wider scope and utility which in many cases were the work of more than one generation of clerks. Familiar instances will be recalled by the titles of the Red and Black Books of the Exchequer and the Libri Munimentorum, whilst of one sort and another some hundreds of these Precedents cire to be found amongst the Miscellaneous Books, Rolls and Documents of the several courts. Below these in historical, but not in official merit, are the common- place books in official use, including Formulas, Calendars, Inventories, Establishments, Treatises and other office properties, which have been compiled and continuously preserved in the repositories of Records. Some of these are of great antiquity and considerable interest. The Classification of Archives 59 Bishop Stapeldon's famous Calendar and the other contents of the Liber Memorandorum together with the repertories of early judicial proceedings have a value apart from age, whilst the "remains" of Agarde, Ayloffe, Palmer and other official antiquaries are still in current use. But by no means all the existing specimens of this class are now preserved in official custody. The fourth and last division of Records in this scheme of classifi- cation will include a considerable number of documents which though in- many cases of diplomatic construction are not in their origin official Records, for the very reason that they have been mainly composed by private hands, and have been acquired from external sources. Such are the original charters, writs, and cartularies ; the court rolls, surveys and other title-deeds which have been deposited or "exhibited" chiefly in the course of Chancery suits and proceedings in the Ex- chequer, or which have come into the hands of the Crown in consequence of the death or delinquency of their original possessors. These deposits had begun to accumulate in the royal treasury as early as the reign of Henry IP and to them was added later a vast mass of correspondence, accounts and family papers. Some of these documents such as " court-rolls," " ministers' accounts," Surveys and Registers have already been incorporated with the corresponding series of official Records, and if this process of absorption were continued the artificial distinction of the whole class would soon be at an end. In summing up the results of this outline of a structural classifica- tion of our Public Records, it will be evident that the key to the position is the restriction of the term " Record " to the class of judicial proceedings to which it lawfully pertains. This simple limitation not only enables us at once to disentangle the true Record from the confused mass of state documents with which it has been casually associated in the existing proprietary classification, but also to resolve these latter documents into certain natural divisions which have not hitherto been recognized. At the same time it suggests a useful distinction between the final Record and its subsidiary documents. Again it will be noticed that the immediate effect of this natural arrangement is to bring into prominence not only the individuality but also the continuity of the composition and preserva- tion displayed by the several types. The continuity of official writings is in fact a vindication of their morphological classification, for, with certain inevitable modifications, the forms of Records are continuous ^IDialogust I. xiv. 6o The Classification of Archives from first to last, and so, in their distinctive shape, are the diplomatic forms which have been preserved beside them. Finally it may be suggested that an important result of some such scheme of recon- struction would be to facilitate the use both of Records and diplomatic documents as historical sources, and this, it is almost needless to say, is the chief, if not the only .purpose of the present essay. {b) State Papers. The classification of the State Papers might be fairly regarded as a much easier task than that which is imposed on us in the case of the legal Records. This supposition is perhaps correct ; but at the same time if there is less scope for reconstruction in the former direction, we are unfortunately hampered by numerous early mis- conceptions which were probably the cause of the misplacing of several items of the existing collections of the State Papers. At the outset we have to define the extent and scope of our materials. Which of these are State Papers and which are Records or Departmental Papers ? There is scope for considerable confusion between these three classes of official MSS. That is to say we meet with a certain number of diplomatic instruments in the form of drafts or originals with the corresponding Entry Books, some of which, such as the Secretary of State's Warrant Books, bear it is true a close resemblance to the general character of the State Papers, though they must be regarded equally as a diplomatic source'. Other forms of ancient Records will be found interspersed with the typical State Papers, and for the reign of Henry VIII free use has been made in the official Calendar of the contents of Record Sources which are not obviously connected with the oflfice of the contemporary Secretaries of State. This practice may perhaps be explained by the transitional character of a period in which the existing State Papers undoubtedly present a somewhat miscellaneous appearance'^. By degrees, however, and especially with the gradual ' As warrants for the issue of more formal instruments they are of little value, but as missives under the Sign Manual or by the delegated authority of the Secretary of State they have a new importance. 2 This anomalous aspect is rendered still more striking by the arbitrary titles applied to individual documents by earlier writers. Thus we should have some difficulty in identifying "Chancellor Goodrick's Leger" referred to by Strype {Ecd. Mem. ii. (2) 223) with S.P. Dom. Edward VI, vol. xix. but for the possibility of identifying the entries by means of the Patent Rolls and Particulars for Grants. The Classification of Archives 6i recognition of the departmental position of the Law Officers of the Crown the subsidiary Records of the Chancery and Bench are of less frequent occurrence, and with the differentiation of the Council Chamber and Signet Office their absorption is completed. The use which may be found for these delated Records by the student of history will be considered elsewhere ; but with regard to the present question of their classification it would be futile to deny them a position which should have belonged to the purely ministerial Records of an earlier period. In fact the constitutional pretensions of the sovereign and his Secretaries of State would have covered a far more extended use and custody of what were termed, with greater accuracy than our own, the " Records and Papers of State," and moreover both the Chancery and Exchequer had long abandoned their departmental activity. When we find the Secretary of State under George III issuing his warrant for the preservation, amongst the Papers of State of a quantity of Exchequer Records we need not be surprised at any incongruity which may exist in the procedure of their early custody^ At the same time we are not compelled to recognize this archaic procedure in any scientific scheme of classification. The " Signed Bills " at least cannot be regarded as State Papers, whatever view we may take of the position of the Signet Office, and the same remark applies still more forcibly to the department of the Privy Seal. The instruments which properly belong to the later Secretariat are suffi- ciently numerous and important without confusing them with parallel forms. The still larger admixture of the earliest Departmental Records with the purely Secretarial State Papers is due to circumstances which were perhaps inevitable. Here, at least, there was no pre- existing jurisdiction by which the custody of these Records could be claimed, and it was only by slow degrees that a departmental pro- cedure was evolved to supplement the functions of the Wardrobe and Household or those of individual patent offices. The reference is to the Papers relating to naval and military matters in particular, for the Records of the Treasury and Board of Trade were almost from the first under the charge of separate establishments, and we have seen that the same remark to some extent applies to the departments of the Council and the Household. ' The reference is to the well-known case of the Records of the Exchequer of Receipt appropriated by John Anstis. Cf. the list of incongruous Recortls transferred to the Paper Office in 1770 by ordei of the House of Lords, given in D. K. ixH Rtport, p. vi. 62 The Classification of Archives As for the Foreign and Colonial Papers which until quite recently have been regarded as purely Departmental Records these like the Archives of the Home Office itself formed an integral part of the State Papers down to the reign of George III. We may therefore regard certain Records which are included amongst the State Papers of the 1 6th ?ind 17th centuries as merely antecedent to the respective departmental series. Conversely we must continue to regard as State Papers those other documents which must have been detached from the main collection in modern times to form the earliest portion of the series of Foreign, Colonial and Home Office Records^ After these necessary explanations we shall be able to make rapid progress with the outline of our classification which, with certain modifications, will be found substantially the same in the earlier and later periods alike. The principles of this classification may be briefly stated as follows : three main divisions of State Papers are easily recognizable, namely Domestic, Foreign and Colonial. These again may be sub- divided according to a simple political, geographical or chronological arrangement combined with a distinction of subjects. Thus there are distinct headings for Ireland, Scotland and the Channel Islands, the English Political Papers and Entry Books being arranged in order of date under the several sovereigns' reigns, whilst the remaining Papers are arranged under subject headings. These subject headings will be found to vary according to the contents of the collection at different dates and the taste of the age in which they are framed. Such headings as " Army " and " Navy," " Trade," " Church," " Law," " Petitions," " Proclamations," and " War- rants" are however found throughout, with the inevitable "Various" and "Miscellaneous " collections. The Foreign Papers with their Entry Books are naturally arranged under countries, with separate sections for Treaties and Treaty Papers, Royal Letters and miscellaneous subjects. The business of the Plantations, apart from Trade, was not distinguished till a later date and their official administration was shared by an independent department. The plan of their arrange- ment will however be found to be the same as in the case of the preceding series. ' As the several offices of the Secretaries of State resolved themselves into the existing departments between 1782 and 1801, the fact that their Papers continued to be preserved as a matter of convenience in the general repository of the State Paper Office (wherever situated) is of no real moment. Similarly the circumstance of the erection of new Secretaryships of State in a still later period does not give those departmental collections the character of State Papers. The Classification of Archives 63 Although the earliest existing classification of the State Papers dates from the reign of James I, there are certain indications that the main principles of the scheme propounded at that time by Sir Thomas Wilson were recognized at a much earlier date. In an original inventory of the Papers remaining in the Study at " Westminster'," penned, as we have seen, in the year 1544, we meet with many of the headings with which we are so familiar in the later period, and from these we can reconstruct the same conventional scheme without much difficulty'. These titles were evidently in common use amongst the statesmen and antiquaries of the latter half of the century, and, divested of their prolix style and quaint Latinity, they have for the most part survived the vagaries of three centuries of official scholarship. Some credit must certainly be given to Sir Thomas Wilson for his expansion of the existing outline of this classification. Few new features are indeed presented by his creation of twelve divisions of State Papers embellished with pedantic Latin titles. Of these the first two are assigned to England, north and south of Tweed, and the next seven to the European States including Ireland. The tenth division, however, deals with the Mahommedan States and two new classes are devoted to Treaties and Miscellaneous. From the explanatory remarks appended to Wilson's list we obtain fresh details of the existing arrangement of the Domestic series of Papers comprised under the title of South Britain, and these with one or two exceptions can be identified with classes of Papers which are still preserved*. The headings in question are those for Law, the Church, Army, Admiralty, Council, Trade and Miscellaneous. The chief subjects of another heading " the Crown " {Regalia) stand now under Warrants, Proclamations and Petitions, but some of the other contents of this subdivision have been dispersed. The heading " Criminal," though well represented in the most recent classification, was not consistently preserved throughout the i8th century*, while Trade and the Exchange • Possibly meaning Whitehall. Cf. above, p. 31, n. 3. * Two more meagre lists are preservetl before Sir T. Wilson's Keepership. namely ft list of " Books remaining at the Court" in 1598, and a note of the books in SirT. Lake's custody at Whitehall, written between the years 1603 and 1605. Both show traces of a similar arrangement (S. P. Docti. I. 5 and 6). ' Below, Appendix v. ♦ It would seem that the Papers which Wilson and Williamson had in view under thit heading were chiefly connected with .State Trials. A well-known instance occurs in the case of the "Gunpowder Plot Papers." 64 The Classification of Archives are not distinguished during the same period because independent official establishments existed in both cases. All these headings are, however, represented in our own chronological series of Letters and Papers. Perhaps the weak*point in Wilson's classification is found in its general subordination to the official traditions of the period. We are told in fact that all but the last of the above divisions refer to the modern or Cecil collection and that the last or miscellaneous division comprised the old State Papers derived from preceding Secretaries of Stated This curious proprietary view of the State Archives will be found to underlie the whole scheme of their arrangement during the greater part of the 17th century. The next attempt at a comprehensive classification of the State Papers is that prepared by Sir Joseph Williamson about the year 1682^ This will be found to be substantially the same as the scheme propounded by Sir Thomas Wilson. Certain improvements are, however, visible, though the general plan is scarcely as effective as that of the first Keeper. Scotland and Ireland now stand next to England but are separated from the Channel Islands and Wales by the titles of the Foreign States and the principal sections of the Domestic Papers^ These last are practically the same as before, but there are new headings for the Household, Offices^ London, Usurpation (signifying the Commonwealth Committees), Commissions, Letters of Secretaries of State, and Royal Letters. The old Records of the Signet Office and Council Chamber form here a separate class. There is again a separate section for the prae-Elizabethan papers with the heading " Anglia Vetera." According to Williamson's own assertion, each of these divisions was arranged in considerable detail under appropriate sub-headings and more or less in chronological order. On the other hand we have the apparently truthful and unprejudiced report of his successor which implies that great confusion was found to prevail in the general arrange- ment of the Papers at the time of Williamson's death, and it is certainly 1 These would probably have included the Domestic and Political Papers referred to in the inventory of 1544, but we may suppose that the Foreign Papers of that date are included with the modem series. The period given for this series, 1522 — 1590, is not probably intended to include the collection of the elder Cecil, a large part of which must have descended to his son apart from the Papers seized by the Crown. ^ See below, p. 133. ^ This unintelligent order has been ignored in the outline given below. * Apparently corresponding to the later official headings of "Public Offices" and " Departmental." The Classification of Archives 65 strange that the detailed arrangement to which Williamson refers should not have been set out in a catalogue of some kind. As it was, nearly a century passed before such a catalogue was completed* and in the meantime no further classification was attempted, though it is only fair to observe that the dispersal of the collection in 1706 would have made the task a difficult one. The special facilities afforded to the commissioners appointed in 1763 for the purpose of methodizing the Records at length resulted in the preparation of a fairly detailed inventory of the State Papers, which was re-issued as an Appendix to a Report made in the year 1800*. This is in two distinct parts, following the existing location of the Papers themselves ; Part I dealing with those preserved in the Paper Office in the Cock-pit, and Part II with those preserved in the adjoining department of the so-called " Transmitter." The former of these contained the old collection of State Papers pre- served before 1706 in the gateway of Whitehall, and the latter all the Papers which had accrued since that date together with some of an earlier date subsequently transmitted or recovered. Thus the basis of the present classification was naturally enough an alphabetical one, with a chronological arrangement which would enable the respective contents of the two separate collections to be easily compared. At the same time this general plan might, with great advantage and without great difficulty, have been modified in accordance with the ancient and natural division of the State Papers into a Domestic and a Foreign section. Moreover the descriptions of the individual sources appear to be singularly unintelligent. These defects are especially noticeable in the case of the inventory of the old collection, in which a number of new headings make their appearance. The greater part of these, however, will be found to refer not to the actual State Papers but to the common-place books compiled and bequeathed by Sir Joseph Williamson. On the other hand the Papers deposited in the Transmitter's Office are classified here with greater precision, and these are divided into two distinct series of Foreign and Domestic, which were even preserved in different rooms. The Treaties are also distinguished from the Foreign Correspondence, ' John Tucker, who succeeded Williamson in 1701, stated that he had caused a catal(^e to be undertaken, but if it was completed it does not appear to have survivetl. He has left several drafts for a classification of the contents of the Office which are merely expansions of the existing scheme, with a few fanciful suggestions such as the use of letters to represent the different headings. " Report of the Commissioners on the Public Records (1800), p. 68 seq, H. S 66 The Classification of Archives and there is a further heading for " Whitehall," which is purely local and artificial. The sub-divisions of the Domestic section are, to a large extent, based on those of the 17th century classification, but some new headings occur, and the bulk of the Colonial Papers, including those connected with the East India and South Sea Companies, seem to have been preserved in this departments In the 1837 Report we find still further improvements effected as the result of the official labours of three accomplished Keepers. Several general descriptions of the contents of the Paper Offices during the i8th century have been recorded in the form of reports or plans^ ; but with the exception of a plan of the interior of the old office in the Whitehall gateway, drawn by John Tucker about the year 1705, these are of little value or interest. In fact the further we proceed, after leaving the original classification of the State Papers in the 17th century, the more unscientific and unmethodical appear the subsequent attempts in this direction until we reach the reconstructed official hand-lists of our own time. The modern official classification of the State Papers is based upon a List of the collection prepared at the office in St James' Park between the years 1848 and 1862. This List was printed as far as the year 1688, to which date the Papers were then open to inspection, and must be regarded as a great improve- ment on the inventories of the 17th and i8th centuries. Although the sub-divisions are grouped and arranged without the display of much intelligence, the natural divisions of Domestic and Foreign Papers are clearly indicated, whilst a third division has at last been made for the Plantation Papers with those relating to Traded With regard to the Domestic Papers, the political and chronological ar- rangement is still further developed, and two familiar headings appear for " Various " and " Miscellaneous " Papers, the latter containing the bulk of Sir Joseph Williamson's private collection. The Foreign Letters and Papers with their respective Entry Books ^ These headings probably refer to the correspondence of the Secretary of State's depart- ment only. The Archives of the East India Company were not annexed till 1857, and those of the South Sea Company were controlled by the Treasury. 2 S. P. Docts. Vol. II. ^ The Board of Trade papers were transferred to the State Paper Office in 1842 by order of the House of Lords, but this is no reason why they should be regarded as State Papers. The Records of the Board of Trade are arranged on a strictly departmental plan, character- ised by the use of minutes on which all the proceedings of the commissioners are based, and herein they differ widely from State Papers. They are in fact analogous to the Records of the Navy and Ordnance Boards, the departmental nature of which has been fully recognized. The inclusion of the Navy Board Records in the Calendar of Domestic State Papers has now been discontinued for this reason. The Classification of Archives 67 are arranged under the countries to which they respectively relate and a class of " Various " is formed here also for miscellaneous documents and official compilations. The contents of the Colonial series are only indicated by general headings since the Papers were in course of arrangement, and there is an apparent sub-division between the East and West Indies which was followed in the official Calendar. The early State Papers transmitted from the ancient Treasury of the Receipt are wisely distinguished as Chapter House documents, but in many instances extraneous matters have been included in the general series. This in fact is the chief defect of the whole arrangement, the several series of State Papers proper being en- cumbered by the insertion in order of date of a large number of irrelevant MSS. and printed books, some of which may have been inclosures or pieces justificatives, though others are to be regarded as casual acquisitions. Soon after the transfer of the great State Paper Office collection to the Public Record Office in the year 1862, a general rearrangement seems to have taken place, which resulted in the preparation of three printed Lists between the years 1873 and 1883. These, however, were only issued for official circulation and for the use of students frequenting the repository, although a limited number of copies are in the possession of private scholars and learned institutions. Under these circumstances a detailed description of the Lists in question is undesirable owing to the difficulty of verifi- cation. An outline of the scheme of classification employed will be found in the official Guide and will be familiar to students who have consulted these Papers during the last thirty years. It will be seen from the outline referred to that the principle of this arrangement is a proprietary one, the Papers being here regarded as the earlier portion of the respective Records of the Home, Foreign and Colonial departments. These ancient State Papers are moreover included in a general alphabetical arrangement, and in many cases have been transferred to a subject-heading or departmental section. The latest official classification of the State Papers is contained in a list published in 1894 and therefore accessible for the first time to historical students. In respect of convenient arrangement and precision this excellent production leaves little to be desired. Based upon the official List of 1873, '^^ scope is necessarily limited to the Domestic State Papers prior to the year 1782, leaving the Foreign and Colonial Records with those of the Board of Trade, and others which were originally included in the State Paper collection to be 5— a 68 'The Classification of Archives dealt with as departmental Archives. In addition to its lucidity and accuracy, this final list of the State Papers possesses the further advantage of ignoring most of the useless and irrelevant deposits with which the earlier schemes of classification were encumbered, these being now relegated to classes known as " Domestic Miscel- laneous " and " Miscellaneous State Papers." Having thus traced the evolution of the existing official classi- fication of the " State Papers Domestic " from the earliest times, it only remains for us to consider the basis of a theoretical classification of the several sources which at one time or another have been and to some extent are still regarded and referred to as " State Papers." Such a classification must clearly embrace the whole series of Papers of State in official custody between certain dates. The dates can, however, only be ascertained in virtue of a general agreement which would probably recognize the period between the beginning of the reign of Henry VHI and the year 1782 as a practicable division between the era of ministerial Records on the one side and the departmental jurisdiction of the Secretaries of State on the other. It will be necessary also to distinguish broadly between the several classes of Papers and to indicate the several sub-divisions in each class according to their subject-matter. It might also be desirable to reject certain extraneous materials and to include others which must be sought for elsewhere, but this is not a matter that can be regarded as within the scope of the present essay. If we were agreed as to the principles of such a classification, the execution of its details would be comparatively easy. It can scarcely be doubted that its main divisions should be those hitherto adopted, namely Domestic and Foreign State Papers with the addition of a third title for the Colonial Papers which had already become excrescences in the Domestic series before the creation of a new Secretariat in 1768. This ar- rangement, moreover, would not encroach upon the departmental jurisdictions of the modern offices of state, the constitutional origin of which cannot be placed earlier than 1782. It is true that the Home Office, as the virtual representative of the peculiar constitutional functions of the dual Secretariat of an earlier time, might conceivably claim a continuous procedure and nomenclature in respect of its Records. This position is, indeed, indicated by the fact that the Royal Warrant has continued to be issued by the authority of the Home Secretary whose department is still the proper depository of all Petitions and Addresses to the Crown. It is clear, however, that no proprietary title can be based The Classification of Archives 69 upon a survivorship which has not been recognized in respect of the official custody of the Foreign and Colonial Records. It may therefore be fairly assumed that the State Papers at large, previous to the year 1782, form practically a common source which may be utilised according to the requirements of historical study. Having indicated the above divisions on this assumption, the sub- division must chiefly follow a chronological sequence. Thus the inclusion of Scotland prior to 1603 amongst the State Papers Foreign is just as correct as the recognized position of Hanover in the Domestic series ; but we should perhaps hesitate to place the corre- spondence of Corsica in the latter category, though the island was for a time formally annexed to the English Crown. In any case the matter is of no moment since the State Papers relating to Corsica were long ago abstracted and now probably repose in some family collection. The instance is only given as an illustration of a reason- able procedure to be adopted in like cases. The classes of Domestic State Papers officially described as State Papers and " Addenda " contain the large collection of private or semi-official MSS. which has been brought to light in recent years'. These have been distinguished from the " Domestic Miscellaneous," a division which is largely composed of the common-place books of Sir Joseph Williamson. To some extent the " Miscellaneous " class of the Domestic, Foreign and Colonial State Papers serves to include the abnormal forms which cannot be classified with any recognized series. There are, however, certain series of State Papers in all three divisions which appear to have been arbitrarily included in the general col- lection, although from their nature they should have been originally placed either amongst the legal or with the departmental Records. Thus a large number of military and naval despatches are to be found amongst the Foreign and Colonial correspondence, leaving in many cases inconvenient gaps in the departmental collections of the War Office and Admiralty. These extraneous documents cannot of course be now excluded from any list of State Papers proper, but the existence and character of such a class may be usefully noted in a structural classification. In addition to this casual inclusion of certain Papers, others have been removed, for some cause or other, from their true position and inserted in a class to which they do not properly belong and the * Some of these, e.g. the Cely, Darrell, Stonor and Johnson Papers, have been partly . printed or described in private publications. JO The Classification of Archives existence of such delated MSS. may be indicated in the same manner, (Appendix V F.) The remaining heads in this classification require no explanation beyond the remark that although only a fragmentary collection of Legation Archives previous to the 19th century exists in official custody, this class is well represented in the Departmental Records of a later period and must therefore be included here, especially as many similar collections for the earlier period exist in private custody. {c) Departmental Records. A satisfactory classification of any collection of official documents must depend to a large extent upon an adequate knowledge of their environment. That is to say we must clearly understand both for what purposes they were prepared and to what extent they have been preserved in official custody. In the case of the legal Records and State Papers we have to do with collections that have been mainly preserved in such custody whilst their contemporary relations have been exhaustively described. The position with regard to these " Departmental Records " is, however, a widely different one. They have in many cases been transferred to the general repository burdened with numerous excrescences in the shape of Commissions and other official agencies of which the objects and procedure are now somewhat obscure. To increase the confusion caused by this obscurity, some portion or other of the official collections of ministerial correspondence has usually failed to find its way into ofificial custody. Again it must be remembered that, as in the case of the later legal Records, not all the contents of the departmental Archives are of any considerable historical interest. It is, moreover, well known that by no means the whole of the collections in official custody is avail- able for the purpose of research. Indeed it would be found that although a large and rapidly increasing proportion of these Archives has been already placed on the same footing as the legal Records and the early State Papers, no description or details of the arrange- ment of certain series has yet been published. It will be evident therefore that our knowledge of the contents of such collections, derived from various summaries printed in the Deputy Keeper's Reports or from the inventories compiled by privileged students, will be inadequate for the purpose of a proprietary classification. At the same time, however, it may not be difficult to suggest the The Classification of Archives 71 main outlines of their internal arrangement on a structural plan. In fact, in some respects, these official documents exhibit a greater regularity and consistency in point of diplomatic construction than the more important series of the State Papers. This circumstance is perhaps due to the formal constitution of the departmental Boards whose procedure was to some extent modelled upon that of the Courts of Law^ Thus we have as a characteristic feature of the departmental collections such well-defined types as Letters, Minutes and Warrants, together with a number of subsidiary and miscel- laneous forms which are not altogether unfamiliar to the student of mediaeval Diplomatic. On these lines, at any rate, we may attempt something like a comprehensive arrangement of the scattered types of Departmental Records. The main classification must necessarily be, as far as possible, a proprietary one, but the sub-divisions, at least, may follow a structural plan. Moreover this arrangement is to a considerable extent facilitated by the independent procedure of the several de- partments which can display a complete series of oflficial Records from a very early date. Besides these regular and quasi-diplomatic forms there will nevertheless be found in nearly every department other Records of a very miscellaneous nature. These may be either of internal or external origin in their relations with the department in which they are now preserved. Some have been both compiled and kept in the same oflficial custody throughout. Others have been merely deposited there by design or chance. These miscellaneous documents certainly remind us of the very similar types found in the corresponding class of the legal Records. In the latter case they have been arranged under the general subject-headings of " Pre- cedents" and "Miscellaneous." In the present instance they might be more aptly described as "Books of Reference" and "Miscellaneous," that is to say compilations prepared for the conduct of the routine business of the department together with other compilations or original documents deposited or exhibited for official information or otherwise. The Miscellaneous documents here referred to will be easily identified by the mention of such familiar specimens as intercepted ' Although a regular sequence of Records may be looked for in the case of a public Board of any importance, it will be remembered that the later departments of the .Secretaries of State for Home, Foreign and Colonial affairs continued to produce State Papers of a very similar character to the earlier series so styled. Besides these important exceptions, severmi of the mixlcrn departments have produced no Records of any historical value though they have preserved papers of great interest in the shape of deposits or returns to official enquiries. The Records of the Charity, Ecclesiastical, and Forfeited Estates Commissions are examples in point 72 The Classification of Archives letters, prize papers and the lapsed collections of the old chartered companies or expired royal commissions. The effect of a structural classification of these Departmental Records may be observed in another direction. The normal divisions indicated by the titles of the In-Letters, Minutes, Out-Letters or other proceedings are not always clearly defined. In one form or other they can, however, be distinguished in the great majority of cases. These titles then may be conveniently employed to indicate certain forms of documents which possess common characteristics in respect of their construction, whatever the nature of their subject-matter may be. On the other hand the great classes composed of " Books of Reference " and " Miscellaneous " can only be arranged according to the subject-matter of their contents. In another direction a natural grouping of the chief departments according to the nature of their official business may be easily dis- cerned. One such group will comprise the Secretaryships of State. Another, comprising the Treasury, Exchequer and Audit Ofifice, Paymaster General's Office, Customs, Inland Revenue, National Debt Office, Mint, and Woods and Forests is concerned with the national finance. The Admiralty and War Office are responsible for the national defence, whilst the royal state is maintained by the depart- ments of the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Steward and the Keeper of the Privy Purse. Modern departmental groups, constituted by royal commissions or evolved from ancient committees of the Privy Council, are charged with the care of the nation's interests in respect of trade and agriculture, local government, public works, education, and eccle- siastical or charitable endowments. That the nature of this official business should determine the form of certain Records of the indi- vidual departments is therefore not at all surprising. The large and important class of Books of Reference which forms one of the two remaining divisions of the Departmental Records is in fact largely composed of various familiar types, the form and subject-matter of which are sufficiently indicated by their titles ^ To these, however, must be added many other Records the nature of which is by no means clearly expressed by this official nomenclature^ The fact that a considerable proportion of these official compilations can thus be assigned to their appropriate subjects, or even to their respective departments from their titles alone may certainly be utilised for the purpose of a structural classification. Thus one class of Depart- 1 «.^. " Registers," "Journals," "Lists," "Returns," "Ledgers," &c. ^ e.g. " Pay- Books," " Log- Books," " Muster- Rolls," " Bill- Books," " Cash-Books," "Estimates," "Establishments," "Debentures," and many others. The Classification of Archives 73 mental Records will refer to the Pay, Pensions, Salaries, &c. of persons employed by the State, and another to their Appointments or Services. The Revenue Records form a separate group, whilst near to these come the Inventories, Prices and Surveys connected with public works and stores. At the bottom of the scale we find a certain number of common-place books, together with a great mass of semi-official correspondence. On the other hand, many of the miscellaneous Departmental Records, which are not official compilations at all, admit of no such presumptive method of classification. These, as we have seen, consist for the most part of Deposits or Exhibits relating to matters outside the routine work of the departments As in the case of similar collections amongst the legal Records and State Papers these docu- ments must constitute the most remote class of the Departmental Records. Moreover it must not be forgotten that the muniments of dissolved corporations, which form an important section of this class, are based upon the practice of the merchant's counting-house rather than upon the ancient procedure of the royal courts, and the corre- spondence preserved in the same quarter is chiefly of a private and familiar character. From the above brief examination of the theory on which the student may proceed for the purpose of a scientific classification of the Departmental Records, it will be evident that, in spite of the survival of certain regular types and a notoriously conservative procedure, the existing contents of the departmental Archives are so over-laden with adventitious forms and confused wreckage that nothing like a com- prehensive or detailed reconstruction can be attempted until the elucidation of the origin and devolution of these historical sources is accomplished. At present therefore the old proprietary classification, with its subject-headings, must suffice for the purpose of our studies. Apart from this theoretical classification, further reference must be made to an artificial arrangement which has to some extent superseded the usual method of sub-division in the case of certain departmental collections. Here the whole contents of each collection are arranged under subject-headings in alphabetical order without any indication of their relative structural nature. This device which is characteristic of the more recent collections may perhaps be ' It is true that ships' "Logs" and naval or military " Muster- Rolls" are actually vouchers required in connexion with the payment of salaries or provision of stores, and their classification as " Books of Reference " is rather due to their official use than to their actual form. It must \x. remembered, however, that the logs of merchant vessels, though not preserved in official custody before the Act of 57—58 Vic. c- 60, have always enjoyed a prescriptive authority. 74 The Classification of Archives regarded as an attempt to dispense with the primary grouping of documents as Letters, Minutes and the rest in favour of a mere alphabetical order which might be more properly regarded, like the chronological order of the documents, as a purely subsidiary arrange- ment. That this system, which presents persons, places and subjects in common with the diplomatic descriptions of the documents, is wholly unintelligent, goes without saying. Unfortunately it is to a great extent inevitable owing to the existing lettering of the several series, which dates from a period when the Isle of Wight used to be indexed under I and the Duke of Wellington under D. In such cases, however, something can be done in the direction of a scientific classification by means of cross-references. It is notorious that in every State a modern innovation bids fair to alter the general aspect of the Departmental Records of the future. Here instead of separate series of Letters, Letter-Books, Minutes, and so forth, the original or In-Letter, with all proceedings taken upon it, is preserved in the shape of a File of loose papers, classified under a serial number, and referred to by means of a Register. Herein we may observe an interesting return to the well- known practice of the mediaeval repositories as illustrated in the official " Kalendars " of the period, registration by a serial number being merely substituted for a cypher or pictorial design, and the more convenient file^ for a hamper or deer-skin pouch. The latest system of official classification, as indicated by the published " List of Admiralty Records," may be regarded as the antithesis of an alphabetical and structural classification alike. Here certain Records formerly compiled or preserved in an ancient depart- ment are officially ascribed to the modern representative of that department. Under this proprietary heading they are arranged in the following classes : In-Letters, Out-Letters, Minutes, Accounts, Registers and Miscellanea; every species of Record that is not assign- able to one or other of the first four classes being relegated to one or other of the last two classes. The above arrangement naturally simplifies the difficult task of discovering the exact official position of many subsidiary classes of these Records, whilst it must greatly facilitate their production. From a historical and archaeological point of view, however, the new system of classification naturally possesses less interest for the student. ^ The term "pouch" is curiously enough still retained in this connexion for the modern box in which departmental papers are filed (cf. D. K. 56th and following Reports s.t. "Transfers"). THE ANALYSIS OF ARCHIVES. (a) Records. It is fortunately unnecessary in the present day to demonstrate the value of the legal Records as materials for the making of History. The fact is one that has been frequently enlarged upon and its importance is a commonplace to every modern student. Indeed it is not obvious from what other source the history of the latter part of the Middle Ages could be satisfactorily compiled. For the earlier period we have, in default of Records, the familiar chronicles and treatises of which the best examples actually embody the evidence of Records and State Papers which have long since perished. But with the systematic preservation of State Archives the mediaeval chronicler falls into the background, whilst from the middle of the 14th century his very art undergoes a rapid deterioration. Probably this great change in the nature of our historical evidence mattered little so long as the conception of History itself was confined to the patriotic legends and past politics which formed the staple of the historian's craft in the later Georgian and early Victorian periods. All this was changed when the value of Economic and Local History was clearly recognized, and especially when archaeology and kindred studies could give a learned distinction to historical science. For the use to which these Records may be put is plain enough. They are contemporary legal and impartial evidence, and moreover they possess the charm of rarity and literary quaintness in addition to their unimpeachable authority. They fortify the text in the shape of footnotes and they will furnish forth a whole Appendix to clinch a weighty argument. It is not surprising therefore that the national Archives should have become the favourite prospecting ground of the historical searcher. And in truth the repository of Records is a mine of information from which the whole body of workers may take their profit. Here the lawyer, the antiquary and the archaeologist can 76 The Analysis of Archives labour side by side with the topographer, the genealogist, the biographer, the philologist, the economist and the palaeographer. Some one or other of the auxiliary branches of History will find employment also for the numismatist, the sigillographer, the statistician and the chronologist The professed historian indeed is seldom to be found in the ante-rooms of Archives but his place is taken by the specialist in the details of the institutional history of the nation, its naval and military achievements, the making of its supremacy in trade and of its colonial empire, its social and religious and its local life and intellectual progress. These specialists, we are told, are the journeymen of history whose individual labour supplies the materials for the master's art, which knows both what to use and what to neglect in this great heap of matter, what is pure metal and what is dross, and how the gold shall be refined and assayed by the tests of criticism and then made current by the impress of his genius. But there is one consideration that we must keep in view if we would work this mine to the best advantage. The source is practically inexhaustible, but it by no means follows that it will supply exhaustive materials for any given subject of historical enquiry^ There are some indeed for which it will prove wholly sterile, whilst, for many others, important materials will be found elsewhere. In the case of early Diplomatic Documents, as in that of later State Papers, the public Archives are, in fact, a secondary source. For the history of corporations and the biography of unofficial persons they would naturally be regarded as a source comparatively remote. Again a Record, even when the mere ability to read it is presumed, cannot be regarded, like a printed book, as a simple unit amongst the materials of history. Its evidence is seldom self-contained and may easily lead the student from one class of documents to another^ Moreover the subject itself cannot always be sharply distinguished and cross-references to cognate subjects must be allowed for. This, indeed, is no more than we are accustomed to find in a scientific bibliography; but there we are not hampered by a complex classifica- tion and terminology. The morphology of books, which has such interest for the bibliophile, need not distract the attention of the student. To him 1 Compilations like those by E. Edwards {Synoptical Table) and C. P. Cooper [Account of the Public Records) are now entirely superseded by the official Guide. ^ Thus the great historian of the Exchequer was ignorant of the existence of the long series of Records of the Receipt which can now be dated back to the reign of Henry II, these being deposited in a department to which he had no facilities of access. Cf. Devon, Issues of the Exchequer, Vol. i, Preface. The Analysis of Archives yy it is all one if the printed text be in folio or duodecimo, ' Gothic letter ' or ' roman letter,' so that the edition is the right one ; but in the case of the Record the distinction between a volume and a bundle, a roll and a file, a membrane and a folio, may prove of real importance. Some knowledge of these technicalities must therefore be regarded as indispensable, and to this must be added an acquaintance with the general principles which govern the official classification of Records. This, perhaps, is not a task that will present many difficulties to an intelligent student, if he regards the subject, in both cases, from a scientific point of view. On the one hand we have the legal Records arranged under the four great courts of law and several minor tribunals; on the other the various subjects of historical interest with which we are concerned. Here are the Charters, Deeds, Writs, Patents, Confirmations, Exemplifications, Privy Seals, Warrants, Inquisitions and Returns, Surveys, Extents, Rentals and Accounts, the Pleadings, Judgments, Decrees and Sentences, the Bills and Answers, Interrogatories and Depositions, Indictments, Estreats, Bails and Essoins, the Memoranda, Precedents and Miscellanea of the several courts in the actual forms of Rolls, Registers, Books, Docquets, Volumes, Bundles, Files, Bags and Boxes ; there are the names, dates, events, institutions, arts and crafts, manners and customs, health and wealth, religion and politics of the national history which may be verified or explained by the evidence of Records. It may be suggested that, for the purpose of an exact survey of these extensive sources, a scientific definition and grouping of historical subjects should first be undertaken. Unfortunately in this country at least the study of Historical Method is still in its infancy and no recognized terminology or classification is available for this purpose. Nevertheless the main features of such an arrangement can be distinguished without much difficulty. Under the heading of History proper, we should include the several departments of Political, Constitutional, Economic and Social, Ecclesiastical and Local History. Then come the "auxiliary studies " of History, including Geography, Law, Philology, Palaeography and Diplomatic, Biology and Archaeology. To one or other of these main divisions every conceivable subject of legitimate historical enquiry may presumably be relegated. The arrangement indeed is purely artificial and its value is chiefly scientific, for most of the subjects of historical enquiry with which we are really concerned have a separate and an independent position in relation to the Archives. To a student of the national Taxation, for example. 78 The Analysis of Archives this title forms a sufficient catch-word without the further consideration that the subject concerns, from a different aspect, each of the departments of History that have been indicated above. It might suffice, therefore, to consult the several sources for this subject without paying any regard to a detailed classification of the subject itself Moreover these sources could doubtless be distinguished in the well-known official Guide which furnishes us with such suggestive headings as " Exchequer," " Revenue," " Subsidies," " Accounts," " Customs and Excise," and surveys the whole subject in an admir- able article under this very heading of " Taxation." This is sufficiently plain; but we should not overlook the fact that the student of the future must be, if he is not already, a specialist, whose chosen subject, though of limited extent, would demand the closest survey of all cognate sources. Such an examination would certainly be assisted by the existence of some recognized classification of historical subjects such as has been suggested above. For whereas the hi.story of Taxation alone might be regarded as a purely con- stitutional question, it is one which concerns also in a special degree more than one of the other divisions of historical study. In each of these, which would include Economic, Ecclesiastical and Local History, valuable sources of information would occur in a particular connexion; whilst, even from the standpoint of the constitutional historian, many new subject-headings would be suggested for the purpose of supple- menting those which we might reasonably expect to find in an official catalogue. But something still remains to be done in another direction where as yet the historian is compelled to ask or feel his way through the vast labyrinth of the public Records. The preparation of a classified list of memoranda for a monograph or thesis is a task which he can probably accomplish best unaided, but to connect these subjects with their appropriate sources must put a heavy strain on his limited experience. The subjects of his choice are ready to hand, but the sources have yet to be ascertained, and to make an exhaustive scrutiny of the whole corpus some inductive method will be followed with advantage. It is here that use might be found for a scientific classification of subjects and sources in the shape of reference-forms resembling the specimen printed in an Appendix. In these tables besides the columns used to denote the structural and historical classification of the subjects and sources respectively, others serve to indicate the printed references and parallel MSS. connected with the subject as The Analysis of Archives 79 well as the reference to the official source and its diplomatic description. The form of such a table, however, could easily be modified to suit individual requirements, and indeed some such method is already extensively used by continental students. The specimen form given below was used by the present writer for the purpose of special research which has been effectually supplemented and developed by more competent workers^ But there is still another method of investigation within reach of every student who is not solely concerned with a particular subject of historical investigation. It is not too much to say that an intelligent use of lists and indexes of Records forms the most effective method of present-day research. It may be that the energy and resourcefulness of individual workers is stimulated to a large extent by the difficulties under which they labour. A mere sprinkling of printed texts of very unequal merit, a considerable but unevenly distributed series of Calendars of recognized merit, a shelf of invaluable Indexes and another of equally indispensable Lists, with the usual medley of obsolete or temporary inventories that are to be found in the Archives of every country, completes the student's equipment. Besides these he is fortified with the aes triplex of the official Guide; but it can scarcely be said that he is armed cap a pi^ for his assault upon the Records. For a long time past foreign experts have been accustomed to insist that a complete inventory of Archives, however summary, is essential for the successful pursuit of these investigations. This remote ideal has become an immediate desideratum and to this one pressing need all other considerations will everywhere be subordinated in our own time. Meanwhile much may be effected by individual enterprise. Already local historians and genealogists have begun to learn the lesson of self-help, and the official series of Record Indexes has been supplemented by many monographs, the value of which has received an official recognition. It is now the turn of the general historian to provide himself with some of those much-needed compilations which the industry of early scholars was unable to compass owing to the scattered state of the Archives of their own day. * Appendix vii. This form was used for the purpose of investigating the subject in question in connexion with an edition of the Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series, Vol. in. Preface, p. cccxv sq.), an investigation which le Cf. Fart II. H. 6 82 The Analysis of Archives ascertain the relationship of any series of Records to which we may have occasion to refer. For this purpose no possible experiment could be more instructive than the reconstruction of the actual machinery of the central and local government of this country in a given year by the arrangement and publication, in full or in part, of the contemporary Records. The business and policy of the Court, as illustrated by the documents of the Chancery or Wardrobe, the procedure of the Judicature, the system of the Exchequer, the relations with the Church, and the conditions of the agricultural and industrial communities, could be more clearly realized from such an exposition than from numerous editions of progressive excerpts. It is possible, for example, to study the fiscal .system of the mediaeval kingdom in many learned works illustrated by copious references to contemporary treatises and to Record texts without acquiring more than the most superficial knowledge of the subject. To obtain a fuller perception of the system employed during more than seven centuries, some such work of reconstruction would have to be attempted. Moreover the practice of official book-keeping has varied from one generation to another. There are of course many other points connected with the contents of the historical Records on which we could wish more light to be thrown. Some of these, however, concern the archivist rather than the student, and for the present we are dealing only with the elements of Record-searching as it may be practised by the laity. The time however may be near at hand when some immediate difficulties will have to be faced by students concerned with the study of institutional problems which still remain unsolved for lack not of ability or industry, but of that resourcefulness which is such a noticeable result of the training afforded by other countries. {b) State Papers. It will have been gathered from the preceding account of the custody and classification of the State Papers of this country that their position as a historical source is quite exceptional. The earlier series of official documents are perhaps still best known to us from a few worth- less texts and imperfect Indexes published in the dark days of Record scholarship and from the admirable Lists and Calendars prepared under a new regime. The post-mediaeval series of the legal Records, together with the modern series of Departmental Records, are however almost wholly destitute of any detailed Lists or Calendars that can The Analysis of Archives 83 be conveniently consulted by historical students^ In striking contrast to both the mediaeval and the modern series, the intervening group of " Records and Papers of State " has been almost completely described in the elaborate official Calendars above referred to. The value of this unusual assistance is still further enhanced by the circumstance that, during the era of personal monarchy, the new administrative department of the Secretaries of State supplies our chief information regarding the political and social life of the nation, superseding herein the functions of the Courts of Law whose Records henceforth become of secondary interest. It is scarcely to be wondered, then, if students of History have come to regard the State Papers as the all-important source of in- formation for the i6th and 17th centuries, and this being the case that they have also regarded the printed Calendars as the equivalent of the Papers themselves. This indeed is the process of research which is followed in almost every instance, and its convenience will be as obvious as the fact that it is not at the same time either exhaustive or conclusive. So long, however, as we are not required to look beyond the pages of the printed Calendars there will be little difficulty in supplying our needs from this single source. It would even be superfluous to suggest headings for a reference list of subject-matters which every student can compile for himself from the ample Indexes to these volumes. But the specialist who is concerned with the intricacies of some political, constitutional, or economic problem cannot afford to take matters quite so easily. Even the general historian does not accept everything that he finds in a printed text. Moreover apart from the occasional necessity for further investigation, an enquiring mind would naturally wish to know what these State Papers are, under what con- ditions they were written, received, and preserved in official custody, and what relationship each series of Papers bears to the others and to external sources. The definition of a State Paper, from an official point of view, may be gathered from the previous account of the custody and arrangement of the class, and to a considerable extent the important subject of the environment of these official documents may be studied in the same con- nexion. For practical purposes, then, the student will have to bear in mind that the State Papers of the 16th, 17th and i8th centuries will ' The few important exceptions to this statement only serve to accentuate the disparity in question, but for the present purpose of historical methwlology the official Guid* will be found all-sufficient. 6— a 84 The Analysis of Archives be found to exist in official custody in such documentary forms and in such a state of completeness as the varying conditions of their execution and preservation may have permitted. That is to say in the earliest period he will expect to meet with numerous transitional forms representing the encroachments of the new Secretariat upon the jurisdictions of the Chancery and Exchequer^ These will also indicate the active intervention of the new state-craft in such matters as local or ecclesiastical administration, commercial or industrial policy, and the technical subjects of the national health and defence. By degrees these abnormal instruments disappear or assume a purely ministerial form'', whilst the fiscal and technical business of the State is relegated to distinct departments^ Finally it will be observed, as a special feature of their official environment, that the very extent of these State Papers varies from time to time according to the facilities that may exist for their safe custody*, so that the completeness of our historical materials from this source will depend on conditions which are not apparent from the existing inventories. The method of study that is indicated by the above considerations is neither very abstruse nor very severe. Our first object must clearly be the identification of the sources and an examination of their official environment. For this purpose we should wish to know in what repositories the documents with which we are concerned have been preserved, or from what departmental collections they may have been drawn, in order that we may ascertain whether they are complete in themselves, or whether they form only a portion of certain contem- porary proceedings, the remainder of which must be sought for else- where. In short, we must first account for the whole of the existing documents, wherever they may be, carefully noting such as appear to have once existed but cannot now be traced. Then, and not till then, we shall be free to make such use of the printed Calendars or texts as our purpose may required ^ In the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods warrants or licences to pass the sea are still registered (Exch. K. R. licences to pass the sea) but from that date they appear amongst the State Papers. ^ The collection of original warrants is considerable only for the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. Before long these instruments assumed an epistolary form in the shape of departmental Orders, Instructions, &c. ^ The Admiralty, Navy Board, War OfiGce, Ordnance Office, Board of Trade, Treasury, Audit Office, Mint, Post Office, &c. in the 17th century. * See D. K. jpth Report, p. 2 1 2 sq., for instances of the non-transmission of secretarial papers into official custody and of their " embezzlement " by public officials. Cf. also below, p. 88. * A very valuable analysis of the State Papers of the early Stuart period and inter- regnum by Mrs S. C. Lomas will be found in Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, The Analysis of Archives 85 To accomplish this object we should receive much assistance from a knowledge of the environment of the documents themselves and from the classification of these and kindred types. For example a diplomatic description will enable us to ascertain from the form, date, superscription, address, and subject-matter of a certain document by what official personage it was received and in what official collection it was preserved ^ From these particulars we can further discover whether related documents exist in other official or private collections. Thus if our document is a Warrant or draft Privy Seal, we shall find its confirmation or its sequel in the Chancery or Exchequer Records ; if it relates to naval or military or other departmental matters, the records of those departments may with advantage be referred to. Again a State Paper relating to a conspiracy against the Crown might be duplicated in the Baga de Secretis^ amongst the Records of the King's Bench, or in one of the collections of Law Papers in departmentar-" or private^ custody. So too the correspondence of a long succession of ministers is supplemented by the collections that were at one time in their private possession. It will be evident therefore that the State Papers, as they are set forth in the printed Calendars, cannot for a moment be regarded as a self-contained series. If we would use them aright, we should be prepared to verify or supplement their evidence on occasion from other sources. These supplementary sources are well known to us, two, the legal and departmental Records, being official collections, and the third comprising the great external class of MSS. which are not, now, at least, in official custody. With the first of these we have already dealt, and with the second we shall have to deal hereafter, whilst the third is beyond the limits of our present survey. "But how," it might be asked, "are we to employ these sources to the best advantage?" Perhaps the simplest view of the matter would be to regard the State Papers as a special and privileged source, and subject to the limitations that have been indicated above. This is the least pre- caution that can be taken by us, and it implies the consciousness of a N. S. Vol. XVI. For other important notices see Mr Brewer's preface to Vol. i. of the Calendar of iMters and Papers, Henry VIII ; Mr Bruce's preface to the Calendar of Stale Papers Domestic, 1615 — 1616; Mr Sainshury's notices in D. K. 30/A Ke/>ort,a.nA the well- known works of Scargill-Bird, Thomas and Eassim. That this edition also takes cognizance of external sources is a fact of the deepest significance. ^ See S. R. Scargill-Bird, Guide to the Public Records, where a very valuable digest of the contents of the miscellaneous collections incorporated with the State Papers will be found. ' See ibid. s.v. Departmental Records. * To these the ' ' Exchequer Commonwealth Papers " might well be added without making the list exhaustive. * This has been well explained by Mrs Lomas in the Essay mentioned above. * e.g. the Pepysian MSS. at Cambridge, utilised with such valuable results by Dr J. R. Tanner. ^ e.g. the Blathwayt MSS. at the British Museum. " Cf. Calendars of S. P. Dom. 1689 — 1693. The Analysis of Archives 87 that the Calendar of the series for the East Indies remains in suspense pending the operations of the India Office upon the larger series of State Papers in its departmental custody^. It will be noted further that Tangier and Dunkirk have not been provided for in this distri- bution of the Colonial Calendar, but the omission has to some extent been made good by private enterprise*. These miscellaneous notices bring our examination of the State Papers down to the beginning of the i8th century, after which date printed materials fail us except for the parallel information supplied by the departmental Calendars of the Treasury and Home Office. It is however very questionable whether the continuation of Calendars of Domestic State Papers alone during the remainder of this period would be worth attempting, from the student's point of view, owing to the notorious fact that the State Archives have been depleted of a third of their contents through the deliberate appropriations of the ministers of Hanoverian kings^ The distribution of the existing State Papers in respective reigns can only serve as a rough indication of their relative bulk, since the volumes and bundles are not absolutely uniform in size. The following calculation from the published List does not include the State Papers Foreign or Colonial, nor those for Scotland or Ireland, the Borders, Channel Islands, or Hanover ; nor yet the Addenda and the Supplementary or Miscellaneous State Papers. Again the Warrant Books, Domestic Entry Books, Docquets, Passes, Petitions, Proclamations, Precedents and a number of similar Letter Books or Entry Books would have to be reckoned with. It will, however, probably be found that all these additional sources have been preserved in a corresponding ratio to the existing collection of State Papers Domestic, but the important point to remember is that these scattered sources exist for each reign. A table of this dis- tribution is given in an Appendix. * These of course were not at any time official State Papers, having been in the possession of the old East India Company till 1857. The State Papers proper for the East Indies in the Colonial series are comparatively unimportant before the year 1757. ' See Sir L. Playfair's Bibliography of Aforocco, and cf. the History of tht iHd(QtueH^s) Rfgi- ment. Vol. i. by Col. John Davis, the moni^raph on Tangier by Miss E. Kuuth, in R. Hist. Soc. Transactions, Vol. XIX., and the valuable references to Dunkirk by Pmf. Firth, ibid. Vol. xvn. There are also many references to Tangier in the Fanshawe Papers {HisloriciJ MSS. Comm. Report (1899)). ' Manuscript Calendars of the Domestic State Papers exist from the bc^nning of the reign of George I to the year 1746 (Scotland, 1760), those for the years 174} — 1746 being exceptionally full and valuable. The Domestic Pa|>ers for this period do not however appear to have been preserved on any definite system, and they contained many documents which clearly belong to the Colonial series and to distinct depnttments. 88 The Analysis of Archives The Letters and Papers of Henry VIII (in spite of the bulk of the famous Calendar) only number some 200 volumes, the Domestic Papers of Edward VI 19 volumes, and those of Mary only 14 volumes exclu- sive of Addenda. The Domestic State Papers of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, reduced as they are in bulk through the loss of the Hatfield and Lansdowne collections alone, yet number, without the Addenda, 300 volumes and cases ; those of James I over 200 volumes ; and those of Charles I considerably more than 5CXD volumes, though many of these contain miscellaneous documents and parchment Records. During the last two reigns the losses of official documents from the usual causes are comparatively slight \ but with the period of the Civil Wars and Interregnum a wholesale concealment and even destruction of Political papers must be added to the existing system of "embezzlements" The regular series of Letters and Papers between the years 1642 and 1660 shrinks to insignificant dimensions, but on the other hand the Archives are reinforced by the Day Books and Correspondence of the Commonwealth Committees, one of which alone has contributed 26 numbers. The State Papers of the Restoration period are largely swelled by naval correspondence, but in spite of the increasing losses which Sir Joseph Williamson so feelingly deplores, they make a brave show as a historical source down to the last years of the reign I Then we have a comparative blank for the reign of James II*, followed by a slight revival for that of William and Mary, thanks largely to the careful preservation of " King William's chests" But with the reign of Queen Anne the Domestic State Papers are again reduced in bulk and in political importance®, and with the accession of the House of Hanover they become of secondary interest compared 1 The history of the Cecil, Coke Conway, and Winwood collections amongst others will show that in spite of unusual vigilance on the part of the government, this official mis- demeanor could no more be put down than the prevailing official dishonesty. * e.g. the papers of Thurloe and Nicholas. Many were apparently destroyed by Brad- shaw. Amongst the others which have survived in private custody may be mentioned the Clarendon, Ormonde, Fairfax and Clarke collections. * There are 450 volumes and bundles for this reign. In 1706 the keeper of the Papers reported that there were very few Papers in the office of a later date than 1679 ; but some were afterwards, recovered and deposited in the Transmitter's Office. Still the quantity of State Papers for the last six years of the reign is relatively insignificant. The missing Papers for this and the following reign cannot by any means be accounted for in private collections, and a large number were doubtless suppressed for political reasons. * Only five volumes and bundles of State Papers are preserved for this reign. * The number of volumes, &c. is },l„ including i8 for " King William's chest." ® There are 30 volumes and bundles for this reign. The existence in private custody of the Harley Papers alone will explain the shortcomings of this collection. The Analysis of Archives 89 with the vast and systematic collections preserved in private custody' and the ever expanding scope and volume of the Departmental Records ^ {c) Departmental Records. We have already seen that considerable difficulties stand in the way of a close study of the history of the several departments of the State by means of their existing Archives. Indeed only the scantiest materials exist for that purpose, whilst no conscious traditions of an earlier official practice have been preserved by the modern departments themselves. At the outset, then, we are confronted with the fact that great changes have undoubtedly taken place in the administrative system of certain departments which have affected the whole character of their Records, without any satisfactory qicplanation of the matter being available*. In any case, however, a knowledge of the ancient departmental procedure would not enable us to ascertain all the uses to which the existing Records may be put, for the simple reason that a large number of these Records can have no connexion with the functions of the department to which they have been provisionally assigned. In short, an exhaustive analysis of the contents of these official collections cannot be attempted with any greater hope of success than attends their classification on a scientific plan until the history of the departments themselves, including the vicissitudes of their respective Archives, has been further elucidated by the modern antiquary. Such a complete survey of the Government Archives is, however, beyond the scope of the historical student's researches. A minute examination of the evidence of the more ancient departmental Records may be, and indeed has been required in connexion with official precedents, and the results of such investigations are occasion- ally published in the shape of Blue Books. There is, however, an ' It is unnecessary to mention more than the Townshend, Rutland, Newcastle, Chatham, Lansdowne and Egremont collections. ' These assume a new constitution and activity aAer the Revolution, though in tum sub- jected to many losses of Records froni the usual causes. * Thus, in the case of the Treasury, a change of practice is observwl in the years 1660, 1678, 1689 which is still involved in some obscurity. The changes consequent on the great departmental reforms of 1781 and 1833 have been referred to above. 90 The Analysis of Archives obvious distinction between the use of these Records for official or for historical purposes and the latter method only will concern us here\ Therefore no departmental compilations, Indexes or other special aids to official or privileged researches can be taken into account for the purpose of indicating the usual methods of research in these historical sources. Again it would be obviously impracticable to attempt even the briefest description of the subject-matter of the principal classes of documents in the order of the several departments. A few general principles and a few hints for the investigation of the Departmental Records at large must take the place of a detailed analysis of their contents, but the illustrations offered in support of these theories will be found to cover a wide field of research. Perhaps the most practical method of procedure will be to follow the structural order of the diplomatic forms indicated in our classi- fication of these Records, referring by way of illustration to the various subjects of departmental interest. The great class of original papers or In-Letters^ is naturally the first that engages our attention, and in this we may notice forms very similar to those which occur in the great collection of State Papers, including not merely those of a true epistolary type but others of a more purely diplomatic character, such as Petitions and Addresses, together with a number of anomalous forms. Naturally care must be taken to distinguish between the relative authority of a signed paper, a copy, and a draft respectively ; whilst it will be found that the first of these forms may be further differentiated according as a letter or paper is holograph or merely signed^ A characteristic feature of these departmental collections is seen in the numerous Entry Books, in which copies sometimes of whole series of original letters have been preserved. Finally we have once more to grapple with the problem of inclosures, missing or misplaced. These points are primarily of diplomatic interest, but they may also have an important bearing on 1 Thus the Records of the old Board of Auditors of Public Accounts include series of Minutes, Reports, Orders, Instructions, Certificates, Memorials, &e., which possess a certain diplomatic interest though probably but little historical value. ^ These are usually furnished with descriptive titles such as " Intelligence," " Intercepted Letters," " Governor's (Colonial) Despatches," " Captains' Letters," " Promiscuous Letters," " Miscellaneous Letters," &c. A parallel list of such titles will doubtless be compiled before long by some enterprising student. * The importance of such distinctions is at least as great as the exact terminological description of mediaeval instruments, and yet they are rarely preserved in printed works. A model however exists in the method employed by Messrs B. F. Stevens and Brown for the description of MSS. relating to the American Revolutionary War (cf. Hist. MSS. Com, Report on Royal Institution MSS., 1904 — 1907). The Analysis of Archives 91 the selection of these Records for the purpose of historical research as well as for that of their preservation ' and classification*. It is well known that in several series of later State Papers which are technically classified as Departmental Records, the inclosures, especially those of a bulky nature, are frequently found separated from the covering letters and they are even preserved as separate series*. In such cases the identification of the sources from which these documents were derived is sometimes material to their historical value. In other cases the inclosures will have to be sought for in various directions, a circumstance which is largely due to the prevalent custom of com- municating such documents in their original form for the information of other departments or even for the Government press^ In one respect at least the In-Letters of the departmental period may be more easily consulted and accounted for than the earlier State Papers. The well-known official practice of numbering all despatches of a regular series in consecutive order, and of affording further indications of their sequence, if not of their significance, by the use of such advertisements as " Secret," " Private," " Separate," &c. will often prove of much assistance to the observant reader*. More- over in this later period few despatches have been left to be deciphered, and the ministerial clerks who performed this useful service have also not unfrequently been at the pains to docquet important despatches with a clear and helpful precis of their contents. Although the typical In-Letter, with its inclosures, has been regarded here as a communication received by the department, it must not be forgotten that a large number of similar documents has been preserved in official custody, most of which are of the nature of deposited Records, that is to say, not addressed to the department, but acquired by accident, by the fortune of war, or by the devices of diplomacy. These therefore will be referred to under their appro- priate classification. Possibly a considerable number of such letters ' In connexion with the custody of Departmental Records it will be observed from the published Reports that these distinctions have chiefly guided the selection of a large quantity of departmental documents for destruction. * See above, p. 70 sq. * e.g. Colonial Office "Transmissions" and "Sessional Papers," Board of Trade " Maps" and " Acts," Foreign Office " Newsletters," &c. * In most cases, certainly, copies or extracts only were communicated ; but the practice was often to make use of the original. ' The loss of letters forming part of such a series can thus, as a rule, be easily detected and their identification in other collections is hereby fiicilitated. letters of a semi-official or private nature are not usually numbered. The official practice was then, as now, to distinguish the letters, when referring to them, by means of these numbers or headings. 92 The Analysis of Archives may have been originally inclosures belonging to the regular series of In-Letters, though others have clearly no connexion with that class. It will also be obvious that the official correspondence was actually represented in another aspect by a series of original Letters which were addressed by the departments to various persons. When these originals were received and retained by private individuals they no longer concern us here, their place being taken by the drafts or copies preserved in official custody. In other cases, however, these originals were received by an official person or body and thus two versions of the same document have become available^ through the concentration of the departmental Archives. Indeed it may happen, as in the case of the transmitted Archives of a foreign Legation, that both versions are now preserved in a single collection^; but in the case of Colonial despatches the custom seems to have obtained, from an early date, of regarding the government Archives as a Colonial possession. The question naturally arises as to the course which the student should pursue with regard to this choice of texts. In the event of the original despatch being preserved in duplicate or triplicate, no hesitation need be felt in discarding the secondary versions, but some preference might seem to be due to an original document over a formal copy. On the other hand the use of a bound volume which is frequently indexed is more convenient to the reader than that of loose papers, and, as the authentication of signatures is not here in question, the chief value of these resumed collections seems to lie in the occasional preservation of original inclosures, which of course were not usually copied in official Letter-Books. Closely connected with the subject of the use of these In-Letters, is that of the Registers in which their receipt was recorded and their ultimate destination indicated. The existence of a Register in some form or other might almost be presumed in the case of a modern department, but the preservation of this class of Records in official custody is somewhat erratic. It would seem indeed that no such expedient was employed in the departments of the Secretaries of ^ The textual value of the restored original of an official despatch may be considerable, especially in the case of signed letters, for at the last moment, after the act of signing, a holograph postscript might be added which would not be found in the official draft or copy. This was sometimes done to ensure secrecy. ^ The same circumstance is known to have occurred in the case of great administrative departments such as the Admiralty and War Office, the records of whose sub-departments, which were formerly distinct establishments, were brought together during the last century. A large mass of official correspondence belonging to the latter, in the shape both of In- Letters and Out-Letters, has been dispensed with in consequence of such duplication. The Analysis of Archives 93 State in early times \ though official Registers probably exist for a later period. Several perfect series of Registers have however been preserved by the departments which have been administered by a Board of Commissioners from an early date. The Admiralty in particular is distinguished for the minute and methodical registration of its papers and the " Indexes " and " Digests " of its principal departments- form one of the greatest curiosities of the modern official Archives, Moreover these monumental compilations have a special importance from the fact that they preserve the date, author- ship, and subject of correspondence which in many cases has not been preserved ^ The next stage in the official treatment of the In-Letter is marked by the departmental Minute which records the nature of its contents and the decision arrived at on the subject propounded. In this aspect the Minutes might be regarded as superseding the information contained in the Registers. But apart from the greater facility of access which the latter afford, it does not follow that every paper received was the subject of a Minute. Conversely the Minutes will be found to record many official acts which had not their origin in any previous communication, and on this account their importance would be considerable were it not for the fact that in most cases the brief indications given by the Minute are expressed at length in an appro- priate instrument. This aspect of the case is especially noticeable in a later period when the Minute assumes a cursive form as a hasty endorsement of an original paper from which the experienced clerk can nevertheless evolve a stately missive. Therefore provided that ' There were, it is true, special compilations for the purpose of indicating the nature of this original correspondence, such as Calendars (Colonial Office, Board of Trade), I'rikis Books (Foreign Office) and Journals or Indexes (Admiralty, War Office), hut these were intended for convenience of official reference only. The Privy Council Registers were prohahly regarded as sufficient for this purpose, a large proportion of the " Miscellaneous Letters and Papers" preserved amongst the State Papers addressetl to the Secretaries of State not Ijeing of a nature requiring any reply. * e.g. the Admiralty Board, Navy Board and Greenwich Hospital. The Registers of the first named department Iniing by far the most extensive series. The approximate measure- ment of one of these volumes near the end of the reign of George III is 24 inches in height hy 18 inches in depth and n inches in thickness, the weight being probably one cwt. According to the printed List, in a still later period, more than one volume of Registers exists for each year. For the use of the Treasury Registers, see Prof, Andrews's Report in the American Historical Review (1905). ' We may gather from official Reports that two of the largest scries of these Registers, those for the War Office and Ordnance correspondence, affordetl ver)- little infoniiation as to the nature of the incoming correspondence. In the several departments the place of the mcMlern series of Digests described above is taken in an earlier period by abstracts and indexes of In- Letters. 94 The Analysis of Archives the latter record can be identified with ease and certainty in its several forms of an Out-Letter, Warrant, Order, Commission or the like, nothing will be gained by a reference to the actual Minute on which such action was taken. This identification however is not always an easy task, and in one instance at least* the Minutes serve as an in- valuable key both to the immediate action taken and also to former and further correspondence on the same subject. In the two instances referred to, the Privy Council Office and the Board of Trade and Plantations, the Minutes, which exist from the 15th and 17th centuries, are styled respectively Registers and Journals. From the latter of these, especially, the origin and destination of the various letters and inclosures addressed to the Commissioners by Colonial governors or by individuals can be clearly ascertained, and the use of this means of identification has proved a revelation to the modern school of American historical students. To some extent these board Minutes serve the purpose of reference books, that is to say they indicate the particular department, especially the Privy Council itself, to which certain cases were referred for report, thus affording a means of tracing many documents which for some reason or other were not returned to the department from which they were issued. We might perhaps have expected that these official references would have been preserved in a separate series of Entry Books, but the only series of such Records which now exist are the Reference Books of the Treasury and Ordnance Office, the former of which extending from the year 1680 to 18 19 are of great value for the earlier period, as reciting the texts of documents which in many cases are no longer preserved. The Reports which ensued upon such References are somewhat better represented in the departmental Archives, an early and valuable series being preserved in the War Office Records and another in those of the Ordnance Office. In other cases, however, these Reports are not entered in Report Books proper, corresponding to the departmental Reference Books, but in special series of Entry Books. Sometimes too they are only preserved in their original form amongst the In-Letters. Amongst these may be noticed a valuable collection of Opinions of the Law Officers, of which the originals or entries will be found in the Treasury and Home Office papers, as well as in the Records of the Admiralty and other departments, although after a certain date they are prohibited as a source of ^ The Ordnance Office Minutes. The Analysis of Archives 95 information. At the same time it must be remembered that the Reports and Opinions of the Law Officers preserved in official custody do not by any means constitute the whole of the existing documents, a considerable number being preserved in public and private collections^ The In-Letter with its inclosures having been dealt with by way of Registration, Minute, Reference and Report it remains for us to consider the nature and capabilities of the several historical sources included under the head of the Out-Letter. Here we must be careful to distinguish in the first place between Entry Books and Letter Books, for the title of the former properly implies fair copies of original papers, although copies of Out-Letters are also to be found under the same title and even in the same volume. In the next place we have to distinguish between the several species of Out-Letters which the departmental Minute has brought into existence. Of these by far the most usual form is that of the official letter, traversing the In-Letter under the direction of the Minute, and giving original information or instructions so far as possible according to a common form. It has been previously intimated that the chief difficulty that is likely to be experienced in consulting this class of official Records lies in ascertaining the particular series of Letter Books to which a letter upon a given subject may have been relegated. In the earliest and simplest practice of the depart- ments a General or Common Letter Book was kept for all purposes', but before long the number of the Letter Books is found to corre- spond with the principal branches of public business^ The recognized headings under which this business was conducted can be ascer- tained from the official Guide, but the contemporary definitions of the several subjects are somewhat vague, and the system by means of which the correspondence was assigned to the respective series of Letter Books was wholly arbitrary*. A knowledge of the appropriate series can therefore only be obtained by experience, which is also needed, together with considerable self-restraint, for the successful use of the erratic indexes with which most of these early Letter Books arc * e.g. the British Museum (Stowe, Hardwicke collections) and Inns of Court. ' In later times this General Letter Book was often styled a " Domestic Book." * The titles given to the several scries are not always of a local or departmental character, such as North Britain Book, Lords' Letter Books, Secretary's Letter Books, Commander- in-Chief's Letter IkK)ks, Treasury Letter Book, &c., &c. They are frequently more or less descriptive, such as Military, Secret, &c. ■* These were prohably explained by means of a departmental key. 96 The Analysis of Archives furnished^ In fact it may be accepted as a useful maxim that the index of an average departmental Letter Book is not to be relied on, though its assistance is by no means to be despised. Bearing in mind that these epistolary forms are also to be found in so-called Entry Books of Orders, Instructions, Warrants, Com- missions and the like, mingled with those formal instruments, we may proceed to describe the characteristics of the latter sources in their turn. Curiously enough, in spite of their evident importance, a com- plete series of any one of these types is comparatively rare. Perhaps the most striking void is noticed in the case of the Warrant, although many of these instruments will be found in general Entry Books and under still more unlikely titles as in the well-known case of the War Office " Miscellany Books^." Again a large number of Warrants have been preserved in their original form, but after a careful search we must come to the conclusion that heavy losses have been sustained in this quarter**, particularly on the military side. Apart from the Secretary of State's Warrants preserved in the Home Office Records*, the most complete of the remaining series are those contained in the archives of the Treasury^ Ordnance Office®, Admiralty'' and Lord Chamberlain's Officel The exact distinction between the Warrant and the Order, or between the latter in turn and the official Out-Letter, is a diplomatic question which will be discussed elsewhere". It is sufficient to bear in mind that the Order is not found in an Order Book alone, and in fact some so-called Orders are merely extracts of Minutes^*, whilst others appear as entries made in the Report Books which record the 1 In addition to numerous omissions and unintelligent entries, subjects will frequently be found indexed under the title of the instrument, as " Warrant for," " Order for," &c., and usually all matters concerning a regiment under the name of its colonel. Naval subjects, on the other hand, are usually indexed under the name of the ship or station. ^ These, however, are only special Warrants from 1670 to 18 17 preserved as precedents and do not represent the whole issue from this department since the reign of Charles II. Some Warrants relating to military matters are entered in the Home Office Warrant Books, since that department had the nominal control of military affairs down to the year 1794. ^ For the dispersal of the secretarial Warrant Books in the 1 7th century, cf. State Paper Office Documents (Z). K. 7,0th Repoi-t, Appx. passim). * See below. Appendix v. '' From 1620 to modern times. 8 From 1642 to 1855. ^ From 1695 to 1815. ® From the 16th century to modern times, perhaps the most extensive of the departmental collections. ® See Part 11. What are generally known as Domestic Entry Books include Letters, Commissions, Orders, Instructions, Licences, Passes, &c., as well as Warrants, and the same applies to departmental Records. '" As in the case of the Ordnance Office. The Analysis of Archives 97 results of departmental references^ The further departmental in- struments mentioned above are chiefly applicable to naval, military and diplomatic business, but here again the greatest difficulty will frequently be experienced in identifying particular Instructions^ ; whilst in later times the entry of a naval or military Commission' is usually confined to a list of names and dates, being thus practically indistinguishable in form from an official Precedent Book*. The best examples of both these departmental instruments may probably be found in the Orders and Instructions of the Admiralty', and the Commission Books of the War Office*, whilst the Orders of the Ordnance and Navy Board are amongst the earliest of Departmental Records. Pursuing the order of our structural classification we come next to the largest class of the Departmental Records, the official compilations in the nature of Precedent Books, which include such forms as Statements of Accounts, Establishments, Estimates and Returns^. In these miscellaneous Records we can recognize the results of the departmental process which has already been described. The Accounts which have been submitted, or which are required to be kept in the ordinary course, are entered here in the Bill Books, Debentures, Imprests, Pay Books, Cash Books, Journals, and Ledgers dealing with every branch or stage of official business*. Many of these serve also as nominal rolls of soldiers*, sailors** or civilians" of every rank, but special sources of information for this subject exist in the shape of numerous Muster Rolls"^ and Muster Books", Victualling * Some Orders occasionally designated by the title of "Select Orders" are really Pre- cedents and these are also described in still later times as " Records." " Particularly "sealed orders" to naval commanders. In connexion with this subject reference should also be made to the War Office, Home Office, and Colonial Office Records, and even to those of the Foreign Office, so far as the last three classes are open to the public. ' e.g. the Commission Books of the War Office and Home Office and the Commission and Warrant Books of the Admiralty. * e.g. the War Office Notification Books. * From 1665 to 1815. " From 1660 to 1873. ' These are for convenience of classification and reference generally grouped together as "Registers" in the latest official arrangement. "Precedent Books," so-called, frequently contain valuable entries which are in some cases unique. * These are especially characteristic of the Archives of the Admiralty, War Office, Ordnance Office, Commissariat, Pay-master General's Office, and the Revenue departments. " e.g. War Office regimental Pay Lists and Officers' Half-pny and Pension Lists. " e.g. Admiralty ships' Pay-lxx)ks and Officers' Full-pay Registers and Half-pay Lists. " e.g. Pay-master General's and Accountant General's (Naval) Pay Ledgers. " From 1746 to modern times. " From 1670 to modern times, including Sick Lists. H. 7 98 The Analysis of Archives and Subsistence Lists^ Census^ and Service Returns^ Description Books", Registers', Entry Books®, Vouchers^ Commission Books, Succession and Notification Books^ Records of Certificates^ Appoint- ments^", Promotions, &c., together with a more formal series of Establish- ment Books" and some assistance from Exchequer Records which are no longer of a Departmental nature'^. More nearly related to the Accounts are the Estimates, Prices, Surveys of Stores and other statistical Records^^ the value of which diminishes from the middle of the 1 8th century. Following these are the Returns made or at least used for other purposes than the above, such as the Ships' Logs", Regimental Inspection Reports^', Court Martial Reports^*, &c. As for the common-place books, such as Precis Books, official Diaries, Address Books and Posting Books together with issue books of Records for official reference, these too will have their uses on occasions^^, though their chief interest is connected with topographical and purely Departmental history. The Deposited Records, which come last of all in this structural classification, may be distinguished from the preceding class not so much in respect of form or use as by the accident of their official custody. Some of these, it is true, are rather of the nature of legal Records than of State Papers, and their classification under the head of Departmental Records is doubtless due to the exigencies of a dual controP^ In course of time many of these will doubtless be transferred to their natural position amongst the Public Records, and therefore we need not concern ourselves here with such departmental sources ^ From 1 793 to modern times, including prisoners of war and convicts. '^ From 1819 to 1836, including Colonial slaves and convicts. ^ From 1800 onwards for both services chiefly by Order of Parliament. * Of soldiers and sailors from 1800 onwards. ^ Greenwich Pensioners. * Ditto, ^ e.g. of Army Agents and Contractors. ^ From 1684 onwards (War Office). ® e.g. of naval officers (Navy Board). ^" e.g. Appointment Books of the Lord Chamberlairt's Department. ^' e.g. Royal Household, Army, Custom-House, &c. ^2 The Auditors' Patent Books and Pells " Appointment Books " which serve as a key to the same. ^ e.g. for the Ordnance Office (1570 to 1855) and Navy Board (1651 to 1832). " From 1670 to modern times. ^' From 1750 to modern times. " Of the Admiralty, 1680 to 1839. Those for the War Office are not accounted for. " e.g. for the purpose of dating the despatch or receipt of an important letter. Some of these contain exact itineraries of the King's Messengers over the whole of Europe ; others show on what occasions certain Papers were consulted by the Ministers of George III. '8 i.e. by the respective departments under the charge and superintendence of the Master of the Rolls. Some of these collections are already deposited in official custody. The Analysis of Archives 99 as Ancient Deeds, Ministers' Accounts, Court Rolls, Rentals, surveys and the like^ or even with 17th century newsletters which more properly belong to the State Papers^ There are other documents of a purely personal and private nature preserved in these Departmental collections* and others again which have a legal value or interest, whilst a few so-called Records are not of a documentary nature at all. Those that will be found of chief value for historical purposes are the muniments of the several expired Commissions and dissolved Corporations together with the evidence considered in respect of various international Claims and Demands*, whilst Intercepted Letters* and Prize Papers", when detached from the In-Letters to which they were presumably annexed, are frequently of great historical interest^. In spite of the obvious advantage of an analytical method of research based upon the structural classification of the Departmental Records it will be necessary in many cases to ascertain in the first place the technical bearings of the subject before it can be assigned to its appropriate sources. Some knowledge therefore of the official environment of the departmental Archives will be necessary, and this can to a certain extent be obtained from a study of printed works of reference such as a Biographical Dictionary, an official Calendar, and a book of Dignities, to supplement the information contained in Naval and Military Histories, particularly for individual regiments. Histories of Treaties, of Trade, of the Colonies and the general political and constitutional History of the period between the Restoration and the Reform Bill. It will in fact be found that, in spite of the scarcity of special historical texts for this later period, the printed literature available is far more extensive and serviceable than is generally supposed. In many cases indeed it may be suspected that the student who is at the pains of consulting the departmental Archives to ascertain a particular fact, has not troubled to ascertain in the first place whether ' Amongst the Records of Greenwich Hospital, the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the Land Revenue Record Office. - Amongst the Records of Greenwich Hospital (Miscellanea) dating from 1681 to 1695. * e.g. Wills, Certificates, and Kflects of Soldiers and Sailors. * e.g. During the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars and the suppression of slavery, amongst the Records of the Treasury, Audit Office and Foreign Office. For details see the printed Guide. * For most departments but especially the Foreign Office and Admiralty. ' e.g. Admiralty Records, some of the most interesting of these are also found in the Foreign Office Records. ' e.g. the series of "Confidential Miscellaneous" in the Foreign Office and the "Secret Letters" of the Admiralty collection. 7—2 lOO The Analysis of Archives the information required exists in a well-known work of reference such as the Navy or Army Lists, the Sessional Papers or Biographies^ and Memoirs compiled by writers who have already placed all the original Records under requisition. At the same time after making full use of these printed sources there remains ample scope for intelligent researches to elucidate numerous historical subjects in regard of which our present information is erroneous or defective. But, as previously stated, until an adequate History of the Public Departments has been written it will not be possible for the historical student to make a satisfactory use of their Archives^ ^ These, it is well known, are very complete on the naval, military, artistic and scientific sides, but singularly incomplete for the Diplomatic and Civil Services. ^ The student should not fail to make full use of the special information on this subject in the official Guide, from which the facts contained in the preceding pages have been largely derived. THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. The Bibliography of legal Records, State Papers, and Depart- mental Records in official custody is a subject which presents considerable difficulties to the modern investigator. It has been frequently stated that the " Science of Archives " as cultivated on the Continent is practically unknown in this country^ and whatever quali- fications this statement may require it is certain that the history of the national Archives has not been exhaustively treated in any printed work of reference. In fact our knowledge of the subject is to a great extent based upon official tradition which is only fitfully preserved in a multitude of casual inventories and disconnected precedents. The study of official documents has not yet reached a literary method of expression, and it is far behind the scientific development of the Continental "Archivwesen'V' whilst such publications as exist deal almost exclusively with the Public Records of the mediaeval period*. But apart from this science of Archives, the Bibliography of official documents includes a large number of Indexes, Calendars and Texts of various forms and varying merit, whilst certain works ' Gross, Sources and Literature, pp. 56, 57, and section n; Giry, A., Manuel d* Diplomatique, p. 39; cf. H. R. Tedder, " Proposal for a Bibliography of National History" in Libr. Chron. ill. 185; F. Harrison, "A proposal for a new Historical Biblic^raphy " in Transactions of Royal Historical Society, N. S. xi. and Athenaeum, 10 Sept. 1904, P- .=549- • For the Bibliography of this subject see G. Holtzinger, Catechismus der Kegistratur and Archivkutide, p. 117; F. von Loher, Archivlehre, p. 179; von Helfert, Staailiches Arckiv- wesen, p. 31; G. Richou, Traits Pratique des Archives Publiques (1883); H. Bresslau, op. cit. I. no; E. Lelong, in Repertoire ghth-al du droit fran^ais, s.v. "Archives de I'histoire de France " ; C. A. Burkhardt, Hand- und Address- Buck (1887); Revue Inter- nationale des Archives, p. \i, 1805 — 6 ; Archivalische Zeitschrift, &c. ' e.g. those examined by the Old Record Commission (1800 — 1837). Since this was written several scholarly notices have appeared in the prefaces to the mediaeval Calendars (Rolls Series), e.g. Feudal Aids (Vol. I.), Patent Rolls (1317), and Charter Rolls (Vol. I.). I02' Bib'liogzaJ>hy of English Official Historical Documents of' research,' 'based upon original Records and embodying their contents to an appreciable extent, are deserving of at least as much attention as the historical memoir which can rank as a text. In the first place, therefore, it will be desirable to classify the printed literature relating to our national Archives, and such a classification may be suggested on the following plan: I. Introductory or Auxiliary to the Sources. {a) Guides, Handbooks (of MSS.). {b) Bibliographies. {c) Auxiliary Studies and General Works of Reference. II. " Versions " of the Sources. {a) Inventories or descriptive Catalogues (of MSS.). {b) Calendars and Abstracts of Texts. {c) Translations of Texts. {d) Facsimiles and Transcripts of Texts. (e) Texts (Collections and Single Texts). (/) Excerpts from Texts (Source Books). III. Modern Works. {a) Original Compositions (Individual, Co-operative, or Periodi- cal), actually based on printed or inedited Archives. {U) Special Compilations based upon these Sources. If we apply the above scheme of classification to the three great Judicial, Secretarial and Departmental collections of the Public Records it would be found that, although no special Bibliography is available for the mediaeval or later periods, a fairly complete knowledge of the existing printed sources for the former can be acquired from a single work\ The publication of the work referred to, which practically supersedes all previous compilations, renders any individual and partial attempt to indicate the chief characteristics of the literature of English official sources alike needless and unprofitable. Side by side with this indispensable work of reference we have the well-known and excellent official Guide to the Public Records^ in the form of a descriptive inventory which contains many references to official Lists, besides printed Calendars and texts. To bring our knowledge of the literature dealing with the early Records ^ Gross, op. cit. For the official sources of the Continental states, so far as they concern the student of English History, the well-known work of MM. Langlois and Stein already cited will be found invaluable, with special bibliographies such as M. Gabr. Monod's Bibliographic de Vhistoire de France. " A Guide to the Public Records, by S. R. Scargill-Bird (1908). Bibliography of English Official Historical Documents 103 up-to-date, we should need to consult further the periodical Catalogues of H.M. Stationery Ofifice and the announcements of recent publica- tions by learned Societies' or by the University Presses ^ together with the information contained in certain Periodicals' and other familiar sources of bibliographical information. For the subject-matter of the later legal Records and for that of the State Papers and Departmental Records we must rely solely upon these scattered bibliographical sources in default of any satis- factory compendiiini*. Even so a large proportion of our information must be derived from foreign publications, since the modern Archives are rarely consulted by English students except for professional or genealogical purposes'. Several valuable lists of documents preserved in English Archives which especially concern the history of Continental countries have been published in France, Belgium, Holland, &c. in addition to the American Guide above referred to. To these must be added col- lections like those of Delpit, Langlois and B^mont based on special ' Some of these are Metropolitan Societies, like the Royal Historical, Selden, and Pipe Roll Societies, and the Society of Antiquaries, whilst others are local and for the most part county organizations. A list (incomplete) of these with their publications will be found in the annual " Year Book " and in the Catalogues of the British Museum {Academies) and Society of Antiquaries. For Articles only, see Gomme, Index of Archaeological Papers (1891, &c.). "^ e.g. of Oxford and Cambridge, London (School of Economics), Manchester, Liverpool, &c., and of the American and Continental Universities in connexion especially with Academic theses. ' e.g. the English and American Historical Reviews, the Athenaeum, the Revue Historique, the Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Geschichtswissenschaft, the Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissen- schaft. Sec. * The older works of bibliographical reference for this subject such as Hardy's Catalogue and Edwards' Libraries are now out of date, whilst random lists of works containing texts of Records or State Papers like that printed in the 29th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records are of little value. Far more important contributions to the Bibliography of Archives will l)e found in Dr J. F. Jameson's article on the printed sources of American History, A.H.R.( 1 906), and the Presidential Address of Dr G. W. Prothero in the Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, N. S., Vol. xvil. The well-known work by Gardiner and MuUinger will be found useful for the later period, and there is a valuable sketch by Mrs L. C. Lomas of the materials for the period between 1603 and 1660 in the Transactions of the above Society, N. S. Vol. xvi. A scientific Guide to the American sources has been already planned and is in prepara- tion under the direction of Prof. Chas. Andrews, who has published an important Article on the subject in the American Historical Kevieiv (1905). ' To the periodical publicati w u X H o o ^^ c ^h V. S T^ —•^ ..■§■5:. « ^"^ -1 ^ kJ^ H g S-h o: "I .«S- 3^ u c -^ Ol 3 .S w) •5.S •5 1* S3 « U 5 Bt •5 5:-^ ^ "-a SCJu Su S c I ^ jjx)'" v. •* ^2 oo"3\'o' ■^'fT 0-2 a -3 "i! « 112 Appendix I B. Metropolitan Record Repositories^ (showing the distribution of the Records before the Public Record Office Act of 1838). Westminster, i. Treasuries^. {a) The Abbey Treasury (Wardrobe, Exchequer, King's Court). {b) The Palace Treasury (Exchequer and King's Court). ii. General Repository I The Chapter House (Abbey), iii. Repositories of the Court of Exchequer'*. (a) Exchequer of Account, including : Pipe office [Lincoln's Inn]. Lease office [Gray's Inn]. King's Remembrancer [Temple]. Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer [Temple]. Foreign Apposer [Somerset House]. Surveyor of Greenwax [Somerset House]. Auditors of the Land Revenue. Surveyor-General of Crown Lands. Auditors of the Imprest. Augmentation office. First Fruits and Tenths office [Temple]. {b) Exchequer of Receipt ^ including : Auditors. Tellers. Pells. Tally Court. ^ This list is compiled from the Reports of the Parliamentary Conmiittees and Record Commissioners in 1800, but although it may sufficiently indicate the devolution of the ancient Treasuries of Records, it is by no means complete. For further particulars see the 2nd and following Reports of the Deputy Keeper (e.g. 20th Report, Appx. p. 191). It is scarcely necessary to notice the intermediate Repositories between the Act of 1838 and the final transfer of the Records to the Repository in Fetter Lane. ^ Including the ancient treasuries within the Abbey, that of the Exchequer adjoining the Palace and the treasuries of the Common Law Courts within the Palace itself. ^ This was the virtual successor of the Abbey and Exchequer Treasuries. * The address in brackets indicates the position of the working Department where usually the bulk of its Records were also preserved. In the case of the Departments to which no such indication is appended, the Records appear to have been preserved at Westminster. From 1800 there was a tendency towards centralization in temporary reposi- tories such as Somerset House, Carlton House, &c. instead of the Inns of Court, &c. " The Records of this Court formed the bulk of those deposited in the Exchequer Treasury in later times. For details of their distribution, cf. D. K. -fth Report, Appx. ii. p. 3. Appendix I 113 (c) Exchequer of Pleas S including: Plea Office [Lincoln's Inn]. Clerk of the Errors, &c. [Sergeants' Inn, &c.]. iv. Repositories of the Court of King's Bench ^ : King's Bench " Treasury." Gustos Brevium [Temple]. King's Bench Office [Temple]. Crown Office [Temple]. V. Repositories of the Court of Common Pleas* : Common Pleas Treasury. Clerk of the Warrants, &c. [Temple]. Custos Brevium [Temple]. Chirographer's Office [Temple]. vi. Repositories of Special Courts (derived from the King's Council)* : Court of Requests. Star Chamber. Court of Wards and Liveries. vii. Repositories of Household Courts': Marshalsea [Southwark]. viii. Repositories of Honour Courts': ' The Records were chiefly deposited in Westminster Hall. * Several other departments of the King's Bench were not situated at Westminster and their Records were neither deposited nor transmitted there (see D. K. 70th Report, Appx. 191 sqq.). The Welsh Records were preserved locally till 1854 (see below, Appendix I. c). * The following departments of the Common Pleas were not situated at Westminster though their Records were chiefly deposited or transmitted there : Clerk of the Essoins [Temple]. Reversals of Outlawry Office [Temple]. Filacer [Temple]. King's Silver Office [Temple]. Alienation Office [Temple]. Return Office [Temple]. * These were akin to the Chancery in point of procedure and of much later date than the other Courts of Law at Westminster. Their position here is proljably connected with the vicinity of the palace of Whitehall. It is well known that the Decrees of the Star Chamber were last heard of in Smith field where records are occasionally found in the earlier period. The Records of the Court of the Lord President of Wales and the Marches and those of the Council of the North and of the Court of High Commission were probably destroyed during the Commonwealth. ' The Placita Aulae dating from the 13th century are the best known Records of this court (cf. Fleta, li. 14). The following departments of the Household were not situated normally at Westminster nor were their Records deposited there : Lord Chamberlain's Office [St Janies's Palace]. Lord Steward's Office [St James's Palace]. * The Records of the Duchy of Lancaster were at one time deposited at Westminster. The Records of Chester were preserved locally like other Welsh Records and those of the Duchy of Cornwall. The Palatinate of Durham was not vested in the Crown till 183J. H. 8 114 Appendix I Temple. See above Nos. iii., iv., v., and below under Rolls Chapel. Tower of London. i. Treasury (Wardrobe and Chancery) \ ii. General Repository (Early Chancery Rolls, &c.). Rolls ChapeP. i. General Repository ^ ii. Subsidiary Repositories^ including : Petty Bag Office [Rolls Yard]. Six Clerks Office [Rolls Yard]. Inrolment Office [Chancery Lane], iii. Independent Repositories ^ including : Masters in Chancery [Symonds' Inn, &c.]. Prothonotary's Office [Temple]. Hanaper Office [Chancery Lane]. Cursitor's Office [Chancery Lane]. Clerk of the Crown [Rolls Yard]. Subpoena Office [Rolls Yard]. Clerk of the Custodies [Temple]. ,, „ Dispensations [Temple]. „ „ Letters Patent [Adelphi]. Bankrupts' Patentee Office [Lincoln's Inn]. Inrolment Office in Bankruptcy [Chancery Lane]. Examiner's Office [Rolls Yard]. Register of Affidavits [Symonds' Inn]. Report Office [Chancery Lane]. Accountant General's Office [Chancery Lane]. Crown Office [Clifford's Inn]. ^ Apparently in Caesar's Tower before 1360 and after that date in the Wakefield Tower. The Ordnance Records were preserved here with those of the Great Wardrobe, but the Records of the Privy Seal Office were preserved elsewhere. The Records relating to the garrison and prisoners are still preserved in the Constable's custody, but those relating to the Liberty have been apparently dispersed. Cf. J. Bayley, History of the Totver of London, 11. Appx., War Office, Ordnance, Miscellanea, 1073, and D. K. ^oth Report, Appx., 313. ^ The Records were preserved partly in the body of the Chapel and partly in a room under the roof. Some were found in the Rolls House itself in 1717. * This was the real nucleus of the Public Record Office subsequent to the Act of 1838, the General Repositories at the Tower and Westminster being regarded as branch offices. * The departmental Records of the Chancery were chiefly preserved in private or official buildings in the neighbourhood of Chancery Lane, and in the case of the offices mentioned below the Records were regularly transmitted to the Rolls Chapel or direct to the Tower by warrant of the Master of the Rolls. * \\\ the case of other departments, mentioned below, the Records were not transmitted and an independent custody thereof was claimed by the clerks. Appendix I 115 C. Repositories of Welsh Records^ i. Chester Circuit. Chester Castle. •Montgomery. Welshpool. •Denbigh. *Wrexham. Ruthin. ii. North Wales Circuit. Caernarvon. Dolgelly. iii. Brecknock Circuit. Brecknock. Presteign. Cardiff. iv. Caermarthen Circuit. Caermarthen. Cardigan. Haverfordwest. D. Existing Repositories of Official Records. Many ancient and valuable Records continued to be preserved in depart mental repositories after the passing of the Public Record Office Act of 1838^ Of these, however, the greater part have now been deposited in the Public Record office, including the residue of the outstanding judicial Records' and ' These repositories have been practically disused except for the custody of the normal " Local Records " (see above, p. 22) since the removal of the Welsh Records to London in 1854. The repositories marked with an asterisk had been virtually abandoned before the date of that removal {^Deputy Keeper's Sth Report, Appx. i. p. 36). It should be noted that the Records were not entirely preserved in these castles, or shirehalls, or churches (as the case might lie), but were apparently preserved in part in the private dwellings of their official custodians. As in the case of Scotland or of Ireland (above, p. ai) certain native Records were doubtless conveyed to London during the English occupation. The Records of the "Council of Wales" formerly preserved at Ludlow have now disappeared (C. A. J. Skeel, The Coumil in the Marches of Wales, p. viisqq.); but even in the reign of Queen Elizal)eth they seem to have been carelessly preserved (5. P. Dom. Eliz. Appx. xxvii. 95). The names of the patentees holding the office of clerk of the Council of Wales and the Marches after the Restoration will lie found in the Signet Office Docquet Book, April 1661, a clue which might lie followed up with advantiige. The English Records relating to Wales form part of the general series of Public Records, and others may be found in the Land Revenue collection recently transferred to the Public Record Office. There are also originals or transcripts in private collections and diplomatic correspondence in foreign Archives ; cf, E. Owen, Catalogue of MSS. relating to Wales in the British Museum. » Cf. D. K. ii.th Report, p. xxi. ' The outstanding Records of the Chancery, the Courts of King's Bench, Common Pleas and Exchecjucr, and the Admiralty and Prolwte Registries, together with se regarded as amenable to the above rule their acts were chiefly administrative. Moreover, a special custodian was ultimately appointed in this case (Gustos Rotulorum), and possibly such local appointments were made as early as the reign of Henry III. For these local judicial records, cf. Report of the Committee on Local Records, p. 7, and Athencuum, 5 Oct. 190J. Their historical value has been amply proved by the contemporary researches of Mr and Mrs Sidney Webb. 1 1 8 Appendix I Duchy of Lancaster^ Duchy of Cornwall'. Palatinate of Ely^ F. Chronology of the Custody of Official Records. [1086 — 1 189]. Royal Treasury at Winchester containing Records^ [1154] — 1854. Royal Treasury at Westminster containing Records*. [11 77] — 1230. Notices of Records in official custody^ 1 185 — 1291. Treasury in the Temple Church containing Treasure and Records*. 1200 — 1305. Tower of London used as a Treasury and Wardrobe''. 1305 — 13 1 8. Tower of London used as a Treasury of Records ^ 1232. Foundation of the Rolls House and ChapeP. 1286 — 1377. Offices of Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the House of Converts usually held together^". 1377' The above offices united, including the Keepership of the Tower Records". 1483 — 1603. The offices of Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the Tower Records distinguished ^l 1320. Royal precept for the arrangement of the Records in the Treasuries of Westminster and the Tower of London ^^ 1322. Commission to arrange the Records at Pontefract, Tutbury, and in the Tower of London and House of the Friars Preachers '^ 1322. Commission to Walter de Stapeldon to arrange the Records in the Treasury and elsewhere^". '^2i'^Z — 1325- Ordinances of the Exchequer referring to the Records'". [1360 — 1362]. Transfer of the Chancery Records from the White Tower tc^he Wakefield Tower''', ^ Some Records not yet transferred. For an early notice of Records at Clitheroe Castle, see Chanc. Inq. P. M. 4 Ed. II. No. 51. Records of the honour of " Knarsboro" were transferred in 1900. Nothing is known as to the fate of the Stannary Court Records at Bodmin after the transfer of its jurisdiction to the County Court at Truro. * A large collection of Records, included under the Act of 1838, not transferred to the Public Record Office. * J. H. Round in Antiquary, June— July, 1887. "• Hall, Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 11 sqq. ® Dialogus de Scaccario, I. xiv. Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls), p. xxi sqq. ® Hall, Receipt Roll of the Exchequer (31 Henry II), p. vi. Close Roll 20 Ed. I, m. i^d. '' Above, p. 18 sq. ^ Ibid. * W. J. Hardy in Midds. N. and Q. il. 47 sq. D. K. ^^th Report. '0 Ibid. pp. 55, 56. D. K. nth Report. " Pat. 51 Ed. HI, m. 20. ^^ Edwards' Hist, of Libraries, p. 229. Camden Miscellany, X. vii. '' Record Commission, Papers and Documents, p. 413. ^* Ibid. ^' Palgrave, Kalendars and Inventories, Vol. I. p. r. '* Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls), pp. 848 — 969. " Close Roll 34 Ed. Ill, Pt. I, m. 15 and 33 ; cf. 36 Ed. Ill, m. 25. Appendix I 119 1372. Petition of the Commons for access to the Records'. [1565— 157 1]. [Petition of the Judges to the Crown for the better preservation of the Records at Westminster]-. 1603. Office of Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery in the Tower subordinated to that of the Master of the Rolls I 16 10. Agarde's Compendium completed ^ 1617. Scheme for a " General Record Office"." 1662. Prynne's Report on the Tower Records®. 1693 — 17 17. Publication of Rymer's Foedera. 1703 — 1728. House of Lords' Reports on the Public Records^ 1 73 1. Act for Records to be written in English only*. 1732. Report of the House of Commons on the Public Records'. 1764 — 1800. Commission for " methodizing" the Public Records'". 1783. Publication of Domesday Book. 1772. Report of the House of Commons on the Public Records". 1772 — 1832. Occasional removals of Records for greater safety'-'. 1788 — 1793. Reports of House of Commons on Approaches to Westminster Hall". 1800 — 1837. "Reports and Publications of the Commissioners of Public Records". 1836. Report of House of Commons on the above Commission". 1838. Public Record Office Act'". 1838 — 1854. Provisional accommodation for and supervision of Public Records under above Act'^. 1840. House of Lords' Committee to enquire into the sale and destruction of Exchequer Records. 1852. Order in Council (5 Mar.) for the supervision of Public Records by the Master of the Rolls. 1852. Amalgamation of the State Paper and Public Record Offices. ' Kqt. Pari. n. 314. * For this traditional representation, cf. Ayloffe's Calendars, xxviii. * Camden Miscellany, x. vii. ♦ Ed. Powell, Rtpertorie of Records (1631). » 5". P. Dom. Chas. I, cxlviii. 57. ' S. P. Dom. Chas. II, Ixvi. 154 and Brevia Parliamentaria (epist. dedicat.). ' The State of the Public Records of the Kingdom (Lond. 172-}), Lords^ Journals, 1703 — 17^8. » Pari. Hist. viii. 861. » H. C. Reports, Vol. I. p. 508. "> Above, p. 41. " Commons Journals, xxxili. 775. " H. C. Reports, passim ; Commons Journals, xxxlll. 791. " Commons Journals, XLViii. 848. ** Commissions were issuetl in the years 1800, 1806, 1817, i8ii, 1815 and 1831. In addition to the Annual Reports, detailed Reports were issued in 1800, 1803, 1813, 1819 and 1837. " Pari. Papers, 1836, Vol. xvi. " i & a Vic. c. 94. " D. K. Reports, s. a. 120 Appendix I 1854. Completion of the Public Record Office Repository. 1854 — 1862. Transmissions of Records and State Papers from other Re- positories ^ 1862 — 1908. Transmissions of Departmental Records ^ 1840 — 1857. Calendars of State Papers instituted by Mr Hobhouse. 1857. Rolls Series of "Chronicles and Memorials" instituted by Lord Romilly. 1873 — 1879. Judicature Acts remodelling the procedure and Records of the Courts of Justice. 1877 — 1898. Public Record Office Acts for the disposal of valueless docu- ments ^ 1892. New Series of Record Calendars instituted by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte. 1895 — 1900. The Rolls House and Chapel pulled down and the new frontage of the Public Record Office erected on their site*. 1902. Report of Treasury Committee on Local Records^ 1 D. K. Reports, s. a. ^ Ibid. ^ 40 & 41 Vic. c. 55, amended by 61 & 62 Vic. c. 12. * D. K. iith Report. * Sess. Papers C. d. 1335. APPENDIX II. Chronology of the Custody of the State Papers. 1536. Act defining the precincts of the Palace of Westminster (28 Hen. VIII, c. 12). 1544. Entries of the receipt of State Papers cease to be made in the records of the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer. [1545]. Inventory [by William Honnyng] of State Papers in the "Study" at Westminster. 1578 — 1603. Traditional establishment of a State Paper Office at Whitehall, and appointment of Dr Thomas Wilson and Dr James successively as Keepers of the Papers of State. 1603. Grant of an Annuity of ;^5o to Sir Thomas Lake in consideration of his custody of the Papers of State. 1 6 10. Grant of the Office of Keeper of the Papers of State to Levinus Munck and Thomas Wilson. 1 614. Further grant of the same office to Thomas Wilson and Ambrose Randolph. 1614 — 1618. Construction of a repository for the State Papers at Whitehall. 1619. Destruction of certain Papers by a fire at Whitehall. 16 19. Removal of the State Papers to the Whitehall Gateway. 1629. Grant of the Office of Keeper to Ambrose Randolph, on the death of Sir Thomas Wilson. 1 66 1. Grant of the Office of Keeper to Sir Joseph Williamson. 1702. Grant of the Office of Keeper to John Tucker. 1706. John Tucker's Report on the condition of the Papers in the custody of Sir Joseph Williamson. 1706. Removal of the earlier State Papers to the "Cock-pit " in Whitehall. 1725 — 1800. Appointment of Collectors and Transmitters of the Papers. 1756 — 1764. Removal of the Whitehall Gateway and discovery of old Papers there. 1764 — 1800. Appointment of Methodizers of the Papers and Records. 1 786. The Collector and Transmitter's office removed to Scotland Yard. 122 Appendix II 1792. Appointment of John Bruce as Keeper. 1800. First Report of the Record Commissioners and re-organization of the State Paper Office. 181 9. Removal of the Transmitter's Papers from Scotland Yard to Great George Street. 1825 — 1852. State Paper Commission (Publications of the). 1833. A new Paper Office built in St James's Park. 1848— 1852. The Paper Office constituted a "Branch State Paper Office" under the superintendence of the Master of the Rolls. 1862. Removal of the State Papers to the Public Record Office. 1894— 1908. Re-arrangement of the State Papers (Domestic, Foreign and Colonial) and publication of revised Lists under the supervision of Sir Henry Maxwell Lyte. APPENDIX III. A. List of Public Departments whose Historical Records (includ- ing THOSE OF Abolished Offices under their jurisdiction) have been mainly transferred to the Public Record Office^ Admiralty. 1. Secretary's Department*. 2. Accountant General's Department': Navy Board, Treasurer's Office, Bill Office, Imprest Office, Comptroller's Office, Ticket Office, Allotment Branch. 3. Surveyor's Department*. Victualling Department*. Storekeeper-General's Office*. Transport Department'. Medical Department*. Greenwich Hospital (and Chatham Chest). Royal Marine Office*. ^ The information contained in this list is derived chiefly from the early Reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records with some additional information gleaned from official Handbooks, Parliamentary Papers, Archaeological works and other printed sources. It should however be supplemented by the Official Lists which may be consulted by students within certain limits at the Archives. Legal records such as those of the Privy Seal and Signet Offices are not included in this list, which also omits several departmental collections of small historical interest (cf. above, p. 70). ' Including the Hydrographer's Office which was also concerned with Lc^. ' Established in 1833 to supersede the old departments of the Comptroller and Treasurer known respectively as the Navy Office and Navy Pay Office, including the several branches concerned with Tickets, Wages, Imprests, Bills, Allotments, Wills, &c. * Associated with the Navy Office as an administrative department in dbtinction to the Navy Pay Office. ' These offices were administered by distinct Boards. The Medical Department, formerly the Sick and Hurt Board, was administered later by the Transport Board, and then by a Physician General. The first Transport Board was constituted in 1690 under an Order in Council. The Commissioners acted under a Patent from 17 10 to 1714, when the Board was dissolved and its business conducted by the Navy Board, Victualling Board and Ordnance. It was re-established in 1795 and took over the management of Prisoners of War and of the Sick and Hurt during the Napoleonic wars. With the exception of one or two volumes none of the Records of the old Board (1690 — 1714) appear to have survived. ' Including the Records of the central office in distinction to the divisional headquarters. 124 Appendix III Agriculture, Board oP. Ordnance, Survey Records. Audit Office (Exchequer and Audit Ofifice), Exchequer of Receipt (1834 — 1867). Commissioners for Auditing Public Accounts. Colonial Audit Ofifice. Comptrollers of Army Accounts (171 1 — 1834). Chamberlain (Lord), see Household (Royal). Charity Commission ^ Old Charity Commission. Colonial Office, see Secretaries of State. Customs, Board of*. Foreign Office, see Secretaries of State. Home Office, see Secretaries of State. National Debt Office. Life Annuity Records. Tontine Records. Slave Compensation Claims. Paymaster-General's Office. Paymaster-general of the Forces. Paymasters of the Civil List. Treasurers of the Navy, Ordnance and Chelsea, &c. (after 1836). Hospital, ^ The Ordnance Survey Returns, and Correspondence form an integral part of the old Board of Ordnance Records, but for departmental purposes they appear to belong to the modern Board of Agriculture. This department has also the official custody of the Tithe Maps, formerly belonging to the old Tithe Office, but it has none of the ancient and im- portant Records of the old Board of Agriculture, some of which have been printed. "^ The Records of the old Charity Commission were removed in 184 1 to the Rolls Chapel by order of the Treasury and Home Office, but documents of a legal nature will be found among the Chancery Records. The Records of the existing Commission are of comparatively modern date. .Some of these appear to have been transmitted with the Records of the Treasury Solicitor. * It appears from the early Reports of the Deputy Keeper (7M Rep. p. 4 and idth Rep. p. xix) that several interdepartmental transfers of Records took place between the Treasury and the Customs previous to the final removal of these Records to the Rolls House. It is related that a large number of the Records perished in the fire of 1814. It is at least certain that the existing series is very incomplete so far as it has been transmitted to the Public Record Office. Appendix III 125 Royal Household. 1. Lord Chamberlain's Department*: Wardrobe ^ Jewel Office I 2. Lord Steward's Department*: Board of Green Cloth'. Privy Purse*. Secretaries of State. 1. Home Department'^: [Post Office]. Alien Office. Expired Commissions*. Irish Department. 2. Foreign Office : Slave Trade Commission. American Claims (1794)*. Levant Company. King's Messengers*". 3. Colonial Department : Board of Trade". Board of Control*^. Expired Commissions". ' Records transferred from St James's Palace and the office of the Examiner of Plays. Most of the early Records were probably destroyed by the fire in Whitehall in 1691. * Abolished 1782. * Now a department of the Tower of London. * Records transferred from Buckingham Palace. * Records for the most part missing. Some purchased by the Bodleian Library. ' Modern Addresses to the Crown. An earlier series was preserved in the State Paper Office. ' In addition to the State Papers Domestic and Privy Signet Office described elsewhere, this department has, by virtue of its constitutional position, acquired important Records in connexion with military and naval affairs. Justice, Police, the Church, &c. Some of which supply gaps in other departmental Records. ' Most of these are of modern date. For particulars, see the official Guide (md ed. p. 94, and 3rd ed. p. 392). * This series was deposited in the State Paper Office. The main series are amongst the Treasury and Audit Office Records. *" A series of valuable records presented to the Public Record Office by the executors of the late Sir K. Hertslet. ** i.e. the Records of the Old Board abolished in 1781. These have been officially regarded as dependent on the Colonial Office owing to the preponderance of Papers con- cerning the Plantations. An early series of Entry Books from 1696 were, however, retained amongst the Records of the Board of Trade as forming part of a continuous series of documents relating to trade generally in distinction to the trade with the Plantations. These have recently been transferred to the Colonial Office Recortls. " i.e. East India correspondence from the State Paper Office. The main series is in the India Office. There are many original papers or copies amongst the Treasury Records. " e.g. Land and Emigration Board (1835 — 1894). 126 Appendix III Board of Traded Treasury-. Expired Commissions- The Commissary General's Office ^ Treasury Solicitor's Departments War Office^ Secretary at War's Department. Board of Ordnance®. Board of General Officers'^. Army Medical Board*. Inspector-General of Fortifications*. Adjutant General's Department^". Quarter-Master General's Department. Royal Military Academy. Royal Military College. Foreign Department". Office of Works^l ^ i.e. The modern department established in 1784. Certain ancient Exchequer docu- ments from the Standards Department of the Board and the enrolled Specifications of Patents from the Patent Office are preserved amongst the legal Records. * Records belonging to the jurisdiction of nearly every department are found amongst the Treasury Records, together with the Records of a large number of expired Commissions, for a list and description of which reference may again be made to the official Guide (see above, p. 99, n. 4). The departments chiefly concerned will probably be found to be the Foreign Office, Colonial Office, Exchequer and Audit Office, Inland Revenue, Customs, and India Office (Board of Control). The history of the early custody of these Records will be found in the Reports of the Deputy Keeper. The historical value of this class of Records is very considerable. ^ i.e. the earlier Records of this department which was administered by the Treasury after 1816. The Irish Commissariat Office Records were transferred to Dublin in 1854. Presumably the modern departmental interest in these Records lies with the War Office. * Many of these were transferred from an Office in the Temple. ^ This department has not been counted amongst those of the Secretaries of State as the jurisdiction of the Secretaries of State herein, previous to 1854, was purely formal. After various vicissitudes the bulk of the War Office Records in the several departments »were brought together in the depot at 6, Whitehall Yard, whence they were transferred to the Rolls Yard in 1855.' Some Records apparently are still preserved at Chelsea Hospital and notices of Records preserved elsewhere have been occasionally published. " Merged in the War Office after 1855. ^ Better known as the Clothing Board at Whitehall. A large part of its invaluable records was probably destroyed by fire in 1816. * For the almost incredible narrative of the wanton destruction of its Records, see Deputy Keepei's %t/i Report, Appx. i. p. 2 sqq. * Succeeded to the custody of the Records of the old Ordnance Drawing Office. ^^ Better known as the Commander-in-Chief's Office. ^^ Concerned with the Foreign Corps between 1793 and 181 5. '* Recently transferred. Some earlier Records are amongst the Exchequer and Treasury Records. Appendix III 127 Office of Woods and Forests and Crown Revenues^ B. List of Public Departments whose early Historical Records HAVE not yet been TRANSFERRED TO THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE OR ONLY PARTIALLY TRANSFERRED ^ i. Records not yet transferred : India Office'. House of Lords*. House of Commons. The Mint'. The Post Office*. Board of Agriculture''. Stationery Office. ii. Records partially transferred : Board of Trade*. Colonial Office*. War Office'". ' Exclusive of the Records of the Court of Surveyor General, the Treasury and the Land Revenue Record Office. The extent of the transfers is not indicated in the printed Reports. * The information given in this list is derived from the Deputy Keeper's Reports, official handlxKjks, Calendars and Blue Books and other printed information. It cannot therefore be regarded as either authoritative or exhaustive ; but some such compilation was necessary in order to explain obvious omissions in the preceding list and to save historical students the p)ains of fruitless search or enquiry. It is a striking fact that less than ten years ago the number of outstanding departments and the bulk of Records still untransferred would have doubled the dimensions of the present list. * How far the imperative conditions of the Act of 1838 and the Order in Council of 1852 apply to the Indian Government is a constitutional question which need not lie discussed here. Records relating to Indian affairs have been transferred to the national Archives from other departments (Colonial Office and Treasury). * Certain Records have been inevitably transferred to the Public Record Office, but the characteristic Records of the legislature are still retained. * Exclusive of the ancient legal Records of the Exchequer. ' Supplementary to the Home Office series. ' Tithe Maps, &c. * Records of the General Registry of Merchant Seamen retransferred from the Public Record Office. * Some Out-Letters retained. '" The Records of the Judge Advocate General's department have not l)een transferred. The office was situated at 35 (ireat (Jeorge .Street from 1838 to 1893. The Recortls of the Medical Department are also with one or two exceptions not preservetl in the Public Record Office. In 1831 these were at Nos. 4 and 5 Berkcly St. It is well known amongst militar>' historians that many regimental records are preserved in local dci)uts. 128 Appendix III Admiralty \ Foreign Office ^ Privy Council Office ^ ^ Presumably any Records that are still preserved at the out-ports or retained for official reference. ^ Certain Legation Archives. Those already transferred are noted in the later Reports of the Deputy Keeper. * The Registers down to the end of the i6th century have been transferred to the Public Record Office. The later Registers and many original papers remain at Whitehall. APPENDIX IV. A. Outline of the Existing or Proprietary Classification of the Records in the Custody of the Master of the Rolls ^ I. Records of the Superior Courts of Law : i. Chancery. ii. King's Bench* (Crown Side and Plea Side), iii. Common Pleas, iv. Exchequer ^ (a) Exchequer of Pleas. {i>) King's Remembrancer's Office. (c) Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer's Office*. (». {b) Domestic Various". {c) Ireland (Letters and Papers, Entry Books and Miscellaneous Documents). {d) Miscellaneous, including : 1. Original documents (Papers and Records"). 2. Transcripts and compilations*'. 1 These titles are still preserved. ' Probably devised by Mr Charles Lechmere. * Including Treaty Papers (under "T.") and with many miscellaneous documents and printed treatises, &c., interspersed. * Some much earlier now included in " Ancient Correspondence," &c. ' i.e. the Foreign Entry Books, Secretary's Letter Books, &c. ' In-Letters from Royalties. "* Entry Books of Diplomatic Instruments and Precedents and Out-Letters to Royalties, also termed " King's Letters." The Letter Books were subdivided as relating to Northern and Southern Departments respectively. ' With keys. * This division corresponded roughly with the Domestic Miscellaneous (below) and contained rough letter Iwoks, precedents and deposits. >' Including a large number of subsidiary documents and deposits, such as original instruments br drafts (Letters Patent, Privy Seals, Warrants, &c.), Docquets, Proclamations, Passes, Certificates, Petitions, Precedents, Treatises, Musters, Exchequer Papers and Depart- mental Papers (Navy, &c.). " Including a continuous scries of Warrants, Docquets, Law-Pap«rs, Caveats, Letter Books, &c. " A few only. *' Chiefly of or from early Records. 1^6 Appendix V 3. Printed Treatises, &c. 4. Supplementary Instruments (Petitions, Warrant Books ^ &c.). 5. Supplementary Papers (Tangier^ Navy Papers). 6. Chapter House Papers". iii. Colonial*. (a) Correspondence and Entry Books in alphabetical order of the Colonies and in chronological order (1605 — 1688). {b) Plantations General. {c) Journals®. {d) East Indies (original correspondence and Entry Books) I F. Outline of the Departmental Classification of the State Papers, 1873 — 1889^ i. Home Office Records^. 1. Letters and Papers (Domestic) from 1689^" [to 1830]. 2. Entry Books and Letter Books (Domestic)". 3. Miscellaneous Papers and Books^'^, &c. 4. Departmental Papers and Entry Books. Arranged in alphabetical order of Countries, Departments, Subjects and Instruments indiscriminately^*. 1 Scottish. ^ Afterwards transferred to Colonial Papers. 3 Lisle and other collections. * This arrangement was only provisional as these Papers were not yet arranged. * A heading still retained. * i.e. Minutes of the Board of Trade and Plantations. ^ Exclusive of the East India Company's Records. 8 This classification obtained from about the year 1870 till the publication of the Lists of State Papers Domestic (1894), Foreign (1904), and Colonial (1908), and was the result of an artificial arrangement of the State Papers subsequent to their transfer to the Public Record Office. As previously stated (p. 67) the Lists of Home Office, Foreign Office and Colonial Office " Records," containing the results of this rearrangement, have been printed for the use of the Public and for private circulation only. Although details of these Lists have been frequently published both in this country and abroad, it has not seemed desirable or necessary to reproduce them here. The outline given here is based on the classification employed in the admirable List published under the supervision of the present Deputy Keeper in 1894. An outline will be found also in the official Guide (2nd ed.). * These include many documents of later date than 1782, and therefore of a departmental character only. ^" This list was evidently intended as a continuation of the old State Paper Office List as far as the actual State Papers Domestic were concerned. The old regional divisions are continued with the addition of the Channel Islands, Regencies, &c. In the case of Scotland and Ireland, however, the whole series was included. Throughout many irrelevant docu- ments are mixed with the Papers. " Including, besides correspondence, formal instruments such as. Warrants, Passes, Licences, Petitions, Caveats, Commissions, Docquets, &c. '* e.g. Circulars, Precedents, Records, Acts, Treatises, Newspapers, &c. 1' These early departmental papers are properly State Papers. On the other hand Navy Board Papers, mixed with the State Papers before 1673 are really departmental. Appendix V 137 ii. Foreign Office Records (1883 — 1894). 1. Correspondence with English ambassadors, consuls and agents and with foreign ministers, including In-Letters, Out-Letters and miscellaneous documents, arranged in alphabetical order of countries mixed with special subject-headings ^ 2. Ciphers'*. 3. Intercepted letters' ("Confidential Miscellaneous"). 4. Foreign Various*. 5. Royal Letters'. 6. Treaty Papers*. 7. Treaties'. iii. Colonial Office Records (1876 — 1907)'. 1. Colonial Papers and Entry Books®. 2. "America and West Indies" (Papers and Entry Books)*". 3. Board of Trade (Papers and Entry Books)". 4. Colonial Correspondence ***. 5. Colonial Transmissions". 6. Acts, Minutes of Council, Journals of Assembly". 7. Miscellaneous*". The above arranged in alphabetical and chronological order". * e.g. Great Britain, General, King's Letters, Foreign Entry Books, Letters to Public Offices, Military Expeditions, Levant Company, &c. ' With deciphers. ' In foreign languages chiefly (1726 — 1765). Many others are at the British Museum. * Drafts, duplicates, inclosures, Treatises, Precis and Compilations. A few Archives are included here as well as amongst the Correspondence. ' Letters of ceremony from foreign princes. * 1668 — 1848 (a convenient subdivision). ^ Protocols and Ratifications, i.e. original documents. * See the description of the American Series by Prof. C. M. Andrews, in A. H. R. («905)- » Previous to 1688. '" Matters concerning the Secretary of State's department as opposed to the regulation of Trade and Colonial administration by the Board of Trade and Plantations, with some miscellaneous papers. " Matters concerning the latter department, with an admixture of such subject-headings as Navy, &c., between 1689 and 1782. " Governors' despatches. " Bulky inclosures, chiefly. '* Inclosed in ofllicial despatches for approval. '* Chiefly departmental papers after 1782. " These headings are those for the period 1574 — 1781 only. The later titles include departmental Records not yet open to the public, and therefore cannot Ije referred to here. 138 Appendix V G. A Structural Classification of the State Papers \ I. Letters and Papers, distinguished as In-Letters (Received), and Out- Letters (Issued) ^ i. In-Letters, distinguished by : (a) Form (Apographs, Holographs, Signed Letters, Entries, &c.). {b) Environment^ (Inclosures, Intercepted, Duphcate, Secret, Private, Confidential, Separate, Official, &c.). {c) Subject (Royal Letters, Intelligence, Newsletters, References, Reports, Petitions, Memorials, Addresses, Domestic, Foreign, Council, Admiralty, &c.). ii. Out-Letters, distinguished by : (a) Form (Drafts, Entry Books ^, Letter Books, &c.). (b) Environment (King's, Secretaries', Regencies, Domestic, Foreign, North, South, Whitehall). if) Subject (Criminal, Military, Church, &c.). II. Instruments (Secretarial). i. Originals or Drafts of Warrants, &c. ii. Entries* of Warrants, Commissions, Instructions, Caveats, &c. III. Miscellaneous, including many documents, now mixed with I. above, as : Instruments, Maps, Ciphers, Records, Accounts, Archives, Precedents, Printed Matter, &c. H. Heads of a Proprietary Classification of the State Papers ^ Series I. State Papers Domestic^. i. Letters and Papers, arranged according to : (a) Regions'', in chronological order. {b) Departmental business, in alphabetical and chronological order®. 1 Regarded as "Records and Papers of State"; including State Papers Domestic and Foreign 1509 to 1782, and Colonial 1574 to 1782. * Most of these are existing or recent sub-headings. ' i.e. by the circumstances of their authorship, custody, transmission, &c. ^ Entry Books are of the three following types (a) Copies of In-Letters for preservation or reference, (b) Copies of Out- Letters (Letter Books), (t) Enrolments of formal instruments, such as Warrants, Signet Letters, Passes, Caveats, &c. ' Based on the preceding classification but distinguishing the proprietary interest of the modern departments of State. ® Including Scotland, Borders, Ireland, Channel Islands and Regencies with England and Wales. ^ As in the preceding note. * Giving such subject-headings as Military, Naval, Law Papers, Grants, &c. Appendix V 139 ii. Entry Books and Letter Books for : (a) Entries of In- Letters ^ {b) Instruments-. {c) Out-Letters^ iii. Miscellaneous*. Series II. State Papers Foreign. i. Letters and Papers, arranged in alphabetical order of countries under "Northern" and "Southern" Departments', and distinguished as: (a) Diplomatic Correspondence (" Foreign " and " Domestic ")". {b) Special Subjects'" (Treaties, Treaty Papers, Royal Letters, Newsletters, "General"). ii. Entry Books and Letter Books^ for: (fl) Entries of In-Letters". (p) Instruments^", (c) Out-I^tters". iii. Miscellaneous'^ (Archives, Intercepted Papers, Duplicates, Registers and compilations, &c.). Series III. State Papers ColoniaP^. i. Letters and Papers (Secretary of State's). {a) Colonial Correspondence. {b) Special Subjects. In alphabetical and chronological order of the Colonies, distinguishing * e.g. Governors' despatches. ' e.g. Warrant Books, &c. ' e.g. King's and Secretaries' Letter Books. * Heterogeneous documents thrown out from (i) with precedents, common-place books, ciphers, circulars, ro forma. Appendix VI 143 II. Records of an ancient department (not in Commission) now absorbed by a modern department ^ [To follow the same arrangement as above (A. III. and B. I.) with a separate heading for each ancient department, if more than one is included in the same jurisdiction.] III. Records of an ancient department (in Commission) now absorbed by a modern department (not in Commission)'*. [To follow the same arrangement as above (A. I.).] * There are few such departments possessed of historical Records. Those of the Surveyors General of Woods and Works and of the Judge Advocate General (War Office) might perhaps l)e included under this head, if they have been preserved intact ; and the same remark applies to the old Commissariat department subsequently administered by the Treasury and War Office successively. 2 Important instances occur in the case of the Ordnance Board, absorbed by the War Office since 1855, ^"^ the old Board of Trade (ending 1782), the Records of which are claimed by the Colonial Office. In the case of the latter department the Journals appear to serve the general purpose of Minutes, Reference and Report Books, whilst a curious system of registration prevailed by means of an alphabetical and numerical notation resembling somewhat the ideographic system of the mediaeval repositories. APPENDIX Specimen Research Form for a Historical Historical Subject Printed References Parallel MSB. The Inquest of Judges — The State Trials of the reign MS. Cotton Nero, A . 6 fo. (Edwardian State Trials, of Edward I. (ed. T. F. 32 1289 — 1293 illustrating Tout and Hilda Johnstone) MS. All Souls' Coll. 39. fo. Political History, Consti- (1906) 109 b. tutional History, Social Red Book of the Exchequer MS. Add. 31826, fo. 54 History, History of English (Rolls), cccxv. sq. Law, Biography, &c.)- Stubbs, C. H. II. 125 Ramsay, Dawn of the Con- stitution, p. 366 sq. etc. Pauli, Geschichte, IV. 50 sq. Political History of England Seeley, Edward I. p. 75 sq. Yoss, judges, s.t. Diet. Nat. Biogr. s.t. Calendars of Patent Rolls - (1272 — 1292) Calendars of Close Rolls (1279 — 1296) Calendars of Ancient Deeds Calendarof Inquisitions P.M. Abbrev. Placitorum (passim) Stowe, Survey, I. 86 Foedera, i. (2) 711, 715 Ann. Lond. 97 sq. — Dunstable, 355 sq. — Wav. 408 — Berm. 467 • — Wigorn. 499 Wykes, 319 Bart. Cott. 171 sq. Peckham, III. 968 Heminburgh, II. 16 Chron. Ed. I. and //. I. 97 Flor. Hist. III. 70 sq. Rishanger, 420 J. Oxnead, 275 Cont. Flor. Wigorn. il. 241 Chron. Melsa, 11. 251 etc. ' VII. Subject from various Official Sources. Classified Source Official Reference Description Judicial Proceedings i. Records of Pleas (Chancery) Parliament Rolls Enrolment of Proceedings in Parliament (Exchequer) Plea Rolls Special pleadings on Accounts Memoranda Rolls Enrolments of precepts, ap- pearances, recognizances, &c. Pleas of the Crown and Civil (King's Bench) Coram Rege Rolls Pleas Assize Rolls, &c Proceedings of the Justices in eyre and Commissioners Gaol Delivery Rolls Proceedings against prisoners (Common Pleas) De Banco Rolls Common Pleas held by the Justices Feet of Fines Conveyances of lands ii. Subsidiary Records (Chancery) Miscellaneous Inquisitions . Parliamentary Proceedings (Exchequer) Exchequer (K. R.) Pro- Information or Proceedings ceedings subsidiary to the Com- Miscellanea of the Ex- missioners' inquiry chequer L. T. R. Miscellaneous Rolls / Ministerial Proceedings i. Diplomatic Documents (a) Originals Ancient Petitions Addressed to the King in Council or to the Parlia- ment or Chancellor (Chancery) Warrants for Issue Directions for preparing let- ters under the Great Seal, &c. Addressed to the King or Ancient Correspondence Chancellor (f>) Enrolments Patent Rolls Grants, Mandates, Commis- (Chancery) sions, &c. Close Rolls Precepts of several kinds Fine Rolls Notes of Fines or Oblations offered in return for Par- don, &c. Redisseisin Rolls Memorandum of the King's transfretation (Exchequer) Originalia Rolls Memoranda of Grants for which Fines, &c. are due H. lO 146 Appendix VII Appendix VII. {continued). Specimen Research Form for a Historical Subject from various Official Sources. Historical Subject Printed References Parallel MSS. > Classified Source Official Reference Description ii. Inquisitions and Re- Inquisitions P.M. On the deaths of Crown ten- turns ants 1 (Chancery) Hundred Rolls | Inquisitions concerning local i Miscellaneous Inquisitions/ misgovernment and en- croachments iii. Accounts Pipe Rolls Declarations of Sheriff's Ac- (Exchequer) counts Liberate Rolls Payments of Salaries, &c. Issue Rolls Payments out of Revenue Receipt Rolls Receipts of Revenue Exchequer Accounts Of Amerciaments, &c. Precedents Exch. K. R. Misc. Bks. No. 2 The case of Adam de Strat- (Red Book of Exchequer) ton Liber Memorandoritm Memoranda and Inventories of Exchequer Records Kirkby's Quest (Exch. K. R. Feudal tenures, 1285 Misc. Bks. No. 17) Miscellaneous Ancient Deeds Charters, bonds and other (Exhibits or Deposits) title-deeds relating to the accused judges Ministers' Accounts Relating to the estates of the accused etc. APPENDIX VIII. The Several References to the State Papers of a Single Year (1697) remaining in Official Custody^ I. State Papers Domestic. (^) S. p. Dom. William and Mary. S. P. Dom. King William's Chest. S. P. Dom. Entry Books^ (Caveats). (Council Office). (Ecclesiastical). (Military). (Passes). (Petitions). (Precedents). (Warrants). S. P. Dom. Letter Books. (King's). (Secretary's). (Signet Office)'. [H. 0.] Admiralty*. [H. 0.] I^w Papers. [S. P. Dom. ] Proclamations. (^) (^) * This year has been selected without any particular reason. The selection excludes a few well-known series of earlier or later date, such as "Borders" and "Post Office," and does not include semi-official collections or foreign transcripts. Where this year is not indicated in the published Lists, the covering dates are presumed to include it, in accordance with the usual meth(Kl of research. ' These occasionally refer to Foreign and Colonial matters and more than one subject is often entered in the same volume. ' These are really Irish Letter Books. The Signet Office Records are not included in this list. * Outlying .State Paj^ers such as the Greenwich Hospital (Admiralty) Newsletters and others included in the official Calendars have not been included here. It will be found moreover that there is considerable difficulty in distinguishing between " State Papers" and the "Departmental Papers" of the Admiralty, Treasury, War Office and Ordnance, &c., some of the latter being included in the official Calendars or Lists of State Papers though they have been omitted here. lo — 2 148 Appendix VIII (e) State Paper Office Documents ^ (/) State Papers Supplementary^ {g) State Papers Miscellaneous ^ {h) State Papers, Scotland (Letters and Papers). (Warrant Book). it) State Papers, Ireland (Letters and Papers). (King's Letter Book). (y) State Papers, Channel Islands. (k) [H. O.] Regencies*. 2. State Papers Foreign. (a) Letters and Papers from various European and African States'. {^) Royal Letters from and to the same. (c) Foreign Entry Books for the same. (d) Newsletters from the same. (e) Foreign Ministers for the same. (/) Treaty Papers for the same. (g) Treaties with the same. (A) Archives of English Missions to the same. (/) State Papers Foreign, "Various." 3. State Papers Colonial, {a) Colonial Papers. {b) Colonial Entry Books. {c) America and West Indies. {d) Sessional Papers. {e) Papers of the Board of Trade (Plantations). (/) Entry Books of the same (Plantations). {g) Entry Books of the same (Trade). ^ A semi-official collection relating to the State Papers at large. * To the Domestic Letters and Papers, a collection of greater value for an earlier period. ^ The residue of Sir J. Williamson's collection not distributed amongst the other series. * i.e. correspondence with the Lords Justices during the King's absence. ' This series also includes "Military Auxiliary Expeditions" which are detached from the War Office correspondence for reasons explained elsewhere. APPENDIX IX. Outline of the Principal Sources from which the Departmental Records in Official Custody^ might be supplemented^ 1. Departmental Records in official custody not yet arranged or described (if any)'. 2. Departmental Archives not yet transferred to the above official custody (if any)*. 3- Papers removed from State Departments, viz. (a) Presented to or acquired by the Public Record Office*. (d) Acquired by public Libraries or Institutions'. (c) Acquired by private corporations. (d) Acquired by individual collectors. (e) Still in the custody of official families or their legal representa- tives'. (/) Acquired by foreign institutions or collectors. {g) Transcripts or texts of any of the above available for reference. ' i.e. the Public Record Office as indicated by the Order in Council of 1851. ' This list is intended to serve as a mere suggestion of the several external sources which should be borne in mind by the student. It does not cover cases of the transfer of Records from one Department to another. It will apply equally to State Papers. * Sec Official Guide, p. 366 sq. * See notices in the daily press of recent discoveries of departmental Records. ' See Official Guide, p. 403. * e.^. the British Museum, University Libraries, Royal Institution, &c. ^ See Historical Manuscripts Commission, 17M Report, Index. APPENDIX OUTLINE OF THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF I. Mediaeval Title Form and Extent of Publication Production and Distribution 1 . General Works of Refer- ence: (a) Bibliographies (6) Guides (to Archives and Collections) (c) Handbooks of Auxiliary Studies 2. Lists: Official Enterprise Indexes Collections Corporate ,, Inventories Single Works Individual ,, Repertories Catalogues Periodicals Complete Editions National Interest Regional „ 3. Calendars Partial „ County „ Parochial „ 4. Transcripts and Fac- similes Manorial „ Institutional ,, 5. Texts of Documents 6. Excerpts from Texts (" Source-Books ") 7. Original Compositions X. OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS. Records. Date of Publication General Historical Subject Special Historical Subject Laws and Ordinances Judicial Proceedings Parliamentary Proceedings Ministerial Proceedings Local Government Municipal Government Private Franchises Ecclesiastical Relations Diplomatic Relations Foreign Possessions Aliens and Jews Forests and Fens Political Works and Mines Constitutional Revenue and Taxation Early Social Feudal and Customary Modern Economic Tenures Works Ecclesiastical State of Society Local Industry and Commerce History History of Prices Manorial and Agrarian Economy Army and Navy Mint and Exchange Royal Household Natural History Archaeology Genealogy Topography Archive Economy etc 152 Appendix X Appendix X. (continued). II. Later Records, State Title Form and Extent of Publication Production and Distribution 1. General works of Refer- ence 2. Lists, &c. 3. Calendars 4. Transcripts and Fac- similes 5. Texts of Documents 6. Excerpts from Texts ("Source-Books") 7. Original Compositions Collections Single Works Periodicals Complete Editions Partial ,, Official Enterprise Corporate „ Individual ,, National Interest Regional , , County ,, Parochial ,, Institutional ,, Appendix X Papers and Departmental Records. 153 Date of Publication General Historical Subject Special Historical Subject Judicial Proceedings (State Trials, &c.) Royal Commissions Commutation of Tenures and Franchises Agrarian Changes Local Government Ecclesiastical Government Ministerial Government Diplomatic Relations Royal Prerogative Justice and Police Poor Laws Political Civil List Constitutional Revenue and Taxation Early Social Army and Navy Modem Economic Internal Defence Works Ecclesiastical Trade and Plantations Local Exploration and Emigration Naval Chartered Companies Military Universities, Schools, and History Charities Currency and Banking Crown Lands and Royal Household Works and Buildings Court Ceremonies Inventions Aliens History of Prices and Wages Biography Topography Maps and Plans Archive Economy etc. PART II THE DIPLOMATIC OF OFFICIAL HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE DIPLOMATIC STUDY OF OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. It has often been remarked that the Public Records of this country are unequalled throughout Europe in number and historical interest. To this observation we might add that amongst our Records those of the Chancery itself would be found to be in the most perfect state of preservation. This being so it is at first sight a matter of some surprise that such scanty information is available respecting the characteristic formulas of the national diplomata, especially as many causes were at work during the mediaeval period of our history to stimulate professional and individual interest in diplomatic criticism*. But although the prerogative of the Crown and the welfare of the community were equally concerned in the purity and legality of the instruments which purported to issue from the early Chancery, it may at least be suggested that in too many cases no adequate scrutiny was applied to them. The fiscal exigencies and the unabashed official corruption of the age will sufficiently account for many of these concessions. Moreover so far from being a presumptive object of distrust, a royal charter was something sacro-sanct in the eyes of mediaeval lawyers and officials. It is true that the hardy chronicler, in spite of a credulous acceptance (in the interests of his own house) of many impossible evidences of the royal favour, was capable of very shrewd reflections upon the character of the treasured muniments of a rival community'. At the same time there were no traditions of an old English Chancery to direct and stimulate these fitful essays. Thus it came to pass that the flood of diplomatic criticism which had its source in the New Learning of the Renaissance period and which was swelled by the religious controversies of the i6th and 17th centuries, found its natural course through continental channels. From that time onward English scholarship has toiled painfully in the wake of foreign science. ' Below, p. 185 sq. ' Below, p. 186 and Appendix. 158 Introduction to the Diplomatic Study Now and again a few specialists have dealt with diplomatic subjects, but even the antiquarian giants of the 17th and i8th centuries, Prynne, Dugdale, Hickes, Madox and their fellows, were but im- perfectly versed in the canons of diplomatic criticism, first enunciated by the Papal curia at the end of the 12th century, and finally adopted by learned Europe six centuries later through the labours of the Benedictines. Then with the great revival of historical learning throughout Europe in the second quarter of the 19th century this country lost another opportunity of placing the systematic study of diplomatic documents upon a sure foundation. For in the place of the National Archives, first organized by the genius of Republican France and their fitting annexe in the shape of an Ecole des Charles, a govern- ment absorbed by party politics and complacently tolerant of the productions of its Record Commission was content with a wholly inadequate Repository under the charge of an ordinary establishment of the Civil Service. It is not surprising therefore that, with the distinguished exception of the sound but rather elementary official disquisitions of Sir T. D. Hardy, the subject of our insular Diplo- matic continued to be wholly neglected down to our own time. Of the revival of this study at Oxford under the scholarly influence of Mr R. L. Poole or of the brilliant contributions to the new learning made by Mr W. H. Stevenson and Mr J. H. Round it is unnecessary to speak here. Indeed there can be little doubt that the importance of the subject is fully recognized by the present generation of English historical scholars. There is indeed a growing feeling that our his- torians have been scarcely fairly treated in the matter of the provision of certain essential aids to diplomatic calculation. Bond's Handy Book is with us still, but we know its limitations, and in other respects this work must be supplemented by some foreign Treasury of Chronology. In the province of Biography, where notable advances have been made in recent years, it is almost incredible that we should still need a working list of Chancery officials. We possess an expensive work on the Great Seals of England, but the evolution of the Smaller Seals remains in utter obscurity. Most of all we lack a Formula Book based on some comprehensive system of diplomatic classification. Certainly the slight but useful handlists of the royal style compiled by Sir T. D. Hardy^ and greatly improved by Mr W. de G. Birch- are not exhaustive. It is not more than two years ago since an interesting suggestion concerning an important change in the style of 1 Rot. Chart. (Pref.). « Second Report of Index Soc. 1879 (Appx. 2). of Official Documents 159 Henry II was made by a great French scholar*. We have seen from a recent communication concerning an eventful change in the first Mary's style' that a defective list may be a serious hindrance to the historian, and there can be little doubt that other discoveries could be made by patient investigation. It is now generally accepted that some knowledge of this subject must be acquired by students of palaeography who are concerned with other than purely literary MSS. It might even be insisted that it is impossible to acquire an intelligent perception of the system of mediaeval official writing without a sufficient knowledge of the formulas and professional routine of the national chanceries. Again, it can scarcely be doubted that a knowledge of the appropriate formulas, technical terms and nomenclature found in official docu- ments must prove of great assistance to the modern searcher or the transcriber. For one so armed the struggle with these palaeo- graphical difficulties has been already half-won. Unfortunately few English scholars care to pursue the practice of historical method beyond the bare requirements of textual criticism ; but when a student of historical Acts, though limited perforce to printed texts, is yet well versed in their diplomatic composition, the gain to him in point of interest and perception is quite remarkable. In both cases, however, native enterprise in respect of these original studies is discouraged by the lack of information and instruction above referred to. It is true that with an ample choice of foreign text-books the actual construction and innermost significance of the imperial or royal Acts, Papal Bulls, and notarial instruments, received and miraculously preserved in our own Archives, can be understood. In addition to these, many diplomatic forms of legal, ecclesiastical and mercantile documents can be sufficiently comprehended from the same bountiful source of information. But the continental expert has hitherto let the royal Acts of the English Chancery and their developments in the shape of curial and ministerial instruments severely alone*. The student of native Diplomatic will find in the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Charters, in the special forms of instruments under the Greater and Smaller Seals of the later Plantagenets and in the departmental procedure of the i6th and 17th centuries, types » See below, p. 119. » Cf. E. //. A', xv. no. ' This was written before an opportunity had occurred of perusing the interesting essay of Monsieur E. D^prez. The value of the work clone in this direction by Brunner, D^lisle, Liebermann, B^mont and Aronius is already well known. i6o Introduction to the Diplomatic Study which he will seek in vain to define by recourse to the continental handbooks. It is as though a naturalist should attempt to identify the British Fauna with the species figured in some foreign catalogue. Thanks to the knowledge acquired through a scientific training many forms would be familiar, whilst others would merely present variations due to climate or environment. At the same time many more on either side would be unrecognizable. Yet in this case recourse to alien literature need not be had since scores of native handbooks are available. But with all our wealth of literature dealing with other subjects how few are the works devoted to the scientific aspect of English Diplomatic ! In view of this obvious deficiency any serious attempt to fill the void by means of written descriptions or academic teaching may be acceptable. Possibly the latter method would seem for the moment more practicable than the former, but its beneficial effects cannot be regarded as being very widely distributed. At most half a dozen students yearly enjoy the great advantage of attending the admirable lectures given at Oxford in the best style of the foreign Universities, and perhaps another fifty derive more or less benefit from the very modest course of instruction provided in the Universities of London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Liverpool. But the gain from these valuable studies is for the teachers and students alone. The information acquired through their researches is not directly available to English students at large and is quite unknown to the still larger body of continental students who have long desired to possess a more adequate descrip- tion of the insular diplomata. For example, in a recent number of a French review^ the doyen of European scholars in these "auxiliary sciences" describes and discusses two langnettes which he has observed to have been cut from the bottom margin of our I2th century writs ; and yet in the following pages there will be found a description of these langnettes with their diplomatic uses, which was written more than 12 years ago from notes and drawings of original specimens and which has served as the basis of successive lectures and for the ex- hibition of models to many generations of London University students. Instances of this sort, however trivial in themselves, may serve as an excuse for an unwonted egotism in assuming that the desultory researches and unconventional teaching of 1 2 years may benefit a wider circle of post-graduate students. Perhaps the scope of the present essay will be sufficiently indicated by the classified T^ble of Diplomatic instruments printed in an Appendix. This presentment of the normal 1 Bibliothique de r£cole des Charles (T. LXVIII, p. 309). of Official Documents i6i diplomatic types which are usually recognized as variants of the Charter, the Writ and even of the Letter will be familiar to students of the continental manuals of the orthodox Diplomatic. This com- pilation is the product of much labour and consideration and it has natually formed the basis both of the following sections of the present work and of the Formula Book^ which may be permitted to serve as an Appendix of illustrative types. The inclusion in this work of a section dealing with Record types which will be familiar to those who use the publications of the Record Commission and Rolls Series may perhaps require a better justification than the plea of utility. Whether the writer has made out a case for the serious treatment of these abnormal types must be decided by those who do not shrink from the perusal of the pages in which this obscure and doubtful aspect of the subject is discussed. Idle and unconvincing as such special pleading must always seem to the judicious reader, it may at least have the desired effect of drawing the attention of more competent investigators to an interesting and neglected subject. At the same time it must be made clear that even in the legitimate sphere of diplomatic study the scope of the present attempt is strictly limited. It is needless to dwell, however briefly, upon the conven- tional aspects of the subject which have been stated at large in many foreign text-books and summarised for the benefit of English students in a singularly lucid sketch which is accessible to all^ For a like reason it has seemed unnecessary to introduce any detailed comparisons between the formulas of English diplomatic instruments and those of continental states. It will also be evident that the scope of the present work admits of no reference to the Scottish or Irish archives under the charge of separate government establishments and within the sphere of interest of national academies and native students. Finally the importance of several cognate studies such as Chronology, Sigillography, Numismatic, Linguistic, fiiography. Topography and Archaeology, which in turn subserve the study of this auxiliary historical science, can only be recognized in a brief bibliographical note. F"or the rest, the establishment and apparatus of the English Chancery cannot be adequately treated for a further reason which will be presently referred to. There remains therefore only the classification, definition and description of the several diplomatic ' See Preface. ^ The essay by Mr R. L. Poole in Cambridgi Historical Teatking. H. II 1 62 Introduction to the Diplomatic Study of Official Documents instruments which issued from the royal Chancery or secretariat of this country or which are preserved amongst its diplomatic archives. Even these can only be treated in a desultory way, though a fuller treatment is invited by their historical interest. Indeed the only claim to a comprehensive method that these Essays can possess is based upon their exceptional range in point of date, embracing as they do types of the whole series of official instruments from the Anglo-Saxon Charter to the Sign Manual Warrant of our own times. THE ANGLO-SAXON CHARTERS. (a) The Old English Chancery. We shall seek in vain amongst the Tabulae Ctiriales of this country for an authentic list of Anglo-Saxon chancellors such as has been compiled for the contemporary history of the Continental chanceries'. The earliest description of such a native establishment dates only from the close of the reign of Henry I-, and even this reference has been taken to apply more especially to the court of the Norman duchy. Some twenty-five years later, the English chancery, as it then existed, appears as the clerical department of the all-powerful Ex- chequer'. Indeed beyond a natural grouping of the chancellor with the King's chaplains and with the clerks of the Scriptorium we have little direct evidence of his professional activity until the reign of Richard I, when royal charters are first authenticated in his name. Far less, then, can we expect to find any positive mention of a chancery establishment under the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. And yet, not only does a royal chancellor, with appropriate notarial appurtenances, figure in certain charters of this period, but the office has been readily accepted and described by English antiquarians from Coke and Spelman down to our own times. We should be, perhaps, prepared for such a view by the prevalent opinion respecting the transformation of the Old English hand- writing through foreign notarial influences before the Conquest*. It is not surprising therefore that this opinion should include the esta- blishment of an Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman chancery in which the new writing could be officially employed. It is possible, however, that modern historians have been misled herein by the assumptions of early chroniclers unversed in the rudiments of diplomatic criticism*. And yet the supposition was a very natural one. The foreign chanceries with all their pomp of chancellors, notaries, formulas and ' Cf. H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre, I. 368. ' Comtitutio Doinus Regis (Ned Book, p. 807). ■* Dialogus de Scotcario, I. v. * S€€ below, Part III. ' See below, Appendix. II 2 164 T^he Anglo-Saxon Charters seals had, before the close of the 12th century, been brought into close and fruitful connexion with this country, and the system that men see in their own day they commonly assume to be applicable to an earlier age. It becomes necessary, therefore, to test the correctness of this prevailing theory of an Old English chancery and notarial system before we can consider the probable nature of the apparatus that actually existed. Although the most discerning of our modern scholars would probably look askance on many of the Anglo-Saxon chancellors enumerated by Dugdale\ the existence of the office under the Con- fessor at least has not been seriously doubted, whilst the claims of other notarial officers who figure in the Codex have not apparently been investigated. Three chancellors of the Confessor have been generally accepted, Leofric, Wulfwig and Regenbald, with his vice-chancellors Alfgeat and Swithgar. The first two of these appointments, however, are scarcely well authenticated. Bishop Leofric was, indeed, qualified to hold such a position both from his learning and his foreign education'*, but the best authority for his specific title is found in the dictum of Florence of Worcester. Wulfwig, on the other hand, is precisely described as the King's chancellor in a contemporary charter'* — but this proves to be one of the worst forgeries of the Church of West- minster. The position of Regenbald, however, rests on much stronger evidence. He is circumstantially described as chancellor and as performing notarial acts in several charters of the reign and as the king's priest in others. In addition, he is incidentally mentioned as chancellor in Domesday Book. It may be found, however, that these notices will not bear every test of diplomatic scrutiny. Of the charters in which Regenbald appears as chancellor the greater number are gross forgeries of the Westminster type^ and with these are swept away the notarial positions of Alfgeat and Swithgar. In one of the ^ Orig. Jurid. p. 32 sq. The existence of the earliest of these reputed chancellors has not even the support of a spurious charter but depends on the assertions of Matthew Paris i^Hist. Abbat. \. 32 sq.) and Ingulf. The tradition respecting the statutory chancellors of Ely, Glastonbury and Canterbury is derived from a similar source (Gale, ScriJ>iores, in. 501 ; Spelman, Gloss. 109). - W..Malm. Gesi. Pottt. 201. ^ C. D. DCCLXXIX. * C. D. DCCCix, Dcccx, Dcccxxiv, Dcccxxv, Dcccxxvi. Of these the first is a typical Ramsey production and the second is obviously of continental origin. The original of the Ramsey charter is still preserved at Holkham and appears on inspection to be a later fabrication. The Anglo-Saxon Charters 165 two remaining charters', Rcgciibaldns Regis Cancellarhis appears amongst the witnesses. This is the famous foundation charter of Waltham Abbey, a production which may remind us of the monastic forgeries of Ramsey. The real objection to this charter, however, lies in the fact that it is executed in the style of the Prankish chancery^ The other charter referred to gives Regenbald the title of 'cancheler,' but as this charter is contained in the 12th century Codex Whttoniensis, a work which abounds in affected archaisms and palpable anachronisms, we may perhaps consider that he is here designated by a post-Conquest title-'. In the case of other charters in which Regenbald is styled presbyter only, it should be noticed that no notarial functions are ascribed to him. Most of these charters being admittedly genuine the distinction appears to be highly signifi- canf. There remains the Domesday evidence. In the Great Survey, amongst several other notices Regenbald is once styled Reinbaldtis canceler^, but it may be remarked that the title is a gloss, possibly contemporary, but interlineated in the MS. Doubtless Regenbald would have been styled chancellor by French official scribes after the Conquest*, just as he is so styled in the rubric of an Old English charter in a Cirencester collection ^ Besides these reputed chancellors, who may or may not have acted in that capacity under the Confessor, notices occur in the Codex of royal clerks exercising undefined notarial functions at an earlier date. An examination of their official status would, however, involve the question of the authenticity of a class of charters which are not worthy of serious discussion*. ^ C. D. Dcccxni, but this charter has been accepted by very high authorities, including Bishop Stubbs. ^ It contains, amongst other witnesses various consangninei jReqis, two capellani Regis, a pincerna Regis and a pincerna Regime, two dnpiferi Re(;is and a dapifer Regincr, an aulicus Ref>is, a palatiniis Regis, a procurator Aula ; together with the quasi-notarial subscription Hiec ego subscripsi Swit/iar sub nomine Christi. Finally in the text itself we meet with such terms as shine, hundreda, plaeita and gelda with the notorious exemption from all secular service declaimed with a statuo ut. This charter appears to have l)een composed on the model of C. D. Dcccx which is obviously a foreign forgery. ' C. D. DCCCXCI. Hut this is a vernacular writ to which the statement that Regenliald was present is appended as a memorandum. * Cf. C. D. Dccxci — Dccxcni, dccxcvi, dccc. » D. B. I. 180 b. * For a learned discussion of Regenbald's nationality and status, see Mr W. H. Stevenson in E. H. R. XI. 732 and Mr Round in Feudal England, p. 331. ' Arclueologia, XXVI. 156. * Cf. C. S. 4, 5, 6, 107, a68, 325, 365, 409, C. D. dccxcv, ikccxv and Bouquet, Scriptores, IX. 397. These notarial offices range in point of dale from Elhelbert of Kent to Edward the Confessor and include such titles as reftrtndarius , grapkio, cartigraphus. 1 66 The Anglo-Saxon Charters On the other hand it might not unreasonably be inferred that during the Anglo-Saxon period several great Churchmen held a position not very different from the modern conception of the office of chancellor, or at least that of chief of the chaplains who were also the King's clerks. A great historian has suggested that "the office held by Dunstan under Edred must have been very much like that of the later chancellors^" ; but we are elsewhere reminded that the masterful bishop " has left, beyond a few lines of writing, the endorsement of a charter and the prayer put into the mouth of a kneeling figure in an illumination, no writings whatever^" All that we know of the lives of churchmen like Dunstan and Athelwold is perfectly consistent with this supposition, and yet they had neither the title of chancellor nor are they found to exercise the functions of that office in any credible diploma^. Again, Gisa, bishop of Wells, held a position not unlike that of Dunstan, Athelwold and Leofric for the purpose of the monastic forger*, and indeed his claim to the title of chancellor might seem to be as strong as that of Bishop Wulfwig. It will be observed, however, that notarial functions have not been definitely ascribed to a succession of office-holders, but in casual instances to a limited number of episcopal celebrities. In these and in other cases, referred to below, it is quite possible that the acts ascribed to notable churchmen have no special significance. None the less these incidents contrast unpleasantly with the usual simplicity of genuine diplomata. We cannot dismiss the suspicion that the presence of these official witnesses may have been regarded as an additional proof of the authenticity of certain charters. The instruments under consideration are, it is true, of varying merit. scholasticus, notarms, stibdiaconus and ^\2!\x\freshyter. Of these, the credibility of the earlier titles is not enhanced by meeting with such an expansion of " Hocca graphio " as " Hocca comes," "Graphio comes." The title presbyter is of course unobjectionable unless it is connected with a notarial subscription such as may be chiefly found in Crowland forgeries. 1 Stubbs, C. H. (1891), I. 380 n. * Mentor, of St Dunstan (Rolls), p. cix. Even these exceptions might have to be abandoned. ^ Athelwold is credited with the education of a courtier (W. Malm. Gest. Pont. p. 165). A definite assertion with regard to his official position is made by the Rolls editor of an early Cotton MS. {^Anglo-Saxon Leechdoms, III. 417), who, on the strength of an Old English expression regarded as the equivalent to a secret enrolment, suggests that the Bishop held the office of Keeper of the Rolls to King Eadgar. Unfortunately the word in question does not appear to bear this meaning ("Newminster" in Hants Record Soc. p. xii). It is true that Athelwold is termed a secretis noster in an Ely charter of 970, but this (in its Latin form at least) is a grotesque forgeiy (C D. DLXiii). The phrase is more familiar to us in 12th century works although it is of greater antiquity. * Cf. C. D. Dcccxi and dcccxvi. He is usually regarded as a " chancery clerk." The Anglo-Saxon Charters 167 Some are obvious forgeries, whilst others have many claims to be regarded as authentic. In most cases the quasi-notarial formula in question amounts to the statement Ego, A, B., hanc cartulant dictavi^, and the verb in itself is doubtless unobjectionable, equally with such variants known to the Scriptorium as depinxi, titulavi, notavi, composui, &c. Apart from other suspicious circumstances, none of these phrases would be likely to arrest our attention, as for instance would be the case with the formal notarial subscription of continental origin which may occasionally be found in the pages of the Codex"^. It has also been fairly argued that even the most florid of these distinguished sub- scriptions are merely intended to denote a privileged style or an appropriate sentiment, whilst in most cases perhaps we may find no deeper motive than a scribe's conceits A like explanation might be given of those graphic indications of sealing which have also been a source of difficulty. It is indeed by no means inconceivable that many high ecclesiastics actually impressed their signet rings, and we know that such rings might bear as a device a cross exactly resembling that drawn by the scribe's pen*. Again we have to reckon with the fact that within a few years of the Norman Conquest it was assumed that particular subscriptions might be distinguished by an autograph cross indicating the actual presence of the witness^ Finally there are cases in which the initiative is taken by the King himself, who commands a charter to be composed or innovated, and there arc other cases in which the notables present join in the command*. Lastly there arc certain circumstances of time and place and execution of charters that may be looked upon as notarial artifices. * Cf. C. D. ix:i,xxxiv, mccxcvi and Bouquet, Scriptoics, xi. G^.^,. * Cf. C. S. 661 with the formula Ef^o quoijue Keiuanius ftccator interftii el nolcrvi atque suhseripsi. * For the well-known practice of " ringing the changes" on the conventional phrases by way of prcKlucing a jangle of "f.7Mj" and "of/.r" cf. C. D. DCCLXlii, ik:clxxi, ncci.xxiv — DCCLXXVI, DCCLXXX, DCCI.XXXI, DCCLXXXVII, MCLV, MCXCV, MCCXI, MCCLXXXIX, MCCXCII, MCCCIX, MCCCX, MCCCXXXU. * There is also a fonnula which may refer to the actual use of the pen by individual witnesses viz. Signinn sancUe Cruris propria maun scrihaido firmavi, cf. Archaologia, XVIII. 18. * Cf. Somerset Arch, and N. H. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 114. In this case the bishop (Gisa) was certainly cc^izant of the Old English practice. * Cf. C. .S". 591, Bouquet, xi. 655 and C. D. ccciv, DCLXXXVI, DCCXXXVI, MCXCI, MCXCVI, MCXCVII, MCCCIV, MCCCV, MCCCVIII, MCCCXVI. 1 68 The Anglo-Saxon Charters The motive is doubtless to be found in a desire to obtain some official or public testimony in favour of a particular charter. Actum publice^ may be taken as the key-note of these expressions. The phrases In palatio regio'^ or astantibtis, &c. may be attributed to the same motive ; but these purely foreign ceremonial adjuncts are extremely rare amongst Old English diplomata. Far more frequent are notes of time and place assigned to public assemblies which, though frequently betraying the workmanship of an over-anxious fabricator, are in themselves consistent with the received traditions of the primitive age of diplomatic criticism in this country. The usual form of these excrescences is that of a supplementary narrative of the formalities which accompanied or symbolixed the delivery of seisin in a primitive age. When a record of this ceremony was regarded as desirable, a convenient position for a pious inter- polation could be found in the usual comminatory clause or "Sanction." The charter having been executed (with many circumstances of time and place) those present take part in the further ceremony which is performed in the church benefited by the grant. Here the charter, or the grantor's helmet, or his hand are laid upon the altar, the pre- siding churchman speaks the words of the "Sanction," and the audience murmur Fiat, Fiat, or AmeJi^, a formula which perilously resembles the Apprecatio of the continental chanceries. In one re- markable case the ceremony is associated with a feasts As with the royal chancellor or notary, so with the kingly seal. The existence of neither can be proved from the evidence of authentic diplomata, and yet all our authorities are agreed that the regular sequence of the Great Seals of England dates at least from the reign of the Confessor. At the same time it would be found that an earlier doctrine has been already discredited. Few learned dissertations have been more trustfully accepted than the famous description by a great English antiquary of the royal Seals affixed to certain Old English charters preserved by the church of St Denis'. Even to the present day these portentous survivals of an insular notarial system figure in official catalogues and are reproduced in diplomatic texts without the slightest reservation", although the searching tests of * C. S. 109. 2 C. D. DCCLXXIX. ' C. S. 22, 27, 39, 125, 131, 154, Matt. Paris (Rolls), vi. 30, Hist. Abingdon (V^o\\%), i. 70, and cf. the observations by M. L. Delisle on a similar observance in Bibl. de r£cole des Charles, Lxviil. 313. * C. S. 235. 5 Arch. Jo. XIII. 356. * Since this was written the most suspicious of the St Denis charters have been with- drawn from the regular series in the Archives naiionales and are exhibited and described The Anglo-Saxon Charters 169 diplomatic criticism have proved their utter falsity'. After this it is needless to discuss seriously the once burning question of the authen- ticity of the leaden Seal of St Augustine* or that of King Coenwulf ' ; but these things should be remembered when we approach the ques- tion of the Great Seal of the Confessor. Let us therefore approach that question cautiously. It has been previously suggested that the instances of the exercise of notarial functions by reputed chancellors and vice-chancellors during this period are of somewhat doubtful authenticity, and this criticism would necessarily include the use of a seal. On the other hand, the use of a signet by Anglo-Saxon notables* and the well- known foreign proclivities of the Confessor should make us slow to deny the possibility of the u.se of a " seal of majesty " for certain purposes during his reign. It is perfectly possible that at any moment a genuine seal of this king, duly attested in an unimpeachable charter, may come to light ; but at present we can only deal with the evidence of the existing specimens. These have been arranged and described with great care and precision by official experts who, very properly, have not discussed the question of their authenticity at all. Alto- gether there may be nearly a score of these seals which are evenly divided between the collection in the British Museum' and the muni- ments of Westminster Abbey*. One specimen is in the possession of the Earl of Winchelsea^ Of the above specimens none of those in the British Museum collection are attached to true diplomata. Three are attached to writs, of which one is admittedly, and another obviously, spurious. Those that are detached must remain an unknown quantity. In the case of the Westminster collection the only charter, bearing a pendent seal, is quantum vaUant. As recently as 1906, however, the famous seal of Offa appeared on a printed circular announcing the publication of a leametl work. ' Mr \V. H. Stevenson in E. H. R. vi. 736. * Hist. A/on. St Aug. (Rolls), p. 122, of. below, Appendix. ' ArchiBologia, X.XXll. 449. * Archmlogia, X. 232, xviii. 12, 40, XX. 479. The well-known instance of King /Ethelred's writ under seal has suggested the employment of a signet or privy seal rather than a pendent "seal of majesty" which no one has yet venturetl to refer to such an early date. The suggestion is an ingenious one, and the point is deserving of further attention in view of the continental analogy of the annulus. On the other hand the Charter referred U) comes from a source ( Textus Roffensis) which, however respectable, is not above suspicion ; whilst we have in the case of the Westminster Charter (C. D. MCCXXUl) bearing the annulus of Dunstan an undoubted forgery. For another possible analogy with the continental practice cf. lielow, p. 170, n. 5. ' Hrit. Mus. Cat. 0/ Seats, Ibid. Facs. vt( Atiglo-Saxott Charters, Vol. IV. " Ordnaiue Facs. I'art 11. " Ordname Facs. ill.; Afomisticon, 1. 293. lyo The Anf^lo-Saxon Charters a notorious forgery^ whilst the rest are merely writs to which the seal is attached by what French experts neatly term a simple qtietie^. The Winchelsea charter is another admitted forgery. The well-known allusions in Domesday Book* to " charters " under the seal of the Confessor are found when carefully examined to amount to very little. Read in a general connexion, these notices may be classified as follows : 1. Cases in which testimony is made of the King's writ under seal, whether issued by the Confessor or by the Conqueror. 2. Cases in which testimony is made of the seals of both these kings or of either of them. It will be noticed, however, that the production of these writs and seals is usually directly connected with questions of disputed investi- ture, and that they are regarded as evidences of an identical value. One formula in fact may be expanded as follows : Homines dicunt ntmquam se vidisse brevem Regis, vel sigillum, vel hominem {liberatorem, nuncitim, legatiim) qui, ex parte Regis, N. dc hoc manerio saisisset. It is not altogether clear whether vel is used here disjunctively, but apparently the mention of any one of the above agencies for livery of seisin will include the others*. We may suppose that the King's writ, with the "seal of majesty" attached, was usually produced in the County Court by a royal messenger ^ The real value of these references does not lie wholly in the evidence of the existence of Edwardian sealed writs at the date of the Domesday inquest. The jurors themselves could scarcely have distinguished between a genuine example of these instruments and an arrant forgery*, or at least an irrelevant instrument in the shape of ^ Ordnance Facs. Part ii. No. i8. C. D. Dcccxxv. ^ Cf. below, p. 218. * Cf. D. B. I. 36, 39, 47 b, 50, 59, 60b, 62, 78 b, 141 b, 154 b, 169, 197, 208, 218, 238, 241b, 298, 373 b, 374, 375; II. 176, 195, 208, 270 b, 310 b, 409, 413. * It would seem that the references in Domesday Book to a charter (concessiun) in dis- tinction to a writ are too indefinite to convey the sense of a grant preceding livery of seisin. ' On the other hand in certain cases livery may have been given by a symbolic ceremony which made the writ unnecessary. So too we read in D. B. I. 154 b of Pax Regis manu vel sigillo data, where vel is apparently used disjunctively. Attention may be drawn, in this connexion, to the interesting notice in a Frankish capitulary of the 8th century of a consuetudo which reminds us of the ancient system of issuing writs under seal by the hands of the Usher of the Exchequer. Here the customary service Sigillum et epistulam prendere is associated with vias et portas citstodire [Capit. gen. (783), c. 17, ed. Pertz, III. 47). ** Thus although we read in the Survey (l. 78 b) that King William caused the church of Shaftesbury to be re-seised of certain lands '■'■quia in ipsa cecclesia inventus est brevis cum sigillo Regis Edwardi, precipiens ttt cecclesice 7-estituerentur," we cannot accept this statement as conclusive. Even as late as the reign of Henry VHI the local jurors in a royal Inquest accepted as evidence of a monastic title a Charter of Henry I which is an obvious forgery of the reign of Henry HI {Hist. S. Petr. Glouc. (Rolls), II. 187). The A^tglo-Saxon Charters 171 a conventional vernacular writ without the pendent seaP. But can we suppose that men who must have lived under the Confessor's rule were uninformed on this point : that they would have accepted the evidence of a sealed writ of the Confessor, even though no such system of authentication was in use during this reign ? This would seem at first hard to believe: yet before we are justified in basing any conclusions upon this Domesday evidence it would be necessary to investigate every case in which the Confessor's seal, apart from his mere writ, is alleged. These cases moreover are not only few in number, but usually associated with churches of indifferent repute ; whilst it is after all conceivable that local jurors, even if they possessed this diplomatic knowledge, would have hesitated to denounce these pious presentments of the saintly king as impudent forgeries. Again, accustomed already to the use of royal seals they would naturally assume that the practice was one of immemorial antiquity. At the same time it may be readily admitted that in the existing writs under the Confessor's seal and the texts of others that have not survived, as well as in the allusions of the Domesday inquest, we have evidence of a very different kind from that furnished by the isolated notices of Old English pre-historic seals above referred to. Indeed the general conclusion as to the existence of a Great Seal of the Confessor might seem to be amply warranted by this evidence. The statement of the case, however, requires certain qualifications and amendments. In the first place the size and colour and attachment of the seal itself are matters of great consequence, and many of the existing specimens scarcely fulfil the conditions which might be required herein^ In one respect indeed they are admittedly deficient, that is to say in the precautions taken for due attestation. The Signum manus of the Old English diplomata was not verified by a notarial certificate or by a royal seal*. It should be remembered, however, that the subscriptions used in the Anglo-Saxon system are far more * Cf. the case of the Abbot of Abingdon before the County Court in D. B. i. 59, Chron. Abhendon, I. 477, and the naive admissions made by the chronicler (^Chron. Abb. 11. i, cf. II. 126). "^ A noticeable feature of the existing sealed writs of the Confessor preservetl by the Church of Westminster consists in the fact that the seal in several cases is affixetl transversely to the parchment lal)el or '* tag," and the same peculiarity is ohserveil in the case of later instruments in favour of this church which are of more than doubtful validity (cf. Add. ch. 1 1 105 and 19581; Cott. ch. vi. 3). It has of course frequently l)een |>ointcd out that me' of worthy monarchs towards the Church or the importance of recording temporal grants by reason of the uncertainty of life and the deceitfulness of human nature. At the same time we can recc^nize considerable variety, and even elegance, in the diction employed which reminds us not infrequently of the style of the pontifical chancei>', especially when the Preamble opens with a sen- tentious expression* which seems to dispense with the necessity for an Invocation. It is a well-knowm feature of the style of the Continental chanceries that the consecutive formulas begin with rect^jnized catch- wordsw In the case of the Old English charters these distinctions are far less obvious and usually occur cmly in the Exposition of the Grant and the Sanction. The absence of one of these familiar introits is due to the omission in Old English diplomata of the Notification, which, like the Address, only occurs in irr^;ular forms. In the place of a Notification, therefore, the Preamble is followed immediately by the Exposition with which it is connected, as usual, by such w(M^ds as QuapropterT, Quamwbrem, &c. This clause may \xveAy refer to the circumstances or motive of the grant, as in the familiar Old English formulas pro renudio et salute atuma mae; pro ejus plac4ibili pecuma. It has beoi previously observed that tbe long and circumstantial narrations which occur in Old Engli^ and Continental diplomata alike are suspicious in the case of the former, at least. These interpolations, however, are not confined to the Exposition but are sometimes introduced into the Grant and SancticMi, and even into the Dating and Attesting clauses^ The essential wcagas|iaitofanewp ai agi a| )iii^^ yrfSmtwaA Imager. * In tdhe aeooad or the tkbd pecHB. The Anglo-Saxon Charters 195 or limitations of the Grant, or of the consideration for the same, if introduced here instead of in the Exposition. In each of these clauses there is ample scope for an expression of the national polity, and the rich harvest of constitutional and philo- logical terms thus preserved has been already reaped and garnered by industrious and skilful hands. It will be sufficient, therefore, to repeat that there are several features of the Old English formulas which may be regarded as national distinctions, such as the careful identification of the locality of the Grant and the description of its boundaries expressed in the vernacular calligraphy and diction. Indeed, we are almost tempted to conjecture that in some cases space may have been left by the scribe for the insertion of these particulars by a special " telligraphist,'' just as space was left for the rubric in copying MSS. Again, there is the well-known reservation of the Trinoda Neces- sitas, in connexion with the exemption from public burdens or royal exactions, together with the enumeration of particular liberties. The Sanction peculiar to these Anglo-Saxon charters is usually of a combined comminatory and promissory character. The introit Si quis will be verjj^ familiar to all students of the Codex, but a x-ariant occurs with the words AugcMtibus and Minuentibtts. It has often been remarked that the Old English diplomata differ from the Continental by the omission of all mention of the compensa- tion to be exacted for tran^ression. It might be added that the absence of the numerous provisos found in the Final clauses of the foreign types constitutes a further distinction, though some traces of an Injunctive or Prohibitive clause might possibly be found in genuine charters and can be clearly distinguished in the later verna- cular writs. The Old English diplomata which may^ be most profitaUy examined for the purpose of diplomatic study are perhaps those which range in point of date from the end of the 7th century to the middle of the 10th. Amongst these, the charters of the 7th and 8th centuries, being comparatively few in number, of a very miscellaneous character, and for the most part of doubtful authenticity, may be conveniently grouped together with the general characteristics of irregularity of form and traces of foreign influence. In the next group might be comprised the royal chart^s of the 9th century- and beyond, to the reign of .^thelstan. This is a period fertile in originals — and forgeries, but the sequence of formulas is, on the whole, well-preserx'cd and the kingly style is becotnii^ fixed. Finally, >3— ' 196 The Anglo-Saxon Charters with the reign of Eadward the Elder, certain formulas are more or less recurrent ; but of the diplomata of this king so many are con- firmations, innovations, narrations, so many indeed are later apo- graphs, that the inception of the new style must be deferred to the reign of iEthelstan. The third period begins with this reign and lasts till that of Cnut. For the first time we recognize the consistent use of appropriate formulas which recur, with the greatest precision, in the several dip- lomatic types to which they respectively belong. Thus a charter which begins with a Preamble in a certain form of words will usually contain a Superscription, Exposition, Grant, Sanction, Dating and Attesting clauses in an equally distinctive form ; that is to say, each of the charters which contains any one of these formulas will be found to agree with the other charters of the group in respect of this and the remaining formulas. There are of course variants and irregular forms, but these can scarcely affect the general proposition. And this is not all. We may even be able to ascertain that one or other of these distinctive forms is preferred during a certain period of the reign and that a particular form is employed for the composition of a batch of charters executed on the same occasion, or that it is especially affected by certain religious houses. This statement, however, is only true to a limited extent. It is certainly possible to point to well-marked formulas which appear to obtain during certain reigns and even during definite periods of those reigns 1 ; and it is also possible to show that a large proportion of a certain issue was appropriated by a particular housed At the same time it would be found that there are numerous revivals or survivals of other equally important formulas extending over a considerable period, whilst we have to reckon here once more with the question of the authenticity of our existing texts". In the reign of yEthelstan the Old English " land-boc " approaches the highest point of its development, as will appear from an analysis of formulas printed in the Appendix. An Invocation is prefixed to some thirty charters of this reign in the shape of a chrismon, but as comparatively few of these instruments have been preserved in a ^ e.g. in the case of the forms Flebilia fortiter used between the years 931 and 933, Fort una falkntis saeculi between 934 and 937 and Egregitis agonista in 938 and 939. Cf. Crawford Charters, iv. 1. 21 note, and 1. 40 note. '■* Thus five out of the ten forms Flebilia fortiter may be assigned to the church of Winchester. ■* Cf. Crawford Charters, p. 1 1 1 . The Anglo-Saxon Charters 197 contemporary form, some allowance should be made for possible embellishments. The favourite openings of this formula would seem to be Regnante Theo and In nomine Dei with several variants. As the choice of an English scribe in the case of Invocations was comparatively limited, the recurrence of these variants is not sur- prising. On the other hand the Preamble which offers a greater scope for individuality of design affords a far surer test of systematic composition. A Preamble is found in not fewer than 55 of king iCthelstan's charters, and of these several are found in combination with the appropriate formulas before referred to'. Thus in the case of the ten charters in which the Preamble begins with the words Flebilia fortiter detestanda^, there is no Invocation, the Superscription contains the periphrasis per omnipatrantis dexteram, for Dei gratia, the Exposition begins with Qua de re, the essential word of the Grant is tribuo, the Sanction begins with Si auteni and the Dating clause with Hujus namque. Finally, the royal Subscription usually contains the words ierarchia praedittis rex^. It will be noticed that in the great majority of charters which contain three typical Preambles of this reign an Invocation clause is not present*. In the remaining examples, with a few isolated exceptions", the Preamble is preceded by an Invocation with which it is either skilfully blended" or else distinguished by such words as Quoniam' or Quamvis^. As for the themes of the several Preambles of this reign, it is perhaps enough to .say that they are of the conventional types which are familiar to us in the diplomatic writings of other periods and other countries. That they contain any indications of the authenticity or otherwise of the several charters, or any allusions of historical or even of diplomatic intere.st might be a somewhat rash assertion, but as to the beauty and general purity of their style there can be no doubt. It has been already stated that the notice of an Exposition is an innovation in the recognized classification of the Old English diplomata. During this period, apart from the well-marked presence of the clause and its position with regard to the Preamble and Grant, » Above p. 196. « C. S. 635, 674, 675, 677, 689, 691, 69a, 694, 695, 696. ' In several ca.ses with variants (see Appendix). * See Appendix. » e.g. C. S. 663, 664, 665, 666, 667, 680, 681, 701, 713. * As in the majority of Charters beginning Kignante. ' Cf. C. S. 690. * Cf. C. S. 683. 198 The Anglo-Saxon Charters it usually contains nothing beyond the expression of a motive, material or spiritual, as the case may be. In a very few cases, however, the Exposition shows some approach to a narration or recital, or even a discursive tendency'. Besides the appropriate catch-words found in the Expositions of the special diplomatic forms given in an Appendix, certain inter- esting variants are found in the remaining charters of this reign. Qiiapropter is, of course, the favourite introit, and, next to this. Qua de re and Quaniobrejn. Unde and Proinde are obvious alternatives, but a pleasing variant is seen in Cujtis amore"^. At the same time it will be found that in a number of cases the Grant is simply announced with the words Ego ^tJielstanus. This is especially noticeable in those charters which have an Invocation clause but no Preambled The Grant being, with the exception of the Date, that part of the Old English charter which has received most attention from modern scholars, it is only necessary to refer briefly to its scope and com- position. Moreover, as the usual subject of these charters is a Grant of land, it will be evident that the clause in question must naturally be of a uniform nature. This, at least, is the case in the reign of .^thelstan, the announcement, description and conditions of the Grant being all well preserved. It will be seen by reference to the forms printed in an Appendix that of the disposing words the most characteristic is tribiio with variants such as condono, concedo, &c. As the vernacular description of the boundaries had formed an essential part of the Anglo-Saxon charter from the early part of the previous century it need scarcely be said that it appears in all the regular diplomata of this reign. The Sanction, like the Preamble, is, as we have seen, capable of considerable variation, and, unlike the latter clause, a characteristic formula cannot be distinguished in the linked charters above referred to. But most of these variations are merely verbal flourishes, and the Sanction might be called the Si quis clause with as much truth in iEthelstan's reign as in any other. One remarkable exception, how- ever, occurs in the substitution of a " glacial " curse for the usual threats of eternal fire. It has been suggested by an eminent scholar* that the charters containing this formula were the compositions of ^ C. S. 667, 670. - Cf. C. S. 663, 664, 667, 669, 745 for other variants. ^. For a confusion of this formula, see C. S. 660 and 746. * Sir F. Pollock who kindly called the writer's attention to this interesting variation in the year 1896. The Aftg/o-Saxon Charters 199 a scribe who had crossed the Alps and whose impressions of the journey have given an unusually realistic touch to this conventional clause. Curiously enough the use of this formula is confined to a period of ten years between 937 and 947 \ and would appear to have been affected by a small group of religious houses- which may have had a special interest in a legend of the Alps'. Returning to the Protocols of the charters of this reign, the style of the royal Superscription and Subscription will be found con- sistently preserved in the linked charter-formulas analysed in an Appendix and, speaking generally, the Superscription of this king should contain, in addition to the title rex Anglortini, a reference to the royal sway over these islands. This style is commonly repeated in the Subscription with the addition of the conventional words which denote the apposition of the Sigmim Cruets. At the same time it will be seen from the analysis given in the Appendix that a large margin must be left for the individual taste of the casual composer, the royal title being often given in such an archaic form as ^thelstanus rex, or rex Anglorum, or even Angiil- Saxonum. The Subscriptions of the witnesses at large show a distinct advance in respect of uniformity, the usual formula being Ego A. consensi et subscripsi. There are a few slight flourishes in the signa- tures of the bishops. The signature of the primate is frequently distinguished by the formula Cum trophaeo agyae cruets consignavi, whilst the characteristic signature of the bishop of Winchester is still more striking. The Dating clause affords one more evidence of the precision of these linked formulas. Thus a charter of yEthelstan which begins with the Preamble FlebiliafortiterdetestandaoxFortiinafallentis saeculi will have a Dating clause beginning Hnjus namque; whilst a charter be- ginning with Neminem quippeox Egregitis agonista will commence the Dating clause with Acta est. In other cases we find the usual order > C. S. 714, 7i8, 734, 741, 753, 756, 757, 759, 767, 781, 783, 813, 8ai, the majority of which l)elong to the reign of Edmund. ■■' Christchurch (Canterbury), Winchester, Bath, Wilton, and later copyists (proliably) at Shaftesbury, Wells, Malmesbury and Abingdon. * That the dangers of this mediaeval journey were impressive may be gathered from the weiril legend preservetl by William of Malmesbury {Gtsta Pontificunty 15) which relates how the curse of Archbishop Odo overtook .I'llfsige, Bishop of Winchester, in the frozen passes of the Alps. Still more significant is the passage in which John of Salisbury writing from the Great St Bernard prays to W released from " this place of torment " (of. .Stubl>s, Oxford Lectures, p. n8). 200 The Anglo-Saxon Charters of the formulas reversed and the charter begins Anno Dominicae incarnationis^, &c. It was not to be expected that a series of elegant formulas should begin and end with the reign of yEthelstan. Some of these, especially the forms of the Invocation, can be traced back to the reign of vElfred or even earlier, whilst others again recur in the charters of this king's immediate successors^. In some respects, indeed, it might be held that in the reigns of Eadmund, Eadred and Eadwy the Old English diplomata reach their highest state of natural development. That is to say, there is, all things considered, evidence of greater originality and resourcefulness than we can find in the more artificial and irregular forms of the later Anglo-Saxon monarchy. In proof of this it would be found that the scribes of the later period have constant recourse to the conventional formulas of earlier dictators, unless these manifest revivals are to be attributed to the deliberate imitations of unscrupulous fabricators. The formulas of Eadmund are particularly interesting. The style of the Superscriptions and Subscriptions of this king resemble those of ^thelstan, and there is, of course, little change to be noticed in the phraseology of the Invocation, Grant, Sanction* and Date. On the whole there is a larger proportion of Invocations, and many distinc- tive Preambles are preceded by Regnante, In nomine, or some such formula^. With these we have a recurrence of older formulas, which indeed reappear at intervals down to the reign of the Confessor^ The charters of Eadred are also characterized by mingled grace and simplicity and a characteristic formula of Subscription appears as indeclinabiliter subscripsi. In one case, at least, we meet with a charter modelled on the Continental system, and this must neces- sarily be regarded with suspicion". Under Eadwy the conventional Preambles, which have already undergone several modifications', are conspicuously florid. The Superscription of this king also affects the imperial style which is such a noticeable feature of the diplomata of this later periods The reign of Eadgar furnishes nearly 300 diplomata of one sort or another, and these present us with a considerable variety of ^ See Appendix. ^ Cf. Crawford Charters, p. in. * It is noticeable that Ananias and Sapphira are frequently introduced in the place of Judas. * Cf. C. S. 749, 791, 796, 808. For exceptions to this practice, cf. C. S. 763, 768, 770, 776, 786. « Cf. C. S. 752, 798, 814, 817. « C. S. 860, 7 Cf. C. S. 867, 868, 901, 955, 964, 982, 986, 1031. * He is also described as indiistrius Rex (or Basileus). The Anglo-Saxon Charters 201 formulas, though the general character of the period is still a con- servative one'. The Preambles, however, are of a didactic and Scriptural type. In the royal style Dei gratia occurs, usually, in forgeries of Westminster and Croyland. A typical Attesting clause has been noted in conjunction with appropriate formulas^ With few exceptions the same remarks might apply to the examples 'of the fourth period of Old English diplomatic writings, which extends from the invasion of Cnut to the Norman Conquest. So far as the regular diplomata of this period are concerned, beyond the final evolution of the royal style*, there is very little variation in the now stereotyped formulas, the old familiar Invocations and Pre- ambles recurring with monotonous regularity* as though the scribes of this later age suffered from poverty of invention. At the same time we must date from the beginning of this period the rapid development of a novel method of diplomatic composition which was destined to supersede entirely the typical forms of the Old English charter in the course of the following century. At least as early as the reign of Eadgar we begin to notice the presence of a new class of diplomatic instruments in the pages of our Codex. These diplomata are written entirely in the Old English character and language. Not only so, but they include during the nth century a class of instruments composed in a style that is totally distinct from that of the Latin charters of the period, a style so precise and so well adapted to the growing requirements of the kingly state, that it survived the Conquest itself and forms the basis of the royal writ which has been continuously employed down to our own time. The importance of the above innovation will be easily recognized ; but the fact is one that may .seem to stand in need of something more than mere assertion. Stated in the briefest possible way the case is this, that the Old English writ is found to contain the elements, at lea.st, of a Superscription, Address, Salutation, Notification, Exposi- tion, Disposition, Date and Attestation. Thus it is seen to approach more closely to the Continental type than the insular Latin charter. In fact we have here an epistolary style represented by certain formulas* which have not hitherto been observed in the native diplo- ' Cf. C. S. 1074, IJ59, i377i i.^n- ' By the editors of the Crawford Charters (p. 117). The formulii is as follows: Scripta tit huj'iis donatiouis singrapha, hits testibus consmtientihus, quortim in/erius nomina caraxantur. " Cf. C. D. DCCLXXIV, DCCLXXXIII, DCCXCH, DCCXCVI, &C. * i.e. the Address, Salutation, Notification and Valediction. 202 The Anglo-Saxon Charters mata, whilst other formulas\ which are especially characteristic of the latter instruments, are suppressed or greatly modified. That is to say, whilst the Invocation and Preamble are omitted, the Exposition and Disposition develop new and distinct formulas with a tendency, in the case of the latter, towards the insertion of final clauses after the Continental fashion. Finally, it may be observed that the scope and purpose of the writ itself are conducive to that brevity and precision which are associated with the native post-Conquest formulas. In the vernacular instruments to which we have referred it will be found that the Superscription hitherto remarkable for its dififuseness is the simplest and the most consistent of all these formulas. It comprises the royal style in the words Ic A. cynige, or, merely, A. cynige, and no more. As no Subscriptions are appended to the Old English writ, this formula may be regarded as an anticipation of the brevity of the later official style employed on like occasions. Whether we should go a step further and assume that this informality of style and neglect of an official Subscription may be explained, in this case, by the use of a royal seal, is one of those vexed questions which we have already learnt to expect in the study of Old English diplomatal The Superscription of this writ is followed by an Address, a clause which is now found for the first time. Its usual form is that of a particular or local and not a general address^ The persons usually addressed are the Bishop or Earl, or both, together with all the King's thegns within a certain shire ; in fact all the officials of the County Court. In some well-known cases the Address includes the officers in every shire in which the beneficiary has lands. This Address, therefore, unlike the Superscription, is not merely conventional. On the other hand, the Salutation and Notification, which follow it, consist of stereotyped phrases, interesting only on account of their exact correspondence with the parallel formulas of the later Anglo- Norman writ^. The Exposition which should introduce the Text of the instru- ment is seldom clearly marked. Even in the regular Latin diploma of the period, as we have seen, its presence is obscure, and in a writ ^ i.e. the Invocation, Preamble, Disposition and Sanction. ^ See above, p. i68 sq. * A general or universal Address is sometimes found but this, especially when directed to the arch-bishops, bishops, abbots, earls, sheriffs, port reeves and household officers, may be regarded with suspicion. * See below, p. 219. The Anglo-Saxon Charters 203 there is obviously less need or scope for a recitation or narrative. At the same time we may regard this rudimentary clause as the precursor of the well-known Movent clause of the post-Conquest writ. Here it is usually an expression of the royal will, revealing a benevolent or pious motived More rarely an actual recital or narrative is given of the circumstances which immediately led to the issue of the present instrument, or a former donative or conveyance is recited by way of certification. The Dispositive clause which represents the Grant of the regular diploma is at once the most characteristic and the least regular of any other portion of the Old English writ. In a majority of cases it must be regarded as a precept confirming or completing the privi- leges or possessions already conveyed by a former grant. In other cases, however, these are actually granted or conveyed by the writ itself, though whether such instruments (like those of a later period) should be designated as writs or as charters, or whether they are in all cases genuine, are questions which are deserving of some consideration. The Dispositive clause, then, in the typical Old English writ takes the form of a declaration or precept which is usually expressed in one or other of two very similar forms. The first of these follows a brief Notification, closely resembling that of later times, stating that the King, from certain motives, has granted or confirmed the following parcels or privileges ; to which is usually added, by way of a Final clause, a Prohibition, intimating that nothing will be permitted to prejudice the benefit of the said grant. The second form is that of a mere precept for securing peaceful possession of a privilege or property without any statement of a grant. Each of these variations furnishes distinct formulas. In the one case the usual expression is ic habbe geunncn, with certain variant.s. In the other the injunction may take a greater variety of forms^ The description of the premises granted or confirmed is usually expressed in the same terms as those found in Latin charters of the ' e.g. For mynre sawle &" for ealre mynra maga and for aelrt there Kytiga sawle the aefter me, &'c. ' A nuniljer of examples will be found in the Codex Diploinaticm between Nos. Dcccxxvii and Dcccxcvi. Here the O.E. letters have l)een modernized. Such forms as If willt thcut A. habben, ox friglice habben ; or thaet thai lond at X. lige iitto A. — ; that alle thinge lige into A.— ; thaet the Sokne lige into A.— ; thaet A. werie now hiss lond—; thaet A. beo his landes wrihe ; or his saca wrthe and his soina are commonly found. The Injunctive or Prohibitive clauses referretl to will be easily recogni/.eealth), cf. Dialogus, I. v, vi, xiii. * Red Bool; ji. xxii ; Dia/ogits {Oar. Press), p. 18. 2i6 A^iglo-Norman Chmders and Writs distinction of form and regardless of the authenticity of the selected texts. In the place of such an arbitrary and artificial arrangement it is surely more desirable that the elementary distinctions between public and private, pre-Conquest and post- Conquest, English and Continental diplomata should first be established^ Even when this has been accomplished, it will still be necessary to determine which specimens shall be admitted as genuine examples. To constitute an important genus from a few undescribed species is scarcely in keeping with scientific methods of research. It is from the study of original instruments alone that we can hope to obtain any real knowledge of the composition of the post- Conquest diplomata. A copy or entry in a cartulary or register presents in most cases an abbreviated form of the Initial and Final Protocols. An official enrolment, even of a considerably later date, will frequently preserve a fuller version of the original ; but in any case it is unsealed. Again, though this copy or enrolment may have preserved the names of the witnesses who subscribe an Anglo-Norman charter on a pre-Conquest model, they would possibly fail to re- produce the accompanying "signatures" ; for "►J« Willelmus Rex" is one thing, but 'r^r- is quite another^ Moreover, we require to know the size of the parchment and its shape ; how it is " cut " or " folded " for the attachment of the seal and the character of the writing itself together with the spacing of the words. In any one of these details there may be affectations or omissions that will invite a further scrutiny, for it is everything to determine whether the scribe of a doubtful charter was fraudulent or merely careless. With regard to the external form of the documents in question the Anglo-Norman diploma is usually written on an oblong or square piece of parchment varying in size from 3 or 4 inches to a foot. Exaggeration in size or shape is nearly always a suspicious indication I The Great SeaH is usually attached during this period by a double ^ Bracton's well-known classification of diplomatic instruments (Book 11. c. 16) not only belongs to a later period but is more valuable for its definitions of private than of royal charters. "^ Cotton Charter, vui. C5. '^ e.g. W^estminster (Cotton Charter, vi. 3). ^ For the purpose of comparison with foreign types the colour of the Great Seal during this period is a matter of some interest. It is well-known that the seals of the nth century are of a whitish hue whilst those of Henry I and Henry H are coated with a rich reddish- brown varnish. Towards the end of the 12th century green is chiefly affected and this colour continued in vogue during the mediaeval period. Under Henry IH a walnut coloured varnish was employed with good effect compared with the brown and yellow or virgin wax used in a later period. For the dimensions and legends of the seals, see Messrs Wyons' well-known work and Mr Birch's list in Report of Index Soc. 1879, Appx. 11. Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs 217 strip or thong of parchment from the centre of the lower margin which is folded in order to furnish a better support. In some cases, however, no fold has been made, whilst in others it has apparently been made as an afterthought and actually conceals part of the writing^ The attachment of the thong to the fold is effected by various ingenious devices. Usually it was passed through two transverse slits made in the centre of the fold in such a way as to ride upon the upper edge of the incision, the ends hanging down on either side of the fold. These loose ends were inclosed in the body of the seal which could not be removed without cutting either the thong or the fold of the charter. Although there seems to have been no absolute rule in this matter, it will be found that in the greater number of charters of this period that are unquestionably genuine the two transverse incisions above referred to are both present ; whilst in certain doubtful charters a single incision only will be found-. Exceptions certainly occur in each case, but the practice in point is deserving of attention, though after the end of the 12th century it has very slight importance. The dimensions and texture of the thong itself should also be noted, since this was frequently obtained by cutting a strip from the top margin of the charter itself, and this is sometimes found to con- tain a trial line of writing which may also have been intended to assist identification*. The occurrence of a thong cut from a different parchment will be frequently noticed in charters of a very question- able character. It is well known that seals were attached to early charters by some other substance than a parchment thong, silk, hemp, and even leather being used for this purpose. The cords made of these sub- stances were usually braided on the fold in a rectangular or lozenge- shaped pattern, after passing through eye-lets, the loose ends being enveloped by the seal as before. It would perhaps be found that many of the charters in which the seals are attached by cords during this period were executed abroad or prepared by a foreign expert. The writ in most cases is easily distinguished from the charter by its long and narrow form, the length being usually about three times the width of the parchment. This peculiar shape was doubtless due to the practice of attaching the seal to a strip cut from right to left ' Add. Ch. lot 20. ' In some suspicious cases the thong has been passed through one of the incisions only, as though a new thong had been attached in the style prevailing at a later date. •' D'Anisy, Charles de Calvados, p. 9 sq. 2r8 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs along the lower margin of the document. But below this strip another and much narrower strip was first cut out, both remaining attached at the base to the left-hand margin of the writ for a space of about an inch. To the upper and broader of these two strips the seal was attached, the narrower one being evidently intended to serve as a ligament to secure the writ when folded round the seal. This was necessary to prevent the weight of the seal from tearing through the neck of the thong, and the device resembles that afterwards used for .securing letters missive. In many cases, indeed, the seal has been already torn away from this cause, and has even been reattached by an incision being made in the centre of the lower margin, to imitate the attachment of the pendent seal of a true diploma. Perhaps the significance and interest of the system of attachment used in the case of the writ have been scarcely appreciated in con- nexion with diplomatic criticism. In the case of many existing writs of the nth and 12th centuries which do not bear seals, it is sometimes possible to determine whether or not a seal was originally attached, from the indentation or scar (so to speak) which should be visible in the left-hand margin. Moreover, it will not infrequently be found that later forgeries of Old English and Anglo-Norman writs, whilst preserving at least the indications of the attachment of a seal, usually fail to reproduce the ligament. Again, the presence or absence of these " scars " will often enable us to distinguish between an original writ and an official rescript, a matter of some consequence since, in the earliest period at least, writs were rarely enrolled, " rescripts " being filed instead. Although this simple form of attachment was chiefly used for writs, as opposed to charters, the latter are sometimes found to be executed in this manner. Letters Patent and Close were also frequently "cut" in this way', and the practice in point serves as a rough distinction between Patents that are writs and those that are virtual charters, the latter usually bearing the seal suspended from the centre of the lower margin by incisions made in a " fold." In certain cases the Anglo-Norman writ is found to be cut in an abnormal manner. One such variation appears in the form of a broad flange cut out from either the lower margin or from one of the ^ In the 13th century this form of attachment was sometimes picturesquely described as in cedula and the liability to detachment was a convenient pretext for an " Innovation." This attachment of the pendent seal is also a device familiar to continental notaries. It is neatly described by French antiquaries as the "simple queue," but stress is not laid by these authorities on the presence of a ligament. It was also largely used for private diplomata, being often cut for numerous seals in the case of indentures or certificates. Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs 219 extremities of the instrument'. Here the breadth and shortness of the " tail " must have prevented the seal from appearing pendent in the usual sense. No ligament is found in these forms, which are prima facie of a suspicious character. It will be observed that in the case of writs which are closely assimilated to the charter in respect of their diplomatic construction and use, the depth of the parchment is increased at the same time that its length is diminished. Moreover, the seal is frequently attached from the centre of the lower margin on a fold as in the true charter. id) Anglo-Norman Diplomatic Formulas. It has been observed before that, until the urgent need of a critical Cartularuim Anglo- Normannicnm has been supplied, it is impracticable to attempt an adequate diplomatic description of the post-Conquest diplomata. As, however, such a task is perhaps within the powers of but two or three scholars of our own time, we must for the present make shift with the results of a desultory study of the composition of the contemporary diplomata. To begin with the writ ; it will be noticed that the formal Super- scription in the post-Conquest forms exhibits a distinct advance upon the Old English style. To the formula A. rex Anglorum the qualifi- cation Dei gratia is not frequently added before the reign of Henry I, and it has recently been argued by M. Delisle in a notable essay'' that this diplomatic formula comes into regular use from the year 1173. Other expansions in early native charters must be regarded with some suspicion. Under Henry H, however, when the writ has been diverted from its original purpose, the full style of the sovereign is used indiscriminately in both charters and writs. The Address of the post-Conquest writ varies in a rather per- plexing manner. At first the persons specifically charged with its execution are usually of the same type as in Old English charters. From a very early date, however, we meet with writs, the authenticity of which it would not be always easy to dispute, addressed at large in the style of the formal diploma, namely to the Archbishops and other magnates. It is true that in the writ as well as in the charter a general Address in such words as et omnibus ministris et fidelibus suis, ' Cotton Charter, vu. i ; Ibid. X. 8. * liihl. de riLioU Jes Chartes, Lxvii. p. 361 sq. and LXVlll. p. aya sq. The acceptance of this learned theory dei)entls chiefly on the reader's point of view with regard to certain charters of this reign; but see Mr J. II. Round in Anh. Jo. i.xiv. 63. 2 20 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs Francis et Anglis^ is usually appended to the designation, but this expansion has not the same significance as the conventional Address which became a stereotyped feature of the " new model " charter. Whether the occurrence of this later Address in writs or even in original charters dated before the Anarchy is to be regarded as a suspicious indication is a very difficult question. Admitting, however, that the formula inevitably occurs in many forgeries, there would seem to be no constitutional objection to dating the origin of the practice from the reign of Henry P. The sententious form of Salutation must be regarded as a normal feature of diplomatic as opposed to epistolary composition. In the case of the Notification which ushers in the text of the instrument much greater latitude usually prevails. In the post-Conquest writs, however, this clause is perhaps less frequently omitted than in a later period. An Exposition reciting the occasion or motive of the precept is not, of course, at any time a characteristic feature of the writ. A brief recitation of the purport of a former grant is, however, frequently found, and in 1 2th century specimens the usual declaration of a pious motive constantly occurs as in Old English writs. Similarly a true Disposi- tive clause cannot be looked for in a mere precept, although the efifect of the writ may amount to an actual concession^ The usual form is that of an Injunction, or Prohibition, as the case may be, and this is expressed by such words as prcecipio, mando, volo, or else proJiibeo or nolo. The forcible expression of the sovereign's will seldom requires to be amplified by a recitative Final clause such as usually occurs in charters of feoffment ; but conditions or reservations are sometimes introduced. In this connexion several distinctive man- nerisms will be noticed in Anglo-Norman writs, amongst these being a tendency to ejaculation, and the somewhat irrelevant use of such words as amodo, ita and quia. In fact the forgers of such instruments were not slow to grasp the distinctive value of these virile phrases, and their indiscriminate use may afford an additional cause for diplomatic criticism'*. ^ The extension of this form of Address to the Welsh or Irish may be regarded as having a local significance. "^ In many cases, however, these seeming writs are really charters. * In certain diplomata of Henry I's reign a grant of liberties takes the form of a string of exemptions beginning with Et ne — . These instruments may probably be regarded as charters rather than writs. * In the case of grants to churches the name of the titular saint appears as the grantee (e.g. S. Ethe]reda = Ely), a graphic statement which is constantly reproduced in later charters. Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs 221 Another characteristic addition is seen in the significant intimation of the penalties of non-observance which replaces the old ecclesiastical Sanction ' ; but this, like the later order for speedy execution, may be introduced parenthetically in the injunction itself. Finally, as we have seen, a new feature is presented in the Attestation and Dating clauses which, however, like the clauses of the Initial Protocol, are merely abbreviated from the more ceremonious diploma. Like the latter, too, the writ is executed by means of a seal, the distinctive attachment of which has been already described. The distinctive formulas of the conventional charter, modelled upon the lines of the Anglo-Norman writ, cannot be described with any degree of precision before the middle of the 12th century. The constitutional intention and the legal effect of the post-Conquest charter may be derived directly from the existing model of the Old English " land-boc " and from the analogy of the contemporary conti- nental practice ; but the diplomatic construction of this instrument must be ascribed to the influence of the post-Conquest writ. Here was found ready-made the outline of the royal charter, procured with the old constitutional formalities but composed and executed accord- ing to the new official requirements, if for no other purpose than to supplement the royal revenues. The Protocols needed only to be amplified by an Address to the old optiniates and an Attestation by the new ciiriales, with the embellishment of a pendent seal. A precedent was already found for dispensing with the turgid Preamble and the primitive Sanction, and for expressing the purport of the Dispositive and Final clauses in con- cise and conventional formulas. The tenor, however, even of these last may be traced back to pre-Conquest or Continental models. The words of donation are virtually the same, except that for graceful variants of " dono " or " tribuo " we have plain " do," " concedo " and " confirmo." So the famous Habendum et tenendum clause, which does not, however, become stereotyped until the next century, has its earlier counterpart in the Old English fruendum, and the hereditary notion and sense of perpetuity may occur in both versions. Again, the typical conditions of the post-Conquest gift, the bene ct in pace^ libere et quiete, integre et honorificc are already familiar to us, whilst we have in the inevitable cum saca et soca clause a mere version of the mid sac and mid socne of the vernacular writ. A new ' Li rare and possibly suspicious cases a specific money fine is imposed for disturbance of the grantee, but this penalty clause was always permissible in the case of forest rights. 222 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs note is perhaps struck in the appendix, cum omnibus libertatibics et liheris consuetudinibus suis, for " liberties " and " customs " were held in greater honour by the I2th century forger than by the i ith century scribe, and the exact equivalent of the Old English formula mid ealla — belymneth is rather found in the Latin version cum omnibus aliis rebus. On the whole, however, the rhythm of the conventional " parcels " flows smoothly from either pen. In bosco et piano and the rest were in fact still interchangeable, in the I2th century, with the vernacular On wode and 07i felde and other diplomatic sing-songs. At the same time the arrangement of these kindred formulas in the later period is far more precise and scientific, though possibly the Latin version lends a learned glamour to a vernacular writ. Yet a study of the technical distinctions between the Anglo-Norman grant and confirmation will show how skilfully the common formulas were utilized to produce new diplomatic types. Swa full may find its equation in Ita plene, and sicut unquam plenius may have its bilingual complement ; but the Old English diploma will not by a simple reference^ or by the omission of an essential word^ indicate a broad distinction between two common diplomatic forms. {e) Special Charter FormsK The above analogy applies almost entirely to donations or con- firmations of land. In the new diplomatic types which appear in the post-Conquest period we shall have new Dispositive forms made to order, and sometimes these are even labelled by contemporary scribes. Thus a grant introducing the word reddidisse* is termed a " charter of Retrocession," though restitution was also effected by a simple con- firmation or by a new donation. Amongst these special forms of early royal charters the grant in Free Alms is perhaps the most familiar, and here besides the essential and distinctive words of donation" there are appropriate comple- mentary formulas". Grants of ofifice will contain appropriate expressions in the Dis- ^ Sicut carta — testattir. ^ Dedisse. ■* See Fortiiula Book, Nos. ii — 18. * Sciatis me reddidisse et per hanc cartain coiifirniasse (or retrocessisse), but this is a purely arbitrary title. Thus the word condonasse might be said to constitute a royal pardon. " In pura, perpettia et libera elemosyna. , ® SiaU aliqua ecclesia — quiet ius vel libeidus tenet aliquani eleinosynam, &c. Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs 223 positive and Movent clauses, though for legal purposes the officinm or ministerium is treated as a freehold. In consideration of service rendered', the grantee is invested with a modest daily "livery" in respect of a certain "custody" or " ministry" which he is henceforth entitled to perform, ita bene, &c., and with the enjoyment of the con- siietiidincs thereto pertaining, siciit aliquis illnd melius, &c., tempore, &c. If we may accept certain 12th century sources as authentic, the form of the grant of a market or fair may be traced back to the reign of Henry I, and the technical formulas with regard to the period and duration of the licence and other particulars would not seem to differ in any way from a similar charter executed in the next century^ The forest charters of the period are particularly interesting, and the genuine examples exhibit well-marked formulas. The greater number of these, however, may more properly be regarded as writs, addressed either to the Barons of the Exchequer^ for exemption from common assessments, or more usually to the local foresters enjoining that certain holdings non nunierentur inter essarta*. In the case of a formal charter of this nature the general Address may be supplemented by the insertion of the Forestarii, and the Dispositive clause usually specifies the concession of so many acres of assart in a certain forest. This is followed by the usual injunction for security of tenure and exemption from assart fines and other pleas of the forest. Grants of warren differ from the above in respect of a prohibition for other parties to chase within the warren except by licence of the grantee, under a specified penalty'. From the above examples it will be seen that the Dispositive formulas of post-Conquest charters are capable of a considerable amount of differentiation. The Final clau.ses of these diplomata, though possessing a distinct individuality, do not exhibit many variations. The characteristic Injunction which explains or supplements the terms of the donation or concession has been already referred to in its bilingual aspect*. ' Pro servitio suo with its well-known expansion in later Patents, tu^is hactenus itnptnso, &'c. » Car/. Antiq. R. XXI. » Cf. Dutloj^is, I. xi. * The hcau ideal of such a concession may be seen in the case of the forged charter (Atuient Deeds, A. S. 308) of Henry I claimed by the monks of Gloucester and produced by them in evidence as late as the i6th century {Hist. Man. S. Petri Gloiu. (Rolls), 11. 187). * See below, p. 214, n. 4. • Above, p. aao. 224 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs The grant itself is frequently accompanied by a Reservation which may be of a generaP or specific^ nature. Similarly the Injunction may be strengthened by a Prohibition* against molestation which is not infrequently accompanied by the statement of a penalty which is sometimes in the form of a definite assessment, as in charters of the warren* and charters of liberties^, but in other cases, especially in ecclesiastical grants, it may be regarded as a reminiscence of the ancient Sanction''. Finally, as we have seen, this penal or com- minatory clause has become in the early years of the next century a mere official interjection'', although the statement of a precise penalty is still to be found in modern Proclamations. The interesting development in diplomatic composition which is completed in the 13th century by the virtual division of charters of feoffment into two parts, the enacting and the recitative parts respectively, will be referred to in another place. At the same time a distinct tendency in this direction can be clearly recognized from the middle of the 1 2th century, and the recitative or injunctive clause also begins usually with the words Qtiare volo. There are many miscellaneous points of interest connected with the diplomatic compositions of this period, but one remaining feature only can be noticed here. The facility with which a 12th century scribe could expand the body of a ceremonious or momentous charter, especially of confirmation, finds a precedent, as we have seen, even in the pre-Conquest period. Perhaps here also such amplifications may be regarded as being to some extent suspicious, except in the case of charters of liberties or conventions. It is in fact easy to understand how so many interpolations have been made without detection in charters of this period ; for one more after-thought would be of little moment in these laboured narratives. Here Prceterea and Insuper afford inexhaustible openings for the royal benevolence, whilst scilicet and nominativi play their part in ear-marking disputed parcels. ^ Ita qitod, &■€. salvo, Cs'c. ^ Excepto, ^c. Reddendo, &^c. 3 Et ita ne, &^c. Quia nolo, &^c\ El prohibeo, <;fc. and the significant hint Ne super hoc amplius inde daniot-etn audiam pro pem/ria justitia:. "* This penalty due to the Crown came to be chiefly effective as deterring an offender from defending an action for trespass. •^ The Et si clauses ending with an einendatio. * In some cases this is actually preserved in the Old English form. ^ Sicut te ipsttm dfc. diligas. Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs 225 f. Private Charters and Deeds. It still remains for us to glance at the independent construction of the private charters of the period. In some respects it might appear that here the post-Conquest scribes were equally indebted to Old English models ; but the obligation is confined to the general style and does not extend to the special forms that were evolved from the primitive Convention. For the familiar types of these Ancient Deeds undoubtedly exceed, in variety as well as in number, the forms of the post-Conquest Chancery. The common forms of feoffment, however, are clearly constructed upon an official model, particularly in the case of charters executed by the churches or by the great barons\ These charters, both of feoffment and confirmation differ only from royal instruments in respect of the Initial Protocol, which is usually couched in an impersonal and narrative form*. There is no Salutation in normal cases, but the Exposition is very prominent. The Dispositive clause is precise and technical, but the characteri.stic Final clauses of the royal diplomata are naturally wanting. In their place, however, the legal warranty is very conspicuous and affords many interesting variants. The Final Protocol differs but little from official forms, but is frequently preceded by an annunciatory clause. The presence of witnesses who are undescribed by name is indicated by the words " et multis aliis." Finally, the seal is never, except in the case of very great men, attached to a single thong cut from the bottom of the document^ but is pendent from the centre of the lower margin though cords are not used as in the case of the royal charter. In addition to the usual charters of donation or confirmation we find many charters of Foundation and Frankalmoigne, executed by private donors, which resemble in most respects the similar produc- ' Possibly were it not for the dearth of Northumberland diplomata we should be able to add to these typical formulas some interesting variants from the Scriptorium of the great north-country earldom or the chancery of the episcopal palatinate. This supposition is perhaps justified by the survival of a few vernacular writs dating from the close of the nth century in which we find an Address to thegns and drengs and in one instance the Notification "Wite ge" together with suitable dialectic equivalents for the conventional terms found in Old English writs of the periotl. Cf. J. Wilson in Scott. Hist. Rtv. I. 6a. Ilickes, Thesaurus, i. 149. Two of these writs have l)een edited with a wealth of learning and excellent reproductions by I'rof. F. Liel)ermann in Archiv. Neutrcn Sprachen, cxi. 3, 4. ' Omnibus hanc cartatn visuris, &'c. ego, &'c. .Sciant pnesentes et/ufuri, i^c. Notum sit omnibus, &'c. Noverint universi, &'c. > An instance occurs in the case of a writ of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, to his bailitfs of Exeter, as late as the year 1 156. H. iS 2 26 Anglo-Norman Charters and Writs tions of the Royal Chancery. Another diplomatic form based on the Old English cyrograph, although occasionally utilised in this period for official purposes, is not of frequent occurrence amongst the Chancery Records until the next century. Of this class the Concord or Convention and the Bond are the best known examples. The Quit-claim, Release or Surrender is properly a form of Feoffment, and charters of Attornment are also complementary thereto ; but we are not here concerned with the evolution of diplomatic forms, the occur- rence of which in official archives is purely accidental and in some cases at least irregular\ ^ On the other hand the charters of the great palatine earls and princely bishops precede those of the crown in the sequence of mediaeval title deeds in certain countries {e.g. Lancaster, Chester). For the form of an alleged seignorial charter of manumission see The Ancestor, XII. \^. LATER CHARTERS AND DIPLOMATIC INSTRUMENTS. (a) The English Chancery from the i^th to the \6th centziry. We have seen that in the case of the Anglo-Norman charters it is almost useless, for lack of a critical Codex Diplomaticus, to attempt the reconstruction of the establishment and apparatus of the royal Chancery which first appears as an administrative institution during the period immediately following the Norman Conquest. The same objection applies with almost equal force to the later mediaeval period, from the close of the I2th century down to the beginning of the i6th, when the Chancery is at last fully occupied with legal business and its secretarial duties are discharged by a new ministerial department. It is true that in this later period we are chiefly concerned with oflficial enrolments in which the constitution and practice of the Chancery can be read at large, with the help of formula books for official writs, ordinances, accounts, correspondence, and mediaeval treatises^ But though we need have less concern as to the authen- ticity of contemporary instruments we are still confronted with a number of suspicious forms which have found a place in the later Confirmation Rolls through the simplicity or greed of royal officers. Again, although the Chancery Rolls for these three centuries are becoming rapidly accessible for historical study by means of an admirable series of calendars and texts, this form of publication does not take note of the departmental usages with which we are here concerned. The commonplace books of the learned editors engaged in these official calendars would doubtless supply most of the trivial information which is needed for a diplomatic study of the period*; ^ One of the most valuable of these sources, for the internal economy of the Chancery, is the series of Hanai^er Accounts which have been hitherto comparatively neglected. ' Amongst the points of diplomatic interest which thus await solution, chiefly in connexion with the practice of sealing, may be mentionetl the following: (t) the practice of issuing Letters under the Great Seal, e.g. during a minority, and by the state departments, (j) Substituted and abnormal or sj^ecial forms. (3) Duplicate or triplicate charters or " pairs" of Letters. {4) Rescripts and contrabrnna. (5) The method and progress of enrolment. (6) The procedure of scaling with Great and Smaller Seals, the " half-seal "' and the " cold- seal," &c. (7) The fees and revenue of the seals. 2 28 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments but for the time being this source must remain unexplored except for the casual illustrations that may be gleaned from a cursory exami- nation of the existing texts\ This deferred knowledge must also include many details regarding the internal economy of the Chancery itself Our complete ignorance of the nature of the alleged establish- ment during the earlier post-Conquest period is, indeed, eventually relieved by the interesting allusions contained in the I2th century tracts previously referred to^. But the interpretation even of these authorities is in doubt, and a wide gap remains to be filled before the records of the next century bring us new enlightenment. In the reign of King John the royal Chancery is evidently endowed with important functions. As a court of law it can hardly be said to exist, whilst as a secretariat it has not yet attained a complete organization ; but such as it is, it is supreme, we are told^, in the king's name. The ancient officers of state who, since the reign of Henry II, have withdrawn themselves from the Exchequer on the king's business, are at the disposal of this central establishment. The Marshall prepares his roll of musters or scutages, the Constable is responsible for the " liveries " of the household and the wages of the retinue. The Justiciar with the Chancellor, who is to succeed to his importance, or his deputy, are always near the King. They attest writs which serve, according to their form, as precepts, pro- hibitions, commissions and acquitances. With them are found the household Chamberlains, and a crowd of unplaced curiales, with a limited number of royal clerks. Such is the court whose activity is represented in the earliest Chancery Rolls ; but although the Chancellor and his staff compose its instruments, they do not dictate its policy. Meanwhile the older court, the Qiria Regis of the last century, has settled down to its purely judicial business, though its justices may still be employed, on occasion, in a variety of administrative enquiries. The Exchequer, which provides the sinews of the new state-craft, is as vigilant and as powerful as ever. All promissory transactions are passed on to it by the Chancery, and it scrutinizes 1 Since this was written much assistance has been given to the student by two admirable volumes of a Calendar of Charter Rolls to 1300, prepared by Mr C. G. Crump under the direction and supervision of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, who is himself profoundly learned in the technicalities of this subject. ^ Cf. above, p. 215, as to the Dialogus and Constitictio Domus Regis. A valuable descrip- tion of the 13th and 14th century apparatus from an archaeological point of view is contained in the histories of the Rolls Chapel by Sir H. Maxwell Lyte {D. K. ^"ilh Report) and Mr W. J. Hardy (Middlesex and Herts. Notes and Qtieries, Vol. 11. p. 49). ^ Cf. Hist, of English Law, i. 172 sq. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 229 the proceedings of the Justices with a view to fiscal profit. The whole revenue passes through the day-books of the Receipt, and even the most secret diplomatic or financial operations of the crown, transacted in the Chapel or the Wardrobe, are entered in official precedent books. With all this activity and interest around us, we are still, in the 13th century, without exact information as to the clerical establishment and housing of the royal Chancery. Towards the end of that century we begin to realize that the Chancery has out-grown the Chapel and the Camera clericorutn of the peripatetic Court. Its clerks now occupy houses of their own, the head-quarters of the later Chancery departments, in a new centre of clerical activity'. The division between the Chancery and the Secretariat has already begun. On the one side we see the growing occupation of the Chancellor in common law appeals, in equitable suits, and in references from the Council. On the other side we mark the results of the usurpations in turn, of the Camera, Exchequer, Wardrobe and Council, of the growing powers of Parliament and seal-bearing offices; of the successive devices of the Smaller Seals'^ and the Sign Manual ; of the disuse of enrolments, and the accumulation of epistolary instruments, the nucleus of the later secretarial collection. The means whereby these developments may be traced are now in sight, but not yet within our reach. For our present purpose it will suffice to have noted these and to confine our examination of the Chancery practice to a few brief observations which are needed for the purpose of assisting the student who has occasion to consult the Chancery enrolments and files. In the first place, leaving the formulas of the original instruments for subsequent description, it is important that those who prefer to study these instruments from the enrolments should note several peculiarities therein, in the shape of clerical devices, which may be attributed to the official practice of the Chancery. The origin and antiquity of enrolments provide us with difficulties enough, but when the custom of enrolments is once established, more difficulties still are prepared for us. It is true that most of these difficulties have received a perfunctory explanation', but a further warning may not be superfluous. ' Cf. above, p. 19 sq. ■' No attempt has been made here to descril^e in detail the actual seals, which have been dealt with by experts, who have scarcely done justice, however, to the .Smaller .Seals used by mediaeval sovereigns. The practice of sealing and other diplomatic procedure claim priority of treatment. 3 One of these difficulties is notoriously found in respect of the date; for although the 230 Later Charters and Diplomatic Insti'uments The obvicus fact that in a very large number of cases the Chancery clerks entered these instruments in an impersonal form, or even as mere memoranda, need not occasion surprise when we remember that the later Docquet Books containing precisely similar entries served all official purposes. Thus we may regard the Estreats of the Exchequer in the shape of Originalia, Fine Rolls, Liberate Rolls, &c., and the bulk of the Chancery writs for other purposes as mediaeval " Docquets," charters and formal instruments being more carefully entered'. It need scarcely be suggested that the clerks could reconstruct the formulas of the original instruments with perfect facility since the task is not a difficult one to ourselves ; but the loss for the purpose of diplomatic study is considerable. One remarkable consequence of this official practice is the perpetuation of certain of these narrative forms as actual instruments under a Smaller Seal^. Amongst several technical formulas which await an authoritative explanation, attention may be called to the special use of the preposition per in departmental memoranda attached to diplomatic instruments or their enrolments. In the case of 13th century writs under the Great Seal it will be presently seen that the departmental minute per Regent or per ipsuni Regent must be distinguished from the symbolic Attestation clause which is such a familiar innovation in this period. But when appended to warrants under the Smaller Seals the minute may have the force of an official superscription and this later use is seen in the case of Immediate Warrants and Procla- mations^ But the commonest sense of per in this connexion is to indicate the official agency* by which the instrument has been " procured," and this connotation will be familiar in later Docquets^ A more subtle use oi per is seen in certain official embellishments of problem connected with the place of execution has been solved by accepting the theory of conventional practice ("at Westminster"), the actual time of execution may often remain in doubt. Thus we have the frank admission of Hengham, C. J. pleaded on his own behalf in the State Trials of 1289 — 92, that in Cancellaria et alibi in uno et eodem die unus clericus ponatunam datum et alius aliam {R. Hist. Soc. C.S. (Third Series), Vol. IX. p. xlv). 1 In the case of the Fine Rolls, these Chancery enrolments seem to have served as Fee- Books or Minute Books, the entries being mere memoranda of transactions connected with the actual enrolments. ^ e.g. the "Debenture" (wardrobe) under a semi-official seal and the J^iat under the Privy Seal. The former begins with the statement Debentur. * See Formula Book, pp. 102, 149. * Including fines in the Hanaper, as well as official persons or departments. ^ It is well known that this indication is of the greatest value for tracing the sequence of instruments by which the Great Seal has been procured. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instrtiments 231 diplomatic attestations. Thus per Barones et per Libriim Rubriim de Scaccario may be regarded as a compendious method of vouching an appropriate record which is by no means uncommon^ So, to save space or trouble, formal clauses may be rendered by another form of expression, as Testibus donmio P. Wiiitoniensi et aliis scriptis in carta comitis Hollandiae,anno xiiij"^. It is only one step backwards in point of practice from these official refinements of 13th century Chancery clerks to the age when men called the Apostles or the Deity to witness in their need. This is not the place in which the existing classification of the Rolls of Chancery can be properly discussed. The facts which chiefly concern the student of Diplomatic are these. Although the only distinctive forms of diplomatic composition that were enrolled during the 13th and 14th centuries are those connected with charters and writs, it is well known that there are several important series of enrolments in addition to the Charter Rolls, Patent Rolls and Close Rolls^'. Indeed, just as at the beginning of the 13th century the great Exchequer Pipe Roll began to throw off separate membranes as a new and extensive series of " Foreign Accounts*," so for a like convenience of official reference new series of Chancery Rolls were formed for the entry of instruments connected with special affairs of State such as Foreign Policy*, Trade*, Revenue^ Parliament* and the conventional exercise of the royal prerogative in several directions*. Apart from these recognized subjects we may meet with others of casual ' Chancery Files, 9 Ric. II. The reference to the Red Book is to the writ De Prerogative Regis in the levying of debts, which was here vouched in a case recorded in K. R. Memor. Trin. 9 Ric. II rot. 12. Cf. also the form of pleading in which a party se mette sur les liveres del Eschekere, whilst in the common departmental minute per memoranda of a certain term, we have a mere reference to the official enrolment. ' Pat. 14 John m. 1'', an enrolment of a bond of service. ' Some of the enrolments are apparently interchangeable, as in the case of the Close and Liberate Rolls, and are even duplicated V)y an Exchequer series as in the case of the latter enrolments and to some extent by the various " Extract Rolls." ■• See P. R. O. Indexes and Lists, No. xi. • The Norman, French, Cascon, Almnin, Roman, Scottish, Irish, Welsh Rolls. • Staple Rolls, Exchange Rolls, the latter being supplemented by the Passage Rolls which record the practice of an early period. ' Liberate Rolls, Fine Rolls, the former, however, being again supplemented by other forms of enrolment. • Parliament Rolls, Statute Rolls. As to the omission of enrolling the earliest statutes cf. G. J. Turner in R. Hist. Soe. Trans. (3) I. 109, cf. Red Book of the Exchequer, p. ccclxviii. • Pardon, Protection, Passage, Fine and Oblate, Surrender, Dispensation Rolls. Special forms of Protection were also entered in the Plea Rolls of the King's Court. 232 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments importance amongst the Miscellaneous Rolls of the Chancery above referred to\ The extent and scope of the several series of Chancery enrol- ments have been most conveniently and lucidly set forth in the official " Guide." It may be of further interest, however, to the student to ascertain the diplomatic character of the several instruments entered in these Rolls and the general departmental system of enrolment. The vicissitudes experienced by the Royal Charter in this connexion will be presently referred to in an account of the evolution of the "substituted charter" in the shape of Letters Patent, but the subject is capable of considerable development. Again, it will be found that many writs and other instruments under the Great Seal are not entered at all, and no satisfactory explanation of the procedure in point seems to be forthcoming^ But, however great the convenience of these .separate series at the date of enrolment, the advantage is not so obvious at the present day. In fact we can easily notice a reaction in the direction of greater concentration before the close of the mediaeval period of enrolment. Of the " Treaty Rolls " which are represented in the reign of Edward I by eight different series, only two were in official use at the date of the second coronation of Henry VI. Within two years of the battle of Flodden, the Scotch Rolls came to an end, leaving the French Rolls to represent a specialized department of the Chancery, which produced enrolments fitfully till 1668 and entry books down to an uncertain date in the 1 8th century*. Of the rest the Exchange and Liberate Rolls together with the Redisseisin Rolls end in the reign of Henry VI, whilst the Rolls of Statutes were superseded by a new Parliamentary Record in the reign of Henry VII. On the other hand the Fine and Pardon Rolls are continued to the Stuart period, whilst from the i6th century the regular series of ^ It is scarcely necessary to include such temporary and irregular series as the Praestila and Misae Rolls of King John's reign, whilst the Coronation Rolls like the Parliament Rolls themselves are really records of a curial nature. ^ Many "returnable" writs were evidently intended for preservation on the Chancery files and possibly for enrolment in the parvi roluli now known as the Chancery Miscellaneous Rolls, both of which series are evidently only the wreckage of a large collection. A similar deficiency in later times, in the case of the Treaty Rolls, can be explained by the neglect of the prothonotary of the Chancery (whose office had become a mere sinecure in the i8th century) to enter instruments that were formerly preserved by enrolment in this series. Some of these "Commissions," cS;c. are entered in the Secretaries' Entry Books (cf. below, p. 279.) * Cf. Reports on Chancery Offices 1740 and 1816 under "Prothonotary." Also Reports on Public Records, 1800 and 1837 under "Chancery." Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 233 Patent and Close Rolls are supplemented by other special collections. In this later period, however, as in the earlier, enrolments are sometimes found to have been made specialiori modo in an un- expected quarter. Thus the enrolment of the Proclamations of Henry VIII announcing the changes in the royal style consequent on the successive adoption of the formulas Fidei Defensor, Ecclesiae Ang'iicanae Stipremum Caput, and Hiberniae Rex is found in the Judgment Rolls' of the King's Bench. It may be stated as a general proposition, that whilst the various instruments enrolled elsewhere than in the series of Charter Rolls, Patent Rolls and Close Rolls are to be regarded equally with the latter as charters, writs or letters under the Great Seal, their diplomatic composition is often of a wholly abnormal character^ This is especially noticeable in the case of the so-called " Treaty Rolls," above referred to. In this large group of enrolments, in addition to the usual Letters Patent of Protection and Safe-conduct, Licences and various species of Letters Close, including even some relating to Exchequer business, we shall find many unconventional forms and a large proportion of instruments connected with diplomacy which are frequently of a notarial character. In other cases, a special form of enrolment may be indicative of a distinct diplomatic construction, as in the case of the Parliament Rolls, Statute Rolls, Coronation Rolls, Dispen.sation Rolls, and Redisseisin Rolls or may merely denote, in the form of Letters Patent or Close, a special subject of ministerial interest, as in the case of the Exchange Rolls, Fine Rolls, Scutage Rolls, Pardon Rolls and Protection Rolls*. In the case of some other enrolments, although it may be possible to trace the forms of many diplomatic instruments amongst the » Hil. 13 Hen. VIII, rot. 14. Hil. 26 Hen. VIII, rot. 1. Hil. 33 Hen. VIII, rot. I. * Since this was written the greater number of these temporary series have been arranged as supplementary to the great series of Patent and CK)se Rolls. In addition to these a numljer of Extract Rolls have been describe*!, l)eing only secondary compilations like the duplicate Patent and Close Rolls which have also l)een properly placed. ^ This is especially noticeable in the case of the group of fiscal instruments defined as early as the nth century (Dialogus, i. vi) and entered in turn on the Close Liberate and even on the Gascon, Norman and Exchequer Rolls of the 13th century. The Parliament and Coronation Rolls may be regarded as the Records of I^roeessits lanffentes Refpiuin. The Redisseisin, Exchange and Dispensation Rolls appear to be the official products of certain Statutes. In the case of the last-named we have what is ostensibly an ecclesiastical diploma {i.e. a licence or faculty), but this was incomplete without confirmatory letters Patent which are also enrolled. The writs of Redisseisin and the Licences and Passes as they are entered on the Exchange Rolls are for the most part in the form of departmental memoranda. 234 Later Charters and Diplo7itatic Instruments entries 1 which have been previously referred to as departmental minutes or docquets"^, we shall gain but little diplomatic knowledge from a study of their extended forms. In this connexion it may be remarked that there have been few greater hindrances to the scientific study of historical sources than the practice which prevails so largely in the present day of describing particular diplomatic documents by technical titles. Such terms, for example, as a " Foundation Charter," an " Inspexitnusl' a " Creation " or a " Conge d'elire are doubtless thoroughly descriptive, whilst it is equally convenient to distinguish common and recurring forms by such titles as "Commissions," " Precepts," " Mandates," and the like. It is not, of course, intended that these conventional titles should stand alone in the vocabulary of Diplomatic, neither do we desire that they should be regarded as anything more than varieties of recognized diplomatic species. Nevertheless few students who have not made a special study of the Chancery Records can at once appreciate the fact that documents described as " Commissions," " Precepts " or " Mandates " may be more or less interchangeable forms of Letters Patent, Letters Close or departmental writs ; that an Inspeximus may be issued in the form of Letters Patents, or again in the very different form of a royal charter of confirmation. A simple remedy for this confusion of terminology would be found in the consistent use, by experts, of the specific titles of diplo- matic documents, the descriptive title being added in parenthesis. Thus we should speak of "Letters Patent (Commission)," "Letters Patent (Mandate)," " Letters Close (Mandate)," " Letters Patent (/«- speximus)," " Charter of Confirmation {Inspeximus)" and so forthl The special descriptions referred to are not indeed confined to instruments issued under the Great Seal, but are applied equally to writs under the Smaller Seals and even the Sign Manual. Here the occurrence of alternative forms makes the use of a precise terminology especially important, otherwise the student will be in danger of regarding " Benevolences " and " Passes " as specific forms equally with " Privy Seals " and Sign Manual Warrants. Again, the in- evitable changes in constitutional and legal procedure effected by statute or ordinance produced a new crop of diplomatic terms before 1 The Fine and Oblate Rolls (mediaeval) and the Fraestila, Misae and Extract Rolls. ^ Cf. above, p. 230. ^ For the various forms of Letters Patent in the reign of King John see Rot. Litt. Pat. i. iv. sq. The facility with which technical titles may be supplied for common instruments can be seen in a formula book of the i8th century (Harl. 6702) as well as in the old handbooks of legal practice known as the "Complete Clerk," lic- Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 235 the middle of the i6th century, whilst the presence of bi-lingual or even tri-lingual versions of a common form has increased the general confusion ^ The term " Licence," for example, is applied to several species of instruments, each of which exhibits noticeable variations. The later Chancery Enrolments from the i6th century onwards have indeed owing to this altered terminology a somewhat unfamiliar aspect, though the forms of many typical instruments, such as Offices, Creations and Commissions can be traced back to a very early date*. As for the files and entry books of the Smaller Seals and the Sign Manual during the same modern period it must be said that they are greatly disfigured by an official terminology which can only be described as diplomatic slang. Here, again, it might seem desirable to employ the diplomatic descriptions, which are fortun- ately applicable from first to last, indicating the cant official title in a parenthesis. {b) Charters and Confirmations. Although the essential formulas of the royal charter can be clearly recognized from the reign of Henry H, a few final touches remained to be added before the typical mediaeval instrument reached its full development at the beginning of the 13th century. These additions will be most noticeable in respect of the Initial and Final Protocols which usually indicate any important changes in the political position of the sovereignty or in the official practice of the Chancery. To such natural transmutations must be further added the effects of the final development of the legal or feudal theories which had governed the conditions of royal grants from a much earlier date. On the whole, the changes both in style and theory do not amount to very much, partly, perhaps, because the necessity for their intro- duction is obvious. The changes in the royal style which took place at the beginning ' The fact of the interchange of titles in the case of Charters, Confirmations, Letters Patent, Letters Close and general writs under the Great Seal, &c. and even of Writs and I.etters under the Smaller Seals and Sign Manual, is sufficiently known. It may be observed, how- ever, that although the same administrative effect is frequently protlucetl by several distinct forms of instruments this is not always the case. A concordance of these parallel forms would be of interest and value. • The evolution of the conventional "Office" and "Commission" can be traced by a comparison of specimens dated in the reigns of Henry M, John, Edward II, Henry VIII, and George II. See Formula Book, No. 53. 236 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments of the reign of John form the most famih'ar feature of the "con- ventional charter " of the 1 3th century. That is to say, the primitive designation of the " King of the English," &c,, gives place to the feudal title of the " King of England." The secondary terms of the royal Superscriptions during the following century are regulated by purely political considerations which involve from time to time the omission of the titles Dux Normanniae and Comes Andegaviae and the acquisition of those of Doniinus Hiberniae, Dux Aquitaniae, and even of Rex Franciae^. The Address now regularly includes the Priors in addition to the Abbots, and usually substitutes ballivis for minis tris. The Notification is invariably in the plural person, perpetuating an innovation begun in the last reign, and the Exposition takes the form of a definite " Movent clause^." Here the consideration expressed reflects the condition or merits of the recipient of the grant, whilst a religious motive is also expressed under appropriate circum- stances. In the Dispositive clause the essential words remain the same, but their arrangement is now regulated according to a stereotyped formula in the typical feoffment of the period. That is to say, the words of concession, concessisse et hac carta nostra confirmasse, are indicative of the nature of the grant, whilst the Habendtmi et tenendum clause defines its conditions or determines its extent, the Disposition being thus divided into two more or less distinct portions. Following these we have an injunctive Final clause beginning with the conven- tional Quarevolumns, but now systematically reciting the tenor of the Dispositive clause, concluding with the general reference siciit praedic- tum est. Besides this injunctive clause, there are often other Final clauses relating to the usual Reservations of accustomed service with traces of a Remainder clause and Warranty which are in keeping with the new litigious relations between the crown and its feudal tenants^ In the Final Protocol the formula Data per manum — Cancellarii nostri introduced under Richard I is replaced, after the minority of Henry HI, by the well-known innovation /^r manum nostram, whilst the regnal date is exclusively employed. No variations of any ^ See Formula Book, sections i and n, and Hardy, Rot. Chart, Preface. * Of purely constitutional interest is the frequent use of the clause intimating the consent of Parliament (cum consensu prelatoriim, ^'c. in praesenti Parliatnento) inserted before concessisse. * Cf. below, p. 244. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 237 importance occur in respect of the attachment of the Great Seal which is always pendent (by cords) from the folded margin ; but now for the first time a purely official formula is found in the shape of a departmental memorandum describing the means by which the execution of the instrument was procured >. It must be remembered, however, that there is a well-marked, though somewhat obscure, period of diplomatic inactivity during the minority of Henry III. From November 12 18 to January 1227 no charters were issued under the Great Seal, and there is a corresponding gap in the Charter Rolls for the first eleven years of the reign. Neither can we assume, as in the case of the earliest Chancery Rolls of the previous reign*, that the disuse of Royal Charters was accompanied by an increased activity in the issue of Letters Patent. It is true that the Great Seal of Henry III begins "to run" in 12 18, and that, as far as Letters Patent or Close are concerned, there are no outward signs of an official stagnation. At the same time it may be fairly surmised that till 1223 the King was in a state of pupillage, and we are never certain, in default of original instruments, whether the current " Letters " were sealed with the Great Seal of the Chancery'^ or with some substituted seal which may have been a Smaller Seal or even the counter seal of a regents With the above exception the form of the conventional charter is well maintained during the whole of the 13th century. Before the reign of Edward II several slight expansions and variants can be recognized, and these show a tendency of Letters Patent and other instruments in the same direction. One of the most noticeable of these innovations is the well-known formula de gratia nostra speciali which, possessing a special constitutional significance from the reign of Henry IV, occurs as early as that of Edward II. This formula, how- ever, although it was much affected by the Continental chanceries, is not completed till the next century by the addition of the words ac ex certa sciencia et ntero motit nostris. From the reign of Edward IV it is employed as a conventional Movent clause in typical grants, whilst a further variation is noticed under Henry VII*. * Per breve de Privato SigiUo, &'c. See above, p. 130. ^ An interesting series of original writs in Kxch. of Rect. warrants for Issues, Btation of royal instruments during this minority. ' See Formula Book, No. 1 16, and cf. the interesting remarks on this subject by Mr F. M. Powicke in A'. //. A", xxill. p. uo. Amongst other substituted seals we find that of the City of London utilised in F'at. 5 Hen. Ill, m. t*. * Et certis cotniderationibus ttos specialiter moventibus. 238 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments Another familiar formula which dates from the reign of Edward II is the motive expressed in Creations or Grants of Office* — pro grato et laiida- bili servicio quod dilectus et fidelis noster A. nobis Jiactenus impendit, an expectation of continued service being often added. Another ex- pansion {per praesentes) which became fashionable in the 15th century is apparently a mere variant of the old form praesenti carta which had been to some extent discontinued since the reign of Henry III. Of a purely legal character is the Reservation quantum in nobis est, frequently found in charters of pardon and licence, as well as in Letters Patent of the same nature, from an early date, and the develop- ment of legal procedure in the 13th century easily accounts for several modifications and innovations of this kind'^. From the middle of the 15th century the florid variants in the Narrative and Dispositive clauses of certain charters, particularly of Creations' are very marked ; but by this date the royal charter has become a mere echo of the Letters Patent, in which, from the first, many eccentricities of style were allowed. The Address of the later charter was also subject to variation. Dukes are added to the usual list under Edward III, but still later the Address was frequently modified in several particulars, as the circumstances of the case might demand. Thus Constables are included in the case of charters to towns, just as Foresters were included in the Disafforestation charters of the 12th and 13th centuries. Again, the Universal Address at the close of the 15th century had become still more explicit, but on the other hand, an Address that is appropriate to a Charter is sometimes found at this date to be followed by execu- tion in the style of Letters Patent. Finally, we may notice that before the disuse of royal charters in 15 16, the ancient injunctive Final clause {Quare voluimis) is lost to sight in the presence of the new statutory clauses designed for the protection of royal interests against greedy and unscrupulous supplicants, which also afforded the deserving grantee some immunity from legal chicanery and official extortion ^ * This is sometimes preceded by a clause closely resembling a Preamble. "^ It will be noticed that in the case of the numerous enlargements of the later grants by means of new paragraphs beginning Insiiper, Pmterea or Ulterms, the Movent and Dispositive clauses are usually repeated in each case, thus removing the objection to similar digressions taken in the case of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman charters (cf. above, p. 224). * e.g. Ordinavimus, constihiinms ., apptincta,vivius, ereximits, ^'c. cf. Habendum, tenendum, utendum et gaudendum, iSr=f. In some cases the variants are of a simpler nature, as, in tarn amplis modo et forma, &=€. which is concise by comparison with the Anglo-Norman Ita bene, Src. * e.g. Eo quod expressa metitio, Ss'c. by virtue of the Statutes i Henry IV and 18 Henry VI (cf. Kot. Pari. 111. 376 a). The other well-known clauses above referred to are Et de data prcedicta (according with the date of expedition of the Privy Seal Warrant), Non obstante aliijuo statuto, af'c. and Et hoc absque Jine, &^(r. in Cancellaria, ^sr'c. Later Charters and Diplo?natic Instruments 239 One of the most interesting, but at the same time one of the most obscure incidents in the evolution of the charter is connected with the gradual displacement of the conventional form by a substituted in- strument. This is the Patent, in its familiar sense, which has achieved a virtual supremacy over the ancient charter before the close of the 13th century. At first this dual method of diplomatic composition was the cause of some confusion. Indeed, in certain cases a grant which should have been made in the form of a charter was executed in the style of Letters Patent. Entries of such grants may be found on the Chancery Patent Rolls, cancelled, with the note, Quia in rotulo Cartarum. At the same time it should be observed that these grants were not only sparingly made before the reign of Edward I, but also in most cases they are of an exceptional nature. Charters conveying grants of hereditaments or liberties to ecclesiastical or lay corporations are still made out in the ancient form, but gifts of forfeited estates ^ provision made for the support of royal princes or household officers, custodies and estates not granted in perpetuity, were considered fair subjects for the issue of Letters Patent-. These instruments were also used for recording contracts or other financial transactions between the crown and the subjects, and in such cases it is not unusual to find Noveritis as a notification in place of Sciatis, according to an earlier precedent. On the whole, however, the form of these Letters Patent is far more regular and consistent than that of the royal missives to which the same title is applied. This perhaps is the reason why the former out-lived the latter in the possession of that title, ousting them from the stately membranes of the Patent Rolls to a humbler place amongst the bundles of State Papers for the Tudor and Stuart periods. Nevertheless, the most artificial form of Letters Patent of donation can only be regarded as a substitute for the conventional formulas of the charter, and even the florid expansions of these new instruments are merely refinements of an earlier diplomatic practice*. As early as the reign of Henry III we meet with specimens of Letters Patent eleganter scriptae* in the style of the Papal Curia and in the pedantic atmosphere of the Court of James I the Patent employed to confer a dignity or office had become a Euphuistic essay*. Indeed it might be ' These, however, might be made by Letters Close for livery of seisin. * Cf. Formula Book, pp. 14, 54. • Many of the grants to royal princes or favourites contain elaborate provisos and reservations, cf. Quod Aaer gratia noslra non cedat in prejudicium vet txherfditationtm, rtl trahatur in consequentiam, &'c. Cf. Formula Book, No. 44. ^ I'al. 45 lien. Ill, m. 4 in tedula. " Some of these embody discourses on various points of scholarship. 240 Later Charters a?id Diplomatic Instruments fairly questioned whether the charter of the 15th century has derived its variations from the Patent or whether these have been simply copied from the charter itself by the latter instruments Perhaps the soundest view of the matter is that the really characteristic formulas of the Patent writ are the Address and especially the Attestation. The gradual omission in both Charter and Patent of a distinctive In- junction- and the occasional use of a common Attestation indicate the approaching amalgamation of the two instruments as early as the last decade of the 15th century. It is well known that in its latest phase the Patent is concerned only with grants of dignities, offices and privileges, the reason for this being found in the constitutional limitations imposed upon the royal prerogative in respect of the crown lands ^ But long before the advent of the Civil List the number of the royal grants of land had fallen in keeping with the exhausted resources of a personal monarchy. The suggestion has frequently been made that the custom of con- firming royal charters, especially in the case of municipal corporations, may be derived from the practice of the Roman Empire^ As, however, this supposed analogy is not confirmed by diplomatic evidence, it need scarcely be considered here. Some difficulty might even be found in discovering satisfactory precedents for such Confirmations under the Anglo-Saxon monarchy, since the reputed Confirmations of this period are not only of doubtful authenticity, but must be regarded, in some cases at least, rather as Innovations than as Confirmations^ It is, indeed, not unreasonable to conjecture that the very irregularity which has been noticed in the case of the earlier post-Conquest Confirma- tions" is indicative of a novel practice. As late as the reign of King John a conventional formula is not invariably used. The Confirma- tions of the latter part of the 12th and of the early years of the 13th century are, however, equally characterised by simplicity of form. ^ Above, p. 238. After the disuse of the conventional charter in 1516 these variations are continueS with equal facility by the clerks of the Patents. As late as the i^eign of Charles II we have an elaborate Movent clause introduced by the word aim and the Dispositive clause is divided into successive paragraphs. '^ Et ideo voids mandavius. Similarly the later charters drop the distinctive Injunction Quare volumus, dfc. ^ I Anne, c. i. * Nouveau Traite, I. 176; Hardy, Rot. Chart, i. iii. ^ Apart from the obviously suspicious character of these transactions, it will be noticed that the existing texts are almost invariably preserved in cartularies or chronicles. Examples will be found in the case of Winchester, Canterbury, Abingdon, Croyland, Peterborough, St Paul's, Chertsey, &c. Even the Worcester register (Heniing) is not to be relied on in this connexion. " Formula Book, p. 41. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 241 In these instruments two devices are usually employed. By the former a mere notification is made of a particular or general concession on the same terms as those contained in a previous charter or charters^ By the second the body of the former charter is re-issued in almost identical words with new protocols for the royal style and attestation^ Finally, it may be observed that the royal Confirmations of this period include a large proportion of private donations, and numerous individual charters may be included in a single Con- firmation '. Such was the practice of the English Chancery down to the nth year of Henry III, when, as is well known, a new expedient was resorted to. This change was perhaps unconsciously necessitated by the Proclamation of 6 Nov. 12 18 forbidding any charter or grant in perpetuity to be issued under the Great Seal by reason of the king's minority ^ This was followed, as we have seen, in January, 1227, by the further announcement' that all existing charters must be con- firmed under the new Great Seal, in compliance with which we must assume that the Confirmations entered on the Charter Rolls of this year were duly executed. The Inspeximus used for this purpose was perhaps not altogether a new device, although it is true that it must not be confused with the analogous system of Viditrnts employed in the French Chancery*. Whilst we may safely reject the picturesque account of the origin of the new formula in the reign of Henry II, which is preserved in the Chronicle of Battle Abbey\ it should be remembered that the formula ' The Sicut clause, cf. p. 213 and Formula Book, Nos. 36-43. Since this was written M. L. Delisle has made some interesting remarks on the subject of "innovated" charters in the 1 2th century (^Bibl. de r£cole des Charles, loc. ci/.). ' In some cases this was intended to condone the effects of non-user, covered in later charters by the Licet clause. ' Formula Book, No. 42. * Pat. 3 Hen. Ill, m. 6. ' Close II Hen. Ill, pt. 1 m. 21''. Possibly a large portion of the existing collection of official transcripts known as the Cartae Antiquae was prepared at the Exchequer in this connexion. .Similarly the Edwardian transcripts known as Deeds Various are perhaps connected with the proceedings by (^uo Warranto in 1278. As for the official production of charters at a still earlier date cf. Dialogus, i. viii. * It has been argued that the French instrument was primarily intended for the innova- tion of damaged charters, &c. a purpose served in this country by the Exemplification, Constat and Innotescinius. This, however, is scarcely a just distinction. Curiously enough the Vidimus has played a useful part in the English official system down to modem times, since certain instruments, notably Protections and Passes, were duplicated or registered by this authority and are still described as vish. ' Ed. 1846, p. 165, where we have an extravagant description of a scene in the Curia, about 1175. to furnish a plausible occasion for one of the forged charters of this house. H. 16 242 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments Inspexi was occasionally used during the reign of John. For the most part, however, the Inspeximiis was a confirmation not of an earlier grant, but of a Confirmation of that grant, for comparatively few original charters remained unconfirmed at the beginning of the 13th century. As the chief interest of the Confirmation itself lies in the tenor of the original charter which it perpetuates, so the actual formulas of the Inspeximus contain little that is worth our attention. Indeed, it is necessary to insist that beyond the ofificial formulas which enclose, as it were, the original instrument recited, the formal Inspeximus, like the Confirmation, supplies no independent variations of diplomatic construction with the exception of an occasional addi- tion to the grant. These ofificial formulas will be found in the case of the conventional Inspeximus to consist of a Notification, which gives its title to the instrument, and a Dispositive clause, which is merely declaratory of the act of confirmation. This official pronouncement is certainly stronger than the casual allusion of the earlier Con- firmation, and the same efi'ect was produced by the further expedient of an Inspeximus by Letters Patent. The substitution of this new form for the conventional Inspeximus is a fresh triumph of officialism. As early as the reign of Henry III we find a general confirmation of civic liberties granted as an additional clause to Letters Patent of Protection'. Possibly we have in such Letters of Protection one explanation of the transition from the form of the charter to that of the writ in the case of later Confirmations^ It is only natural to suppose also that the difficulty (which still apparently exists) in distinguishing between an original grant and a confirmation of an earlier period may have suggested to 13th century clerks the use of a purely official instruments The mere innovation of an ancient charter with the necessary changes of style and date was liable to serious abuse, and although some confusion seems to have been caused by the substitution for the ancient Confirmation of an Inspeximus by charter and then of the ordinary Patent formula, the system worked smoothly under the skilful administration of the later Chancery. In a still later ^ Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. i. Omnes barones Londonia habent liUeras patentes doniini Regis de Ptotectione addila hac clausula. The usual formulas of a conventional charter of con- firmation follow. ^ Similar Letters Patent of Protection reciting charter formulas are sometimes entered on the Charter Rolls of this reign. In the reign of Henry III these Protections are still found in the form of charters. * The form of the Inspeximus by charter or by Letters Patent was prescribed by an Ordinance of 1285 printed in the Statutes from the Close Roll 13 Ed. I, m. 7 in cedula, where, however, it is no longer to be found. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 243 period we notice a tendency to revert to the general allusion em- ployed in the earliest type of Confirmations. Here a succession of eleemosynary grants may be compendiously recited and admitted under a narrative Exposition'. It will be found that the special Dispositive clause of the charter type was retained in substance in the new Inspeximus by Letters Patent- and reappears with suitable modifications in the Exemplification, the Constat and the Innotescimus. Of these the first may possibly have been derived from the early custom of permitting the enrolment of private muniments on payment of a fee. We know that copies of such documents were carefully preserved in private registers, and the pleadings recorded in the Courts were also frequently noted. As early as the year 1372 the public right of search amongst the Records was successfully asserted by Parliament*, and this included facilities for Exemplifications. Again, original instruments were not only duplicated as a pre- cautionary measure from an early period, but Exemplifications were sometimes obtained from a like motived It was not till the end of the 14th century that this informal practice was legalised by Statute", nor did it reach its fullest development until the middle of the i6th century*. From the first, however, it seems to have been understood that the Exemplification was properly concerned with private diplo- mata and legal records. The innovation of royal diplomata was effected by a special instrument, the Constaf, though this was equally employed for certifying other records*. The Innotescimus was used in a less ceremonious fashion and may perhaps be regarded as a mere survival of the older Notitia used for a special purpose. This might be either the innovation of lost charters, or the allowance (or suspension) of a particular privilege {e.g. the clause Volumus in Letters Patent of Protection). The Innotescimus, ' Nos intelligentes qualiter doniinus, &'c. [Edwardus /] et alii progenitores nostri nuper Regis, (5r»r. Umporibus suis, separatim et successive, per litteras suas patattes, ex caritate et elemosynis suis, concfsserint, videlicet, qiiilibet eoruin p>ro tempore sua, &^c. - The Forma Con/irmatiouis above referred to gives suitable formulas for different species of charters. The value of these, however, is purely legal, and the form of Inspeximus and execution is the same in all cases. The chief interest of this ordinance lies in the alternative formula of execution of a charter or I^etters Patent. " Rot. Pari. II. 3I4K * Owens Coll. Hist. Essays, p. loi. » 6 Ric. II, Stat, i, c. 4. « Stat. 3 and 4 Edw. VI, c. 4, and Stat. 13 Eliz. c. 6. ' The Constat was chiefly used ip early times for certifying the tenor of a Record. In later times charters for markets, &c. were brought into evidence by means of this certification (cf. D. of L. Drafts of Patents, &c. No. 53), but these facilities are specially applicable to Letters Patent. ' As to the meaning of sub pede sigilli in this connexion cf. L. O. Pike in A'", and Q. 8th Ser., xi. 303. 16 — 3 244 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments however, was also used for granting a testimonial or diploma. In these instruments the Movent and Executive clauses contain a recital of the peculiar circumstances of the case\ but the line drawn between innovated charters and those that were often produced under suspi- cious circumstances and presented for inspection in the usual way can scarcely be distinguished in the present day. Even if we regard the ordinance of 1285 as a measure of reform, this implies an admission of existing abuses. It is at least certain that no adequate scrutiny was instituted by this or any other official provision for the confirmation or renovation of former grants, and it is doubtful whether a critical apparatus for such a scrutiny existed in this country before the 17th century I Even in our own time such scrutiny is rarely applied to these diplomata, the continued use of which as an unexpurgated source of national history is to be regarded with sincere regret. The private charters and other diplomatic instruments which form the class of " Ancient Deeds " deposited amongst the official archives have been already referred to as extraneous documents only indirectly connected with the present subjects Previous to the reign of King John these diplomata are almost wholly represented by specimens casually acquired by the crown or enrolled for a mercenary considera- tion. In a later period, however, many of these forms are either incorporated in royal instruments* or are used independently for semi- official purposes^ The sordid view of the later Plantagenet sovereign as a private adventurer and sharp practitioner, as a borrower, lender, fortune-hunter, trafficker in bonds and sureties, or even as a manipu- lator of title deeds and testaments", has a new interest for us ; but the official character and position of these transactions have yet to be determined. It must therefore suffice for the present to call attention to the originals, transcripts and enrolments of private deeds which have been preserved in vast numbers amongst the Records of the Exchequer and other departments''. The semi-official forms above ^ See Formula Book, Nos. 45, 62. 2 Cf. the instances given in Hardy, Rot. Chart. I. vi, to prove that the Chancery had a large discretion for the issue of charters and that the subjects had come to regard the issue of certain instruments as a matter of course, and therefore as a matter of right, on payment of the usual fees, except in the case of unworthy persons or for illegal purposes. Very much the same position has arisen in the present day with regard to the issue of passports. 3 Above, p. 59. •» Cf. Rot. Chart. (John), passim. ^ Cf. Red Book, p. cccxi, and Formula Book, p. 129 sq. ® e.g. in the Libri Munimentorum of the Exchequer (ed. Palgrave, Kalendars), formerly connected with the Wardrobe, cf. T. F. Tout in Transactions R. Hist. Soc. (N. S.), viil. 129. '' Deeds Ettrolled {Chz.ncexy, King's Bench and Common Pleas). Also in Exch. Plea and Memo. Rolls and Augm. O. Books. Also (specialiori ?nodo) in the Exchequer Registers. Similarly in the Lesser Courts (Palatinates, &c.) and Registries of Deeds. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 245 referred to may be found in the rolls of the Chancery and Exchequer and in the precedent books of those Courts. At the same time it will be possible to trace the influence of certain of these instruments, drawn with consummate skill by shrewd and learned men of business, upon the forms of the royal Chancery itself The legal pedantry (as some would call it) of the age is reflected in the warranty clauses of royal grants and in the releases drawn on behalf of the crown in its dealings with the feudatories. Doctors learned in the civil and canon law drafted conventions with foreign princes or repartees to the papal curia, and royal merchants introduced refinements in the bond or recognizance which were turned to good account in official circles. These innovations are of interest if only because they serve to remind us that in spite of the decadence of the ancient diploma the art of diplomatic composition, reinforced by legal subtlety, attains its highest point of development at the close of the 13th century. It is well known that these private instruments furnish a multitude of diplomatic forms. But although the terminology of these is well established, a detailed description of their diplomatic construction cannot be attempted here. Reference will, however, be made to their official position elsewhere*. The study of their diplomatic composition can be facilitated by several well-known handbooks and by recourse to the collection printed by Madox". In the first place, then, we may regard direct Feoff'ments in the shape usually of single charters or Deed-polls, as following the same plan of diplomatic construction. On the other hand, certain " indirect " Feoffments, though possessing the legal quality of convey- ances, assume a diplomatic form which is closely assimilated to that of the Convention. These " indirect " Feoffments are the " Release," " Quit-claim," or " Surrender," whereas the true Convention, as a covenant or contract, includes the various forms of "Concord," "Com- position," "Bond," "Oath" and "Letters of Attorney," many of which are duplicate charters, known as "Cyrographs" or "Indentures" forming a great class of " Ancient Deeds." Outside these two main groups there is the so-called " Certifi- cate," a convenient title for the classification of an irregular diplomatic variant of the " Feoffment " or of the " Convention '." The " Petition," with the " Address " or " Memorial," is clearly distinguished by its epistolary character even when employed as a draft in the preparation of an instrument issued under the Great Seal. These documents, ' Appendix. * Formulare Anglicanum. • A certificate might, however, resemble the modem document so called as a statement of facts within the knowledge or belief of the writer. 246 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments however, for our present purpose must be regarded as of a semi- ofificial nature. Although it is generally assumed that the royal diplomata served as models for all private charters, there are several familiar types of public instruments which are apparently derived from private forms^ These instru«ients it will be further noticed are connected with the official practice of the Courts rather than with the procedure of the royal Chancery itself. The common forms of the "Convention" and the "Oath" may indeed be found amongst the State Papers of the earlier period, and we have already noticed the official use of the forms of private deeds such as "Quit-claims," "Releases" and "Sur- renders." Again, the position of the whole body of diplomatic instru- ments in private law would seem to render this question of precedence immaterial. At the same time there are certain types, such as the " Fine" and the " Recognizance," which have attained a paramount official position by reason of their frequent employment for curial business, for, although the " Fine " is essentially a legal record, its diplomatic form may be traced back for several centuries as a " Final Concord," " Convention " or " Composition," which possesses well- defined diplomatic features of its ownl The " Recognizance V' indeed, ^ Many such conventions in connexion with diplomacy and politics will be found amongst the Patent Rolls and Treaty Rolls of the 13th century. A bond for faithful service was a formidable instrument (cf. Red Book, p. cccx), and some interesting political conventions may be seen in the Charter and Patent Rolls of the reign of King John. A familiar instance of the private Convention adopted for official purposes will be found in the case of the "Indenture of War," and the indentures for the receipt or transfer of jewels and records (Palgrave, Kalendars, passim, and Formula Book, Nos. 147, 148J. ^ The "Fine," as we have seen, is an official instrument which recalls the general style of the Old English convention though it derives its actual formulas from the Roman law. For its connexion with the diploma of the 12th century cf. L. Delisle, Bibl. de t Ecole des Chartes, loc cit. The reconstruction of this " inverted diploma" is, of course, an easy task. In its judicial aspect, however, the "Fine" must be regarded as a record of the King's Court from first to last. That is to say, the writ to commence the action and the licence to compound it are essential parts of the proceedings commemorated in the " principal record " or cyrograph, which is no mere home-made charter, but compiled on the same plan as other formal records. On the other hand, we have the analogy of the Archa Jtidaeorum, and the punctilious execution of a triplicate Concord, the original of which, formally handed in for registration, is now represented by the official " Foot " (cf. below, p. 313). '' The "Recognizance" which may be found in official enrolments or entry-books is frequently of a purely official nature. The Bonds entered into by nearly all office-holders furnish a large number of these entries, whilst contractors and even tenants of the crown-lands are represented here. In later times the simple Bond, or the Defeazance, may be replaced by a statutory Warrant of Attorney or Cognovit, namely a bond given by a debtor for the purpose of enabling a creditor to secure preferential treatment against other creditors, and many thousands of these Warrants were filed amongst the records of the King's Bench and Common Pleas. Far more interesting instruments of this nature, however, were those executed under the Statute of Merchants of 1283 and the Statute of the Staple of 1353, the certificates for which are referred to below. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 247 differs but little in its diplomatic composition from the "Bond," though the conventional style is fixed at an early date, and this conventional form in turn serves as a model for later judicial and commercial instruments such as the " Affidavit," " Mainprise" and the "Statute Stapled" Moreover, Recognizances are consistently enrolled, a circum- stance which lends an official character to other instruments, including "Letters of Attorney" and "Oaths'^." Another class of semi-official documents is of a still more miscellaneous character. These are the Certificates made out by various local officers in compliance with some statute or departmental routine. During the mediaeval period, how- ever, such instruments if not made as returns to Inquisitions' were usually in the form of Deeds, Letters Patent, or Signed Bills*. Some later types will be familiar in the case of " Certificates of Residence'," "Blood-Money Certificates," Sheriffs' "Bills of Cravings*," "Certificates of Musters'"," " Sacramental Certificates'," " Passing Certificates"," and many others. None of these Certificates were enrolled in the Chancery since the originals, made out by local officers, were intended for preservation". In some cases, however, documents of this nature were ^ Amongst the earliest and most important of these semi-official collections of Bonds or Recognizances and Acquittances are those connected with the Exchequer of the Jews. These Records consisting of Bonds by Christian debtors to Jewish creditors, and Acquittances of the latter to the former were carefully preserved in the "Archives" of the Exchequer. These Bonds are in the usual diplomatic form, but were executed with details which savour of the Civil Law, in the presence of the officials of the Archa. The " Starra," on the other hand, were variously composed in Latin, French, or Hebrew and were signed by the peregrine creditor in Hebrew characters and also sealed, but unless enrolled they were invalid (cf. Select Pleas of the Jewish Exchequer (Selden Soc.), Gross, Exchequer of the Jews, and Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England). In later times the registration of private mortgages has been confined to the counties of Midds. and Yorks., but modern abstracts of Deeds of Settlement, &c. have been preserved at Somerset House for purposes of Revenue. • The official history of the Oath is still more extensive, cf. Red Book, p. cccix sq.. Report on the Public Records ( 1 800), p. 236 sq. , Palgrave, Scottish Documents (passim). For the oath of Councillors see J. F. Baldwin in E. If. R. xxi. 1. For the later oaths of Justices of the Peace, &c. see S. P. Dom. Entry Book 71, fo. 313 and 333. In another aspect the oath of allegiance, or office, may take the form of a statutory certificate as in the case of "Acknowledgments of Supremacy" and other "Tests." » e.g. " Proofs of Age" (cf. Palgrave, /Calendars, i. 162), Certificates of Homage (T. of R.) and Certificates of Knight Service (Red Book, Vol. I.). • e.g. Household officers' Assignments, Customers' " Cokets," and Wardrobe •' Deben- tures," for which see Formula Book, p. in sq. • Amongst the Subsidies. • Exchctjuer Records (see Scargill-Birds' Guide). "> Amongst the State Papers. * In the Petty Bag and elsewhere. • Admiralty Records. '" The notarial Diploma, as seen in the well-known instance of Grants of Arms by the Officers of Arms, is in the nature of a Certificate issued by virtue of royal Letters Patent (cf. Formula Book, No. 140). 248 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments entered in precedent books\ In most cases, however, they were simply filed, and a large collection of interesting evidences has been preserved in this form. Amongst these are the certificates of Mayors of towns and Staples reporting the failure of debtors to meet the recognizances entered into by them in accordance with the statutes of Acton Burnell (1283), Westminster (1285) and the Staple (1353) and invoking the assistance of the sheriff to compel payment by legal process I The series of certificates known as Significavits represents the interests of another class of the community, being reports from the officials of the ecclesiastical courts as to the contumacy of lay offenders in despite of ecclesiastical censures, which were not removed till the beginning of the last century. These also conclude with a formal request for the aid of the "secular arm'." Of a more formal nature are the Certificates of Institutions to ecclesiastical benefices. Other instances of the Certificate in its primitive official sense as a Notitia will be found amongst the documents collected by Madox in his Formulare Anglicanum. Amongst other well-known instruments of private origin which have been preserved in official archives we might include such quasi- diplomatic forms as Petitions^ and Specifications^ Parliamentary Proxies and Pawns*, Pensions and Corrodies'', and many others ; but the diplomatic value of these is of small consequence unless it were to illustrate the important and often unsuspected part played by the Petition in the issue of a Charter or Writl ^ Cf. Red Book and Black Book of the Exchequer. Palgrave, Kalendars, from which a very instructive list of diplomatic titles and variants might be compiled, S. P. Dom. Entry Book 72 and H. O. Precedents, 1-5. ^ Cf. Formula Book, Nos. 135-137. ^ A series of Petitions for the arrest of "Vagabond monks" is preserved amongst the Chancery Warrants (cf. Formula Book, No. 87 and No. 139). * Filed during the mediaeval period and entered on the Parliament Rolls. ' i.e. of Inventions enrolled on the Surrender Rolls, &c. ® Enrolled in the Petty Bag (ed. Dugdale, Summons to Parliament, cf. Formula Book, p. 82). ^ Cf. Cardinal Pole's Pension Book (K. R. Misc. Bk. 31), and Templars' Corrodies (ed. Cole, Documents). * In addition to the conventional sequence of Petitions (cf. Formula Book, Nos. 88-93), connected with the issue of a Conge cfelire, " Royal Assent," or " Restitution of Tem- poralities" many others will be found amongst the " Ecclesiastical Petitions," e.g. for licenses to found chantries, &c. Indeed the certificates described above in connexion with statutory Recognizances might be regarded, like the ecclesiastical Signijicavit, as virtual Petitions for Letters Patent or Writs of Assistance under the Great Seal. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 249 {c) Writs tender the Great Seal. Like the charter itself the ancient executive writ may be re- garded as surviving in a conventional form from the 13th century onwards^ At the same time we shall find that its construction and use have been completely revolutionized under the new order of things brought about by the organization of the Chancery department in the reign of John. Instead of a general type of writ, royal or depart- mental, to serve all purposes of administration, justice or finance, we can distinguish from this date an increasing multitude of types to which certain diplomatic titles have been applied. For a long time past the missive writ has been employed, some- times as a precept, and at other times as a certificate, whilst its affinity to the mediaeval letter is sufficiently obvious. A good instance of this interchange of character and terminology is seen in the Writs and Returns connected with the Inquest of Knights' Service in 1 166. Here the king's writ was apparently addressed to the sheriff of each county who notified the military tenants of its purport, either individually or in the County Court. The returns made to the writ were also apparently delivered to the Sheriff and transmitted by him to the King. No specimens of the above writ have survived, but it can be reconstructed with some probability from the existing returns'*. It seems to have been regarded as a " precept" or " mandate," but it is also described as a writ {breve) or letter {litterae). The Return was in the form of Letters Patent {breve sigilla- ium et apertum) with the seal pendent {pendens extra sigillum). It is variously described as a carta, scripttim, and breve, but is in fact a certificate in an epistolary rather than diplomatic form, for the execu- tion was not attested. There is no evidence to show whether the royal writ issued on this occasion was a departmental one, namely " tested " at the Exchequer where the returns were preserved and used ; but a long series of such writs were issued during the following century in an almost identical form'. To this type of administrative writ no special title has been applied, and we may perhaps regard it as a conventional survival of ' " Letters Patent" of Henry II are confirmed by John and it is at least certain that the term is used in the English Chancery from the first year of that reign, that is to say two years before the series of Patent Rolls begins. For the analogy of the contemporary practice of the French Chancery cf. Giry, Hist, de Diplomatique, p. 755 sq. * See Red Book, p. 411. This has been cleverly demonstrated by Mr J. H. Round. • Testa de Nevill, passim. In some cases (fo. 416'') the returns, made in precisely the same form as in 11 66, are described as Litterae Patentes. 250 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments an older form\ It will be noticed at once that we have to do here with a writ the issue of which does not conclude the matter under the royal consideration. For this purpose a Return is required, and there- fore the writ in question belongs rather to the class of " Original Writs," or Writs of Inquisition, than to the present class of declaratory instruments such as Charters, Letters Patent and Letters Close. The Writ of Inquisition itself, however, must be regarded as a type of the primitive form from which the Chancery " Letters " were gradually evolved. Moreover, it will receive a further separate description^ in connexion with the Return, which in many cases constitutes an actual Record. Similarly, it is desirable to defer a notice of the Original and Judicial Writs which are usually associated with the class of Judicial Proceedings. The official title of the Letters Patent has been derived with much probability from the circumstance of their issue in an open state, in distinction to the closed missives under the Great Seal, which will be presently referred to. The same term has been applied to the elongated writing of the initial words of certain diplomata*, but this practice is of purely foreign origin. It may also be noticed that the term "patent" was frequently applied to private diplomata of an especially formal nature ^ The title of these instruments is also descriptive of their general resemblance to letters or writs rather than to charters ^, but their most distinctive feature is perhaps the famous Dating clause which introduces a foreign element in the shape of an announcement of due execution ^ and a new departure in the personal Attestation of the sovereign '. The origin and meaning of the latter formula have been the cause of considerable discussion*. It is obvious, however, that Teste me ipso ^ We shall presently see that this administrative writ was frequently replaced, from the reign of Edward I, by writs of Privy Seal in the same form. ^ Below, p. 293. ^ Litteris Patentibus signified in "large letters." In distinction to this phrase we have the official formula Litterce sunt patentes to indicate the execution of Letters Patent. * Cf. Pateat universis per prcesentes. * The ancient and important Writ of Right was always Patent in the sense of being open. A special reason for the use of Letters Patent in certain cases is indicated by the following explanation which announces the execution of a writ of the year 1 199. Hoc vobis significamus per litteras nostras patentes, quia volumus quod idem utrique parti innotescat. It would certainly be only reasonable to suppose that in the case of writs the missive in the first place was folded and despatched secured by a ligament cut from the lower mp.rgin of the parchment, were it not for the positive distinction implied between writs open and closed. The supposed distinction in the use of a conspicuous pendent seal for the former, is open to question. •> In cujus ret testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes. "^ Teste me ipso. * Hardy, Rot. Claus. i. xviii. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 251 and Teste Rege are convertible formulas, the latter being employed as a narrative statement with a further abbreviation in the case of the letters T. R. which usually appear in Chancery enrolments. It is unnecessary to suppose that the use of this formula implies that the instrument was " procured " by the King, since such intervention is indicated by a distinct notice \ It must, however, be carefully distinguished from the Dating clause of jpharters '^ and the Attestation of other instruments such as departmehtal or judicial writs, which affect an older style. Whether this innovation was deliberate (to facilitate the operations of the Privy Seal) or whether it was only a casual practice acquired by observation of the persistent habit of Chancery clerks who used the royal style impersonally in preparing their official enrolments*, is a question that cannot be easily answered. It may be observed, however, that as this new formula constitutes an important landmark in the history of English Diplomatic, and as it affected something like a revolution in the method of executing official documents, it can scarcely be regarded as specially charac- teristic of Letters Patent. A far more distinctive formula is seen in the Address to all persons concerned, and this with the announcement of sealing above referred to, may be regarded as essential features of the conventional Patent. It must not be supposed, however, that the typical formulas of Letters Patent were suddenly evolved from the conventional charter or writ of the 12th century. In the first place, we have seen that the use of an open writ was no novelty in the reign of John and that evert half a century earlier an equivalent phrase was employed to denote this characteristic. It would .seem, then, that this essential condition having been thus early observed, the precise wording of the several clauses was for some time to come regulated by the circum- stances of each case. Even the universal Address invariably found in later Patents was comparatively rare during the early years of the 13th century in the case of missive writs. Like the executive writ or later Letters Close, these early precepts are usually addressed by name to the officials concerned in their execution. The Exposition or Movent clause, which in the Edwardian period is frequently elaborated in a marked degree, is scarcely noticeable in the earliest ' Per ipsum Regent, ir^e. ' Da/a per manum nostram, or (from 1 189 to 1115) per maitam — Camel/aru. ' It might, therefore, be argued that just as Rejc 6r'e. represents .4. Dei ^atia Rex Anglia, &*£., so Tes/e Rege (i.e. nuipso) may represent the official formula Data per manum nostram. 252 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments Patents^ whilst the injunction is by no means confined to the formula Et ideo vobis mandamus. But the most striking variation is seen in the case of the clause announcing sealing. Here in place of the familiar formula In acjus rei testimonium has litteras nostras fieri fecimus patentes we find that the phrase Et in liujus rei (evidently- borrowed from private diplomata) was in use till the eighth year of Henry HI, if not later. Not only this, but the more figurative expression vobis inde mittimus precedes the use of an actual announce- ment of sealing contained in the words fieri fecimus patentes^ by at least as long an interval, whilst a similar formula {ei fecimus patentes) is found in still later times. Again, the actual composition of the earliest Chancery enrolments of the reign of John confirms this view of the gradual evolution of the distinctive royal instruments of a slightly later period. It is well known that no Patent or Close Rolls exist previous to the third and sixth years, respectively, of this reign, the conventional writ in a slightly modified form doing duty for both Letters Patent and Letters Close, side by side with formal charters'. When the Patent Rolls suddenly begin to be made up in the third year of the reign. Letters Close are found mixed with them for the next two years. In the case of both classes of instruments the typical formulas are elaborated, as will be shown presently, by a very slow process of diplomatic construction. The earliest stereotyped form is naturally that in most frequent use, namely Letters of Protection, v^hich, as early as the first year of the 13th century, are distinguished as Litterae Simplices as opposed to those furnished with the clauses Volumus (giving immunity from certain action at law), Nolumus, and other forms*. Mention has already been made of the use and possible abuse of the conventional titles which have been given to such familiar forms of Letters Patent as Commissions, Presentations, Protections, Safe- conducts, Pardons, Credentials and many others ^ Herein the Patent shows its affinity to the ancient royal writ, and this devolution is indicated by the general terms " Precept " and " Mandate " ® applied ' An interesting form is that which mentions the persons "a^ instanciam" of whom the grant was procured. The occurrence of personal Attestations in the earliest Patents may or may not be connected with their procurement. ^ The words et sigillatas were sometimes added but this condition is implied. * The fiscal side of the administration during this period is represented by the Liberate Rolls (ed. Hardy). * Formula Book, Nos. 65, 66. The later Departmental Passes (for shipping) are derived directly from these instruments ; but they were specially enrolled in the reign of George II. ' Above, p. 234. * From the narrative or descriptive forms used in enrolments, i.e. Prmceptum est or Mandatum est. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 253 to Letters Patent equally with Letters Close and Original and Judicial or Departmental Writs. Later still a fresh batch of diplomatic titles has been added to describe new subjects of diplomatic concern \ until something like uniformity of official terminology is established in the Docquets of the 17th century. Although the above distinctive formulas occur in the large majority of Letters Patent, both of a missive and diplomatic character, it would be possible to point to instances in which the absence of the Notification and the wording of the Exposition produce a close resemblance to Letters Close. In these cases, however, the real character of the instrument is shown by the presence of the clause announcing sealing. Perhaps the widest departure from the general form of the normal patent writ is found in the case of diplomatic instruments connected with the execution of treaties, such as "Letters of Credence" and especially "Pro- curations " or " Full Powers " for concluding peace or alliances *. Letters Patent in French, which present us with versions of the usual Latin formulas, may be occasionally met with towards the end of the 13th century. Possibly a further development of this conversion was avoided by the free use of the bilingual and eventually trilingual Privy Seal and Sign Manual Warrant. The Charter and Confirmation and their substitutes in the shape of Letters Patent, as became select and authoritative instruments, continued, until a comparatively late date, to be composed in Latin, whilst English was frequently employed in preference to French for such versions of public and private diplomata as occur before the i6th century'. In one aspect Letters Close may be regarded as types of the con- ventional writ adapted for some special purpose by means of a distinctive formula. In another aspect they do not seem to differ essentially from the conventional form, except that they are dignified by a special oflicial enrolments The chief characteristic of Letters ' Cf. Campbell, Materials for a history of the reign of Henry VII (Roils), passim. For the several types of Letters Patent in an earlier period see Rot, Lift. Pat. Preface, and Formula Book, Nos. 50-70. "^ In the case of treaty papers the year of Our Lord is often substitutetl for the regnal year. ' Instances of the latter may be found in various cartularies and the official " Transcripts of Deeds various." They are quite unintelligent from a diplomatic point of view. A very early Knglish version of Letters Patent is seen in the famous trilingual Proclamation of 1 358 (Pal. Soc. N.S., Part 3, No. 73). Generally speaking French is superseded by English and Latin from the reign of Edward IV. * The distinction obviously implied by the name cannot be easily recognized owing to 254 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments Close would seem to be that as they rarely, and then only indirectly, take the place of royal charters, the ceremonious formulas of Letters Patent are here dispensed with, and this is in keeping with their confidential nature^ At the same time they are distinguished from the old administrative writ by certain peculiarities of construction, which may be enumerated as follows. The Notification is frequently wanting and the Exposition is usually more developed than in the conventional writ''. The extent of this development depends on the nature of the Dispositive clause which gives to the writ its varying character. The nearest approach to the form of a charter is seen in the case of grants of land or offices " during pleasure " or " for sus- tenance." Here, as well as in grants of Pardon and Protection, we see some resemblance to Letters Patent, whilst a similar resemblance to the construction of the ancient writ is seen in the case of instruments intended to give effect to previous grants. In the above and other instances the Dispositive order, or Injunction, is usually introduced by a formal Notification and Exposition. The most frequent use of Letters Close is, however, for purely adminis- trative purposes, and in this aspect they may be considered as specialized writs in the nature of precepts or mandates, differing only from Letters Patent in their application to matters affecting the efficient discharge of former instructions'* or the personal interests of the crown^ These forms can be easily distinguished by the omission of a Notification, an Exposition, and the explanatory words et ideo, their place being taken by an abrupt Injunction. In every case, however, there is a formal Attestation by the King himself, though this is not preceded, as in Letters Patent, by a clause announcing the loss of original specimens. Whether these Letters were in all cases sealed on the back, with the Great Seal as a cachet, or whether the seal was also affixed by a tag and the Letter closed by a band, cannot here be decided. ' As in the case of Letters Patent many of these writs in the earlier period were executed under the Privy Seal. - This is seen in the class of writs in which the Notification is replaced by a narrative or hypothetical exposition such as Cum, Quia, &c., or Monstravit, &c. ^ As an instance in point, we find the following issue of Letters Patent and Executive Writs on one day in connexion with the same business : (rt) 20 April. 54 Hen. Ill Letters Patent appointing new collectors of the 20th in Essex. (b) Same date. Same notifying same to the late collector, (t) Writ admonishing the new collectors to proceed. {d) Writ of Assistance to the Sheriff. * e.g. Wardrobe, Household, &c. For the special uses of these instruments in legislative, fiscal and military business see below p. 256. Feudal business was recorded here in later times by writs for Livery of Seisin, &c. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 255 Execution. There are also, as in the case of the latter instruments, official memoranda to indicate the agency by which the writ has been procured. The systematic alternation of formulas, which is a characteristic feature of the whole class of Letters Close, will perhaps be understood from the following table. It will be noticed that the variation in the Injunctive clause is really governed by the construction of the ante- cedent Exposition. Thus a Notification" followed by the usual Movent clause or a simple narration ^ requires the form Et ideo, &c. to complete the sense. On the other hand, indirect' or hypothetical* clauses are followed by an abrupt Injunction. Finally, in instru- ments which lack both Notification and Exposition', the Salutation is immediately followed by a precept which partially recalls the Anglo- Norman writ. Superscription Address & Salutation Notification Exposition Disposition (Injunction) Attesta- tion Date I. A. Rex &c. B. &c. salutem Sciatis quod &c. concessimus &c. Et ideo tibi praecipimus &c. Teste me ips(j A pud X&c. «. » »» wanting Monstravit &c. nobis •• " " 3- i> " wanting Cum &c. tibi prae- cipimus " •• 4- t> »> wanting Si&c. tunc summone &c. •' '• 5- " wanting wanting Tibi priecipi- mus quod &c. or Liberate &c. " » It is well known that the two great series of Patent and Close Rolls have continued down to modern times, but marked differences exist between the earlier and later forms of these instruments. In the first place it will be obvious that the missive forms both of Letters Patent and Letters Close were superseded, first by the missive instru- ments under the Smaller Seals during the 15th century and from the Tudor period onwards by the cursive " State Papers " in the ver- nacular. For purely formal or ceremonial purposes a certain number of the mediaeval forms continued to be used, particularly those connected with ecclesiastical patronage and foreign diplomacy. In ' See Form No. • No. 3 below. below. * No. 4 below. • See Form No. i below. • No. 5 below. 256 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments respect of domestic administration we find that the use of certain instruments, particularly Commissions and Proclamations, is largely governed by political considerations. Again, owing to inevitable constitutional changes in the character of the sovereignty 1, the older grants of land are replaced by Crown Leases and Pensions. Economic progress is signalized by the recognition of Inventions and by facilities for Denization. Other instruments such as Creations, Oflfices, Licenses, Charters of incorporation and Pardons are preserved in a very similar form. Although in respect of their general diplomatic composition the " Letters " issued under the Great Seal may be regarded as either Patent or Close, there are still several well-known series which would be more properly described as special letters and departmental writs'^. Of these the fiscal writs of Liberate, Computate, Allocate, Perdono, Solvatis and the departmental Contrabrevia, which, frequently found on the Close Roll itself, are familiar examples^ To these may be added certain technical instruments connected with ecclesiatical matters and military service, together with the extensive group of Parliamentary writs*. Finally, amongst the original and judicial writs connected with the administration of justice there are various familiar types which have been separately preserved or enrolled ^ Many of the above have well-marked individual characteristics, but it has only been possible to refer to them in the limited space at our disposal. Moreover, many of these forms have been carefully described in connexion with the history of English Law, and specimens of the same have been printed in official publications and legal formula books^. We have seen that since the close of the 15th century, there has been a growing tendency in the direction of the disuse of the Great ^ I Anne c. i. ^ Under the head of departmental writs of an administrative character may be included a vast collection of executive instruments, some of which, like the "original" and "judicial" writs used in legal procedure, required a return to be made by the persons to whom they were addressed. For this reason perhaps such writs, though composed in the style of Letters Close, are not regularly entered in the Chancery Rolls. For besides the originals (and returns) preserved in the Chancery Files, a large proportion were entered in the Exchequer Rolls. (The whole subject, however, like the documents themselves, is one that deserves further attention. Cf. above, pp. 249, 250.) * Cf. C. Bemont in Rdles Gascons, Supplt., T. i. p. xvii; Madox, Exchequer, Vol. I. p. 390; Dialogiis, I. vi; Pipe Roll Soc. Vol. Iil. Intro, and Formula Book, Nos. 77-86. * e.g. Scutage Rolls, &c. Cf. Palgrave, Parliamentary Writs for these, and Formula Book, Nos. 77-86. ^ e.g. Writs of Redisseisin. * See Gross, Sources and Literature, s.v. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 257 Seal and the substitution of writs or warrants under the Smaller Seals, and the Sign Manual. Not only were these employed in a missive form, but they also served, on occasion, as warrants which dispensed with the issue or enrolment of Letters Patent ; just as in turn Letters Close, the typical missives of the 13th and 14th centuries, were gradually disused with the advent of the modern State Paper. This being so, the characteristic feature of these enrolments disap- pears, and the later Rolls are utilized for the registration of private and semi-ofificial Deeds\ In this later period also new series of enrolments were founded, which served still further to deplete the ancient classes of Letters Patent and Close*. The diplomatic forms alluded to above are those usually associated with the practice of the royal Chancery in respect of writs under the Great Seal. Others, however, are found amongst the Records though only the briefest mention of them can be made. Of these a large class of Parliamentary instruments will be found to be either irregular in point of construction or consisting of Chancery writs in a common form'. The later proceedings of Parliament, like those of the King's Council, are of the nature of judicial or departmental Records and both are still preserved in external custody. Others which are connected with the procedure of the Ecclesiastical and Admiralty Courts are of considerable interest for the general study of diplomatic and refer particularly to certain Chancery enrolments^ At the same time these instruments are composed according to a notarial system which has always been regarded as alien to the native legal system. Moreover, an exact description of their diplomatic construction would involve some explanation of the procedure of the Continental Chanceries'. Finally, it must be remembered that the official ' e.g. Recognizances, Conveyances of several kinds. Trusts and Awards, Memorials and Specifications. =* e.g. Dispensation, Surrender and Bishop's Patent Rolls in the 17th century. * These are printed exhaustively in Palgrave's Parliatiuntary Writs. Their sequence is indicated in the Formula Hook, p. 82, from the proceedings connected with the I'arliament of York in 132 1. Here notarial forms, such as proxies and certificates, will l)e found to alternate with royal writs at certain stages of the proceedings. Cf. also Stubbs, Seltct Charters, Part VU. * e.g. I.*tters Patent connected with episcopal elections. It is well known that a sequence of conventional instruments may be found in connexion with ecclesiastical elections, a notarial document alternating with a diplomatic writ as follows: (1) Petition for license to elect, (i) Royal License (C't;/!^^ <), (3) Notification of election, (4) Royal Assent, (5) Canonical confirmation of election, (6) Restitution of temporalities. For specimens, see Formula Hook, Nos. 88—93. * The admirable Manuel de Diplomatique of M. Giry will serve for every purpose of com- pari'ion between the Continental and English systems, Cf. also Lomoiiic, Diplomaliqtu practique (1765). H. ,7 258 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments collections of ecclesiastical Records^ are not in the custody of the crown, while the Admiralty Records were quite recently regarded as purely departmental Archives^. id) Instruments under the Smaller Seals {Missives). The partial disuse of the Great Seal of majesty marks the beginning of the last stage in the evolution of the charter with its subsidiary writs. Whether this momentous change is connected with the growth of the personal power of the crown or with the develop- ment of the administrative system is a question with which we are not here directly concerned, any more than with certain interesting speculations as to the antiquity of the private seal itself. The earliest existing notices, however, of the official use of a secondary royal seal date only from the reign of King John, and the practice in point cannot be regarded as fully established before the reign of Edward I. The Privy Seal is probably mentioned as such for the first time in the reign of John^ Whether the "Parvum Sigillum" used on ' i.e. The Episcopal Registers (cf. the Prospectus and Publications of the Canterbury and York Society). For the Diplomatic of this subject see Lyndewode's Provinciah (1679), Ayliffe's Pai-ergon (1734), Oiighton's Forms of Ecclesiastical Law (1831), the Reports on Cathedral Archives prepared for the Historical Manuscripts Commission (Various Collections) by Mr R. L. Poole. For contemporary notices of the formulas of ecclesiastical confirmations cf. Wykeham's Register (Hants. Record Society), i. 11, 70, 149, 185, 229, &c. ; Matt. Paris (Rolls), III. ipd sq. ; Kegistrum Palatinum Duiielmense (Rolls), i. 392; Cartitlarium Ramesiense (Rolls), I. 28 — 40, amongst the numerous sources of information for this extraneous subject. ^ For the forms of Admiralty Records, 14th— i6th century, see R. G. Marsden, Select Pleas in the Admiralty Court (Selden Soc). That there was a considerable official employ- ment of public notaries in the 15th century may be inferred from documents printed in the Foedera and si^ecific cases like that of Hugo Helwys in the Issue Roll, Mich. 11 Henry IV. Again, it would doubtless be possible, by means of a careful selection from the texts of the mediaeval Foedera and from unpublished documents, to prepare a fairly complete list of more or less conventional forms illustrating the overtures connected with a diplomatic mission, the Credentials, Commendation and Safe-conduct of the envoys, and the Instructions, Mandate, or Powers committed to their charge, with the formal Proxies and Declarations relating to the same ; the execution of the treaty protocols and separate provisions or articles, according as the negotiations in progress relate to an Arbitration, a Treaty of marriage or alliance, a Pacification, a Convention, or a Truce. Finally, the securities or consideration given in the shape of hostages or money, the ceremonial of leave-taking and the due ratification of the protocols by the high contracting parties. Such an eclectic sequence could, however, be of no real value as indicating the normal procedure, which contrasts sharply in point of uniformity with the diplomatic practice of later times as represented by the conventional sequence of instruments during the 17th and i8th centuries that is referred to above (p. 246) and printed in the Formula Book (Nos. 183 — 194). Reference may, however, be made for the elucidation of the later mediaeval procedure to the following works : Maulde la Claviere, Ln Diplomatie au temps de Machiavel, and VI. E. Hraber, De Legatis et Legationibus Tractatus varii. * Privato Sigillo nostra signatas (Rot. Lift. Pat. p. 183 a). Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 259 certain occasions in the reign of John was the equivalent of the later Privy Seal or was merely the king's Signet or personal seal' is at least doubtful. In any case the verification of royal instruments by this device was regarded as an expedient only justified by an emergency^ The same view may be taken of the occasional use of the personal seals of the Queen, the Chancellor or other royal deputies', and this constitutional view was even extended to the prolonged abeyance of the Great Seal during a minority*. It is also clear that the validity of such instruments was open to question*, and an undertaking was often given for their ratification in due course under the Great Seal*. It is possible that this provisional use of the Privy Seal facilitated the adoption of the later practice of procuring Letters or Bills for the due issue of more formal instruments^ Great care must, however, be invariably exercised in order to avoid con- fusion between the formal writs of Privy Seal for the mere issue of the Great Seal and the missive writ with which we are at present concerned. The same distinction must also be observed in the case of Signet Letters and Warrants employed as missives, and Bills, Letters and Warrants issued under the Signet or other Small Seal* as authorities for the use of the Privy Seal or the Great Seal. The general resemblance of, these two types is a very close one, and in both cases the Sign Manual was occasionally employed, at a later date, as a supplementary method of execution or expedition. But although these early variants must be clearly recognized, and although the substitution of the Smaller Seals for the Great Seal was a well- known abuse of later times, it is important to note that the chief, if not the true function of the mediaeval Smaller Seals, and especially of the later Sign Manual, was to authorize the issue of the Great Seal. ' Tliis term does not seem to have been used in an invidious sense as in later times. ■•* Quia Magnum Sigillum nostrum nobiscum non habuimus (cf. Rot. Lilt. Clans, p. 114 b and Rot. Litt. Pat. p. 138). ^ Just as many subsidiary instruments (including even Tallies) were nude in the forms of the oDicial scriptorium ami employed by local officers, so precepts were issueii by the sherifls for certain purposes, and acknowleilgments and other certificates were sealed by the Customers at the out-ports as Letters Tatent under the " Cokel " Seal (cf. Formula Hook, No. 134). Similarly, we fmd that in much later times warrants were issueii by an authority delegated to Secretaries of State and l(x:al and colonial officers. Del>enturcs on the Wardrobe were not issued under the I'rivy Seal but under the seals of the clerks. * Quoniam sigillum nouJutn habuimus. " Numerous ordinances and cases will l>e found in the Statutes and Rolls of Parliament. * Cf. Formula Book, No. 44. This may or may not explain the necessity for the confirmation of existing charters in the nth year of Henry III. Cf. above, p. 14 1. ^ Cf. l»elow, p. 164. ' t.g. The Griffin used by Edwanl III, and the Kagle by Henry \' and Henry VI. 17—2 26o Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments Of the above missive writs or letters, the Privy Seal is, as we have seen, the earliest. From first to last this maintained its position as the recognized medium for conveying the royal commands, especially in cases where the authority of the Great Seal might be dispensed with on the plea of urgency'. Again, it will be noted that the use of the Privy Seal is closely associated with the development of a new administrative department, the Wardrobe, whilst the independent authority of the Smaller Seals in general is found to coincide with the organization of the Chancery as a Court of Law, PVom the first, too, we find the administrative use of the Privy Seal chiefly associated with the fiscal business 2, which had been from a very early period transacted partly in the Exchequer and partly in the Chamber {Camera) and Wardrobe*. Moreover, the disuse of the Great Seal for purely official purposes must have presented obvious advantages. The time was soon to come when even the use of the Privy Seal itself was found too cumbrous for many departmental transactions ; but this further development was also due to the increasing importance and dignity of the office of the Keeper of the Privy Seal, and thus we reach the final evolution of the diploma in the shape of the Signet Letter and Sign Manual Warrant which could be expedited without needless formalities or delays which might prove dangerous. The characteristic formulas of missives under the Smaller Seals have a general resemblance to those of the executive writ (Great Seal)'' ; but in connexion with the Writs of Privy Seal it should be noted that although the existence of a Latin form as early as the 13th century is well established, the characteristic language of these instruments was Frenchl The Latin writs preserved side by side with these in the Exchequer files are mostly instruments under the Great Seal issued for the information or instruction of the Barons. ' e.g. Commissions of array, Benevolences, &c. in which the public safety is vehemently alleged from the reign of Edward III to that of Charles I (Exch. T. of R. Privy Seals for Loans). ^ These are classified as Exchequer of Receipt, " Warrants for Issues." A considerable numlier of missive writs are filed here, and still more are found on the Memoranda Rolls of the Exchequer. Others will be found amongst the " Exchequer Proceedings." * Cf. the several charters granted in 1251 to Peter de Rivallis, including in almost identical terms the offices of Keeper of the Small Seal, holder of the Third Roll (by deputy) at the Exchequer, and Keeper of the Wardrobe, the Chamber and the Treasury of the Household (Rot. Chart, 16 Henry III, mm. 7 and 9). The administrative importance of the Wardrobe will explain the rapid growth of this clerical department. •* See Formula Book, Nos. 94 — 104. An interesting MS. precedent book is preserved in the Cambridge University Library (Dd. III. 53 a). * Exchequer of Receipt, Warrants for Issues and T. R. Warrants for Issues (Series I). Cf. Madox, Hist, of Exchequer, i. 382 and 387. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 261 The same remark applies to the writs issued under the Exchequer or other departmental seals on the authority of Privy Seals, Letters Patent issued under the Privy Seal instead of the Great Seal are of course exceptional, although we have evidence of serious en- croachments on the functions of the Chancery before the reign of Edward \\\ In the French forms of Privy Seal writs we have evidently a mere version of the Latin conventional writ, and the same remark applies to the epistolary forms sometimes employed. The Seal was either endorsed, or affixed en placard or else suspended after the manner of the Great SeaP. It may be suggested, however, that the endorsement in this case differs from the perfunctory attachment of the seal in later depart- mental warrants for the issue of the Great Seal. If we may regard the Privy and Secret Seals as equivalent devices during the earlier period the seal was probably used to secure the folded letter in con- nexion with a band which tapered from one end. Certainly there is little difference in the size of these two seals. The Privy Seal itself* appears to have been of inconsiderable dimensions (somewhat larger than a shilling) during the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, and the early part of that of Edward III, when it reaches the size of a crown piece. The use of this larger seal en placard m missive letters is very noticeable. The Signet or Privy Signet Seal, which appears in the reign of Edward III as rather larger than a sixpenny piece, was lozenge- shaped, in contrast to the circular Privy Seal, like the cachet of the 17th and 1 8th centuries. Like the Privy Seal it was invariably of red wax and its " scar " is easily recognized on the dorse of royal letters by the cross-shaped adhesion spread outside the matrix. We have unfortunately little information about the establishment of the Signet or its custody prior to the i6th century ^ Signet Letters, though of later date, differ only from the earlier Privy Seal Letters in respect of their verification by means of the Signet. The characteristic form of both is epistolary, and is rarely that of a mere precept*, like the Signet Bill or Warrant for Issues*. • Cf. Arliculi super Cartas, c. 6. For the extensive use of these writs in the Edwardian period cf. Madox, pp. 358-9 and passim. " Above, p. 353, n. 4. Letters of Privy Seal, as distinguished from Writs, are found under the pendent Seal after 1660 (Hardy, h'ot de Liberate, &c. p. xiii, «.). ' For the form of the later seal see Audit Office Declared Accounts, '* Engravers of Seak," and Wyon, Crtat Seals, Appendix. * Vobis mandamus, »2rv. • Formula Book, Nos. 105 sq. 262 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments From the middle of the 14th century the heading Per regem occurs with or without the Sign Manual ; an authentication which has sur- vived in the modern Proclamation. The Salutation and Address are epistolary in character and there is frequently a Valediction. A noticeable Final clause is found somewhat later in the shape of an authorization which became the typical feature of the Royal Warranto Perhaps the chief interest of the Signet Letter is found in the fact that it served as a model for the later departmental Letter (which it also resembles as a paper document), though as a mere survival it had an independent existence till the last century. The Dormant writ or warrant of Privy Seal extensively used in the 1 6th and 17th centuries bears a close resemblance to the ancient writ of Liberate. It is distinguished by the time limit expressed in the Injunction^ The Sign Manual Warrant, which dates from the reign of Richard II, differs but little from the Signet Bill except that it is not neces- sarily verified by a seal, and in a later period was countersigned ^ The English form " We will and command," is derived from the stereotyped Latin formula Nos volentes — vobis mandamus, whilst, as we have seen, the clause of warranty is derived from more ancient instruments. The Proclamation closely follows the formulas of the Privy Seal, Signet Letter and Warrant with numerous variations. We can even recognize in certain specimens the older formulas of Letters Patent. It has, however, as its distinctive characteristics the heading " A Proclamation " and the curious final Apprecatio " God save the King." Alone of the recognized types of royal diplomata the Proclamation appears only in an English form, for the Letters Patent to which this title has frequently been given have no diplomatic connexion with this instrument in its technical sense*. In some respects, however, the Proclamation would seem to belong to the class of later depart- mental instruments under the Smaller Seals and Sign Manual which will be described in another section. As these, however, are merely variants of earlier diplomatic forms, the Proclamation as a distinct 1 Et hoe literae nostrae vobis erunt super Jioc suffuiens ivarravtu7n. ^ e.g. For payment of "liveries" at certain annual dates, "and so from year to year" during life or the royal pleasure. ^ Formula Book, No. loo. * It is curious that one of the earliest of these, the so-called Proclamation of the king's adherence to the Provisions of Oxford in i^sS, was issued in English. It was composed in diplomatic style. Similar "Proclamations" are found on the Patent Rolls during the 1 8th century. Mr W. H. Stevenson, however, regards this Proclamation as a Letter Close {E. H. R. XXI. 506). It is cited by Bishop Stubbs as a trilingual document (.S". C. p. 378), but only the English and French versions can be identified. For references to the texts see Formula Book, Nos. 70 a and 70 b. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 263 species in itself should perhaps be mentioned amongst the former in spite of its modern associations*. (^) Warrants for Issues^. Although these instruments are usually termed "Warrants" they comprise, as we have seen, almost the same types as have been described above, namely Writs, Letters and Bills of Privy Seal, together with Letters and Bills under the Signet and Sign Manual Warrants'. These, however, are not used as royal missives for general administrative purposes, but presumably subserve a single purpose, the issue of instruments under the Great SeaP. This distinctive use can be easily gathered from the Injunctive clause which contains the direction referred to. Moreover, most of these Warrants are addressed directly or indirectly to the Chancellor, whilst there is also a difference in the titles and forms of the instruments themselves. A very large pro- portion consists of Bills under the Privy Seal omitting the usual diplomatic openings, which are replaced by the heading Per regem, &c. followed by the special Injunction. The antiquity of this departmental procedure is somewhat uncertain, but it can be traced back to the reign of Henry III, and possibly even earlier, in connexion with the principle that for certain purposes the assistance of the Great Seal might be invoked by a petition to the sovereign or procured by an initial fee to the keeper of the Smaller Seal*. Evidently, however, the official practice continued to be somewhat vague and arbitrary down * Matters of State such as the change of the royal style under Henry VIII might be dealt with in this way and enrolled amongst the legal Records (cf. alx)ve, p. i33). * See Deputy Keeper's ilh Report, Appx. II. p. 189. An excellent account of the Procedure is given in Scargill-Bird's (iuide (2nd ed.) s.v. Privy Seals. * Formula Book, Nos. 105 sq. The Bill is a form peculiar to the Warrant as distinguished from the Missive. ■• Not infrequently the Chancellor is required to prepare a suitable despatch in connexion with political or judicial business. We also notice in the earlier period, particularly in the reign of Edward I, the occasional use of Privy Seal Letters to procure redress without necessarily implying the issue of an instrument under the Great Seal for this purpose. In fact, but for the circumstance that these letters were not returnable like the Original Writs tie cursu, they would scarcely l)e distinguishable from those preserved in the C'hancery files. In one case (Warrants for Issue, Series i, 1681, 17 Jan. 1183) the officials arc reminded of the king's desire to encourage poor and distressed suitors to approach him. Indeed, we are almost tempted to conjecture that at this stage of the development of the equitable jurisdiction of the Chancery, the business of the court and of the seal went hand in hand. Somewhat later the usual process of royal intervention in the course of justice was accomplished by a Signet Warrant to procure a Privy Seal addressed to the justices which would Ix followed by a judicial writ of Supersedeas. In such cases the intervention of the seal was procured, we may suppose, by personal |x:tition as in the case of I^etters under the Great Seal. » Cf. Rot. Pari. \\\. 388 b, 433 b ; iv. 496 b/ 264 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments to the reign of Henry VHP. But although fronn the reign of Edward III, if not still earlier, a recognized procedure existed ^ this was frequently ignored in practiced The good offices necessary to procure the issue of Letters Patent or Protections were sometimes performed by household officers, whose interest might easily be opposed to that of the keepers of the Seals^ At length it became necessary for the crown to intervene by obtaining an Act of Parlia- ment to establish the jurisdiction of these departments on a firm footing'. Previous to this declaratory Act, the procedure at different periods during the 14th and 15th centuries seems to have been as follows. In response to a petition presented to the crown a Letter under the Signet was addressed to the Keeper of the Privy Seal requiring him to prepare a Warrant under that Seal as an authority for the Chancellor to issue Letters under the Great Seal. This was apparently the normal practice and one which differed little from that of later times. ^ From the reign of Edward I a considerable number of original Warrants exist under the Privy Seal, as authorities for the issue of the Great Seal. These are written in a purely epistolary style, and we may perhaps suspect that such informal letters, or rather Bills, were the official predecessors of the great series of Signet Warrants which become of paramount importance from the reign of Richard II. The early letters referred to are in the style of the departmental letters of the period preserved in the Ancient Corre- spondence of the Chancery, commencing with an Address and Salutation and containing a mandate (in rogatory terms) for the good offices of the Chancellor in the matter set forth or inclosed. ^ Chancery Warrants, &c. File 1675 sq. * Cf. above, p. 244 n. 2. The authorities cited here seem to show that the issue of certain instruments under the Great Seal was to some extent a matter of course as early as the beginning of the 14th century. At the same time we may reasonably suppose that the sovereign had the chief voice in the matter, and in this connexion the writs of revocation of Letters Patent occasionally found are significant. Cf. Pat. 34 Edward III, Pt 2, m. 6, assigning as a cause for revocation that the extent of the grant non fuit intentionis nostrae. * Cf. Kot. Pari. III. 268, from which we learn that in 1372 the Signet was usually procured by the Chamberlain or Sub-Chamberlains of the Household. It was considered desirable that, in the case of venal instruments such as Pardons, the official who procured the Signet Bill should endorse the draft prepared for the Privy Seal to ensure his responsibility for the concession desired. Originally it would seem that the Chancellor himself had procured the warrant after "speaking with " the King on the subject, but this practice must have been replaced by the rise of the new seal-bearing officers. Occasionally we have a glimpse of the informal procedure which might be used in the case of such petitions for the issue of Letters Patent. To original Letters Patent granted to a royal debtor for pardon of arrears at the intercession of a certain courtier there are attached a schedule of debts and a contemporary note of the petition, together with several other petitions in other cases, reminding us of the memoranda sometimes found amongst the later State Papers relating to suits to be advanced by the Secretary of State with the King himself or before the Council. Cf. O. L. P. (Exchequer), Bdle I. and Chapter House Books, No. 139 (Papers of Thos. Cromwell). ^ 27 Henry VIII, c. 11. . Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 265 That it was extensively used, is proved by the preservation of a large series of these Signet Letters'. But besides this formal procedure, the warrant in question might reach the Chancery direct as a Writ or Letter under the Privy or " Secret " Seal, or as a Privy Seal or Signet Bill, or as a Sign Manual Warranto Some of these instruments again might be used as a covering writ or letter from the King enclosing the petition for the Chancellor's information, or the royal Fiat might be inscribed upon the Petition itself. In the Privy Seal writs, however, as opposed to Bills, a process of transition can be observed during the 15th century. The brief mandate with its annexed schedule are frequently, from the reign of Henry VI, incorporated in a single instrument which contains full instructions for the purpose in view. Finally, from a certain period in this reign the writ commences with a mandate to prepare an instru- ment in forma sequenti followed by a draft of the same complete (except as to the protocols) and concluding abruptly with the usual attestation, much after the manner of an Inspeximns. Similarly, the petitioner might submit a draft of the instrument desired, possibly in his own handwriting, and this was either appended to a petition, or was presented in the form of a draft instrument to which a petition, or an official docquet giving its purport, was prefixed as a heading. Such a draft as this, when approved by the superscription of the Sign Manual, was "expedited" in due course. The effect of the Sign Manual as a superscription to a Signet Warrant was apparently intended to procure its immediate execution by the Chancellor. These drafts omit the official details of the Initial and Final Protocols which, as in the case of the later King's Bill, were inserted at a further stage of the proceed- ings^ After the reign of Henry VI the date of the acceptance of the petition and adoption of the draft submitted is often indicated by the addition of an official Dating clause; but besides this an official memo- randum mentions the date and place of delivery of the authorized draft to the Chancellor for execution ^ ' In the case of the great Kxchequer Scries (T. of K. ), however, these Signets were intended to procure the Privy Seal alone. ' This is usually indicated by the departmental minute on tlie Chancery enrolment, Per ipsnm rtgein. ' The ahx)ve change of practice in the reign of Henry VI was not uniformly observetl n- sidcreartmental minute, auctoritate Parliamenti, Ss'e. may prolmhly lie found in the Statute 18 llcnry VI. c. I (cf. Rot. Pari. v. 33 a). 266 Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments The formulas of the Warrant under the Privy Seal or Signet, whether in Latin or French', exhibit numerous variations. In the earliest period, as we have seen, such letters are informally addressed to the keepers or clerks of the Chancery and bear no announcement of sealing. In some instances, especially in Passes, provisos may be added in a Final claused In its earliest and simplest form the Privy Seal Warrant for the issue of the Great Seal, whether procured by a Signet Letter or not, appears as an instruction to the Chancellor for the preparation of an instrument to meet the requirements of a Petition which is stated to be annexed I The motive of this instruction is usually stated in the Exposition of the writ\ The Injunction which follows this Exposition is generally found as a simple mandate^ but from the reign of Richard II the later stereotyped formula (^Nos) volentes — vobis man- damus begins to appear. In the case of formal instruments, such as Protections, it was evidently unnecessary to forward detailed in- structions and the Salutation is followed by a direct Injunction*. In other cases the object of the warrant was merely to authorize the seal to be affixed'' to instruments already drawn, and these are to be returned by the bearer when sealed. In the composition of these instruments a uniform and technical arrangement is followed. Thus a warrant which refers to a grant to be made by royal charter", enjoins the preparation of a corresponding instrument'-' with suitable variants in the case of Letters of Protection or Attorney, &c. During the period in which the greater number of these Warrants are composed in French, we are presented with an idiomatic and not ungraceful version of the conventional Latin writ. In the 1 5th century, ^ Roughly speaking, these instruments are bilingual (Latin and French) from the reign of Edward II to that of Henry V, and trilingual in the reigns of Henry V and VI. Under Edward IV French is rapidly superseded by Latin and English, and the latter has achieved a virtual supremacy from the reign of Henry VII. In the earliest period, however, the Privy Seal is associated with a Latin script, whilst French is evidently predominant in the middle of the 14th century. ^ e.g. to guard against a breach of the bullion laws. In the case of Protections a mere direction is given for the clause Volumtts, &^c. (as in the procedure under Letters Patent). •* In cedula prasentibits interclusas. * Quia concessivmsy S^fc. suscepimus in protectionem, &^c. daliim est nobis intelligi, &>£. ■' Fobis mandamus. In the case of instructions for special occasions we usually find scribads. * Mandelis. ^ Sigillari facialis. " Cum de gratia nostra, &^c. concessimits, &€. " Curiam, sub magna sigillo nostro, de concessioiu nostra hujusmodi habere, in forma debita facialis. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 267 however, a large proportion of the existing Warrants are found as Engh'sh versions which display considerable originality of composition, especially when couched in an epistolary form. For certain purposes, as we have seen, an impersonal form of writ was used, especially for procuring writs of Allocate and Letters of Protection. This is the well-known Fiat which may be regarded as an official minute, resembling the later " Signed Bill " or " Imme- diate Warrant," rather than as a complete diplomatic instrument '. In addition to the usual verification "^ by Privy, Secret and Signet Seals or by the Sign Manual, the distinctive armorial seals are again employed. In certain cases also a Bill or Fiat is procured by the Treasurer, Butler, Ulnager or other great Officer acting strictly within his departmental jurisdiction ^ So matters stood when the famous Act of 27 Henry VIII, c. 11 was passed, which effected a complete reformation of the existing procedure. For some time past there had been signs of an increasing formality in the execution of these Warrants, and a sharper line of distinction had already been drawn between the several stages of their departmental preparation. In one direction we notice that the drafts are countersigned and expedited with the addition of con- spicuous departmental memoranda and official counter-signatures. In another direction we see a tendency to develop the second stage of the proceedings by elaborating the forms of Privy Seal Writs and Bills and of Signet Letters and Bills. In spite of this, however, it will be evident from the number of petitions with appended drafts preserved as Warrants under the Sign Manual*, as well as from the terms of the above Act, that the good offices of a friend at Court, or a convenient show of poverty, could enable the formal issue of letters of the Signet and writs of the Privy Seal to be readily dispensed with. This evasion of the customary fees struck a blow at the whole official system which had been gradually evolved since ' Cf. above, p. 166 and Formula Book, No. 123. The Fiat varies in form according as the directions given are " general " or " special." In the latter case details amounting to a draft of the intended writ may l)e given therein. '■' These .Seals are invariably affixed to the dorse of the Letter, Writ or Bill and apfx-ar to have l)een intended in the case of the .Signet at least to secure the document when folded and closed by a band. In later times a distinction Ixrtwecn a I'rivy Seal Writ and Letter consisted in the execution of the latter by means of a {lendent seal (cf. aliove, p. 161). In the case of I'rivy Seal Bills (Protections), however, the Seal was usually affixed on the face and immediately following the last word of the writing. • Cf. above, p. 164 and Formula Book, Nos. 118—131. * Chancery and Exchequer T. of K. Warrants for Issues, Series it. The counter- signatures of these instruments are noticeable, a device found asearly as the reign of Edward II. 268 Later Charters and Diplomatic histruments the reign of Edward I. Moi'eover, in addition to these vested interests two new departments of State had to be considered, those namely, under the charge of the Secretary of State and the law officers. A somewhat cumbrous procedure was eventually enforced by the operation of the new Act. Hitherto, as we have seen, the royal warrant might take the single form of a Privy Seal, a Privy Seal Bill, a Signet Letter or a Sign Manual Warrant, enclosing or appending, respectively, a Petition for, or a draft of, an instrument under the Great Seal. In future, however, the traditional Petition was to be taken under the protection of the Secretary of State, who procured the Sign Manual Warrant, which might no longer, except in special cases, serve as an "Immediate" Warrant for the issue of Letters Patent. Instead, the Warrant only authorized the preparation of a " King's Bill " which represents the mediaeval draft of proposed Letters Patent, which had been hitherto commonly amalgamated with the Petition and the subsequent Warrant. At the same time it should be noted that the modern procedure cannot be regarded as permanently established for many years after the passing of the Act of 1535, owing to the continued use of Signed Bills as "Immediate" Warrants. In the next century we find a greater uniformity of procedure, especially in the case of formal grants ^ Moreover, it is now the duty of the department of State ^ which procures a Warrant to submit the petition whereby it first originated to the law officers of the crown or other officials concerned in the matter. The "Reference" was followed in due course by a " Report," upon consideration of which a Sign Manual Warrant was issued for the preparation of a King's Bill for which the law officers were responsible ^ This " Bill," which again bore the Sign Manual, was then passed on to the Signet Office, and thence under the Signet to the Privy Seal Office* for formal execution. Here, in consideration of the payment of the official fees, the protocols were completed and the departmental seal was again appended. Thus the Secretary of State's Signet was the authority for the Lord Privy Seal to issue a writ of Privy Seal, which in turn authorized the Chancellor to issue the Letters ^ See Formula Book, pp. 114 — 118 and below, Appendix, where a concrete instance is displayed. ■■' These included the quasi-judicial courts of Wards and Surveyors as well as household officers and the independent patentees of the crown, but the great majority of I-etters Patent were procured by the Secretaries of State. * The Caveat which might be entered by interested parties at this stage was at first registered in the Secretary of State's Office, though regarded in later times as under the super- vision of the law officers. It was also employed by the Treasury Board. Later Charters and Diplomatic Instruments 269 Patent. These in an earlier period might have been already drafted by the applicant, or by the official department which had procured the authority of the Sign Manual for their expedition. There was, however, something else that the officials did for their money. At each of these stages in the slow progress of the Petition towards diplomatic maturity an official entry was made of the nature of the proposed grant which has served a useful purpose in these later times. An abstract was also inscribed upon the instrument itself in its several stages corresponding to the official Docquet ' preserved in the well-known Docquet Books of the several depart- ments concerned. In addition to this abstract the usual official memoranda and counter-signatures were appended to the drafts. The seals themselves were in this later period attached by means of strips to the dorse of the instrument, another variation of the ancient practice of sealing en placard. In one case or another, therefore, we should find the several documentary evidences relating to the issue of Letters Patent which, for the sake of clearness, have been enumerated in tabular form as an Appendix to the present chapter. At the same time it should be remembered that the practice herein was not only conventional but somewhat arbitrary, whilst owing to the large number of documents missing from the several official series the actual procedure in individual cases can no longer be ascertained with any certainty. Moreover, it is necessary to distinguish between the regular procedure and the official practice whereby Letters Patent were issued for departmental or extraordinary purposes by virtue either of an "Immediate" Warrant procured by the Secretary of State or by a Signed Bill usually procured by the Chancellor himself. These special instruments passed the inter- mediate stages of expedition, being merely noted by endorsement of the royal warrant and abstracted in the Docquet Books of the offices concerned, in order that the usual fees might be claimed as directed by the Act of 1535. * This Doc(juet a.s seen in the Kinjj's Hill is possibly derivetl from the old offiml presentment of the original jjetition as a heading to the drafts of the pro|x)seersonal introduction. ' The remarkable vicissitudes of the first-named collection are well known. The others owe their preservation to having l)een dejjosiied in official custoartmental collections. For the mcxlern xspect, see Anson Law and Custom of the Couslitution (1907), II. (i) p. 50. ' e.g. The King's and Secretaries' Ix;tters amongst the Domestic Entry Bks of the Secretariat. The King's Letter Hooks contain chiefly the well-known " Royal letters," l»eing Letters of Credence, Notification, Exhortation, Congratulation or Condolence addressed to foreign (mtentates, some of which are written in a familiar style as stated alM)ve. 18—2 276 Letters, State Papers and Departmental Instruments centuries, into an official affectation. Its diplomatic features may be described as follows. There is a vocative, impersonal Address and a Valediction, both in a style of affection '. The Salutation and Notification preserve conventional versions of earlier forms I An Exposition is often founds and the Dispositive or Injunctive clause when present is in the diplomatic form^ In some cases there is a Final clause in the shape of a further Injunction or Proviso which is of purely mediaeval origin I In the epistolary instruments under the royal Signet and Sign Manual, practically the same form is preserved from the 1 5th century to the 19th. Indeed, but for the fact of their occurrence in depart- mental Letter Books it would scarcely have been necessary to examine their construction further. Such an examination will, however, indicate the use that was made of these instruments as models for the conventional official letter of the 17th century. {c) Departmental Instruments. In an earlier period we should be almost justified in assuming that the official letter, as distinguished from these royal instruments, on the one hand, and private correspondence on the other, did not as yet exist. It was apparently called into existence by the erection of the new State departments under Boards of Commissioners from the middle of the 17th century". These official bodies acting in the name of the crown made use of the general forms of royal instru- ments, but with certain necessary modifications. The departmental letter that was thus elaborated may be briefly described as follows. There is a conventional Salutation "^ in the place of an Address, followed by an Exposition ^ The Injunctive clause is usually found as a direction or requisition", and is almost invariably followed, as in a Royal Letter, by the usual official warranty'". There is no Valediction, but the letter concludes with ^ " Right trusty and well-beloved — and so we bid you heartily farewell." 2 11 \Ye greet you well," " And we let you wit that." 3 II Whereas," &c. ■• "We are pleased by these presents to grant," &c. "Our Will and Pleasure is," &c. " " For it is our pleasure," &c. (of. Vohimtis enitn). "Wherefore we will and command," &c. " Provided that," &c. "And these our letters shall be— a sufficient warrant," &c. ® For Trade, the Navy, Admiralty, Ordnance, Customs, &c. ' " After our hearty commendations." 8 "Whereas," &c. " Forasmuch as," &c. ^ "These are to direct (pray) and require you," &c. '" " And for so doing this shall be your warrant." Letters y State Papers and Departmental Instruments 277 a Subscription in affectionate terms ', From the latter part of the 17th century the full Address was usually appended to the letter itself, but the direction for delivery was also endorsed. These modifications of the traditional Royal Letter doubtless influenced to some extent the style of the modern official despatch, although the latter is mainly indebted, as we have seen, to private epistolary models. Again, just as the Signet Letter was utilized for the above purpose, so the instruments of the Chancery itself served as models for various diplomatic documents, which have received appropriate titles in connexion with the administrative work of the several State departments. These are the Warrants, Orders, Instructions, Com- missions, which furnish an independent series of diplomatic and epistolary forms which were used in the place of the conventional out-letter on formal occasions. In the first place, it may be observed that although the above forms are to be met with amongst the Records of every department of the State, as well as in the royal Secretariat itself, it is perfectly possible to distinguish between the instruments of either description. It is also possible, as we have already noticed, to classify the Secretarial instruments according to their use for home or foreign affairs. In the case of departmental Records, however, the official titles are frequently misleading. Moreover, these instruments are frequently entered under general headings, so that a Letter Book may contain warrants, and a Warrant Book, letters. Of the above instruments, the Warrant as a departmental Record must be distinguished from the royal warrants preserved in the files of the Chancery. The latter in the shape of Writs or Bills under the Privy Seal, Signet or Sign Manual were issued by the King in Council or by his Secretary of State or, for certain purposes, by a special office^ From an early period, however, we have seen' that it had been usual for warrants to be issued for certain purposes on behalf of the chief departments of State, just as judicial writs were issued by the several courts of law from a still earlier period. Such departmental warrants were countersigned by the great officers of State* and might even be entered, as precedents, in the Records * " Your loving friends, .'\. B. C." ' The Privy Seal and Signet Offices the latter of which was practically a branch of the Secretary of State's department. For these and other Departmental instruments, see Formula Book, Nos. lya — 208. ' Above, p. 167. * e.g. The Treasurer, Butler, Chaml>erlain. These warrants were missive, or executive, in character and also served as orders for letters under the Great Seal. 278 Letters, State Papers and Departmental Instruments of the department concerned \ At the same time it will be found that these warrants are still preserved as Curial instruments till the middle of the i6th century. Thenceforward they were appro- priated by the Secretariat and the new departments above referred to, the old diplomatic practice connected with the issue of the Seals being left in the hands of the seal-bearing officers. The early Warrants of the Royal Household are followed by the departmental Warrants of the Treasury, and these in turn by those of the Ordnance, and after an interval by the Records of the Admiralty and War Office. All of these might take the form of an instrument under the Sign Manual or else that of an authority issued in the names of the royal commissioners constituting the depart- mental Board. In the latter case the Warrant might be either diplomatic or epistolary in form according to the occasion of its issue or the practice of the department. These Sign Manual warrants do not differ in any respect, except as to the subject-matter, from the diplomatic forms, neither do the purely departmental types differ materially from the departmental Letters already described or from the Orders and Instructions which will be presently referred to. The essential clause " And this shall be your warrant " is found in all alike, but special forms occur to which distinctive titles have usually been applied. Amongst these we may notice the Warrants of the Secretary of State (whether " general " or " special ") for the committal of offenders, " Post- warrants," " Licenses to pass the Sea," warrants for appointments, and some others^. Finally, the Warrant appears in common use for purposes of local government by an authority delegated to Colonial governors or country magistrates ^. Although a distinction is usually made between the departmental Warrant and Order, these instruments are not easily distinguished in practice, and it might be shown that their distinctive titles are often loosely used ^ Again, we find some of the earliest known examples of departmental Orders^ classified as "Minutes," and the precise difference between Orders and Warrants, Commissions or Instructions could scarcely be determined from their diplomatic ^ e.g. The Lord Chamberlain's Warrant Books. * See Classified List. 3 e.g. Warrants for pardons and licenses of various kinds, cf. Appendix. * They are occasionally utilized in the composition of private instruments, and the form of Order prepared by Insurance Offices to authorize the deduction of premiums from official salaries still contains the phrase, "And this shall be your warrant for so doing." ^ e.g. Of the Ordnance Office, Letters, State Papers and Departmental Instruments 279 construction alone. Certainly the occurrence of the well-known clause of warranty does not suffice to distinguish the Warrant from the Order. Indeed the Order has no distinctive formulas of its own, and we are best able to identify its occurrence in connexion with naval' and military^ rather than with civil'' or fiscal* operations. Possibly the Order may seem to be on the whole somewhat less formal than the Warrant. The conventional Salutation is often dis- pensed with and the Injunctive clause is somewhat impressive. Finally, like the Warrant, Commission and Instruction, the official entry of the Order often takes the form of a mere Uocquet'. The Instruction here referred to resembles in some respects an Order and in others a departmental Letter. In some cases, as in connexion with naval and military operations or diplomatic missions, it has a technical significance. The departmental Commission, as distinguished from the formal Patent of Office, is more carefully drawn than either the Order or Instruction, and presents a very similar form for both the naval and military services. There is also a distinctive form in use for the diplomatic service. The Commissions issued under "the power and authority" of a departmental Board differ only from the royal Com- missions in not bearing the Sign Manual. In the letters and instruments described above we have examples of true diplomatic construction, illustrating the successive stages of the devolution of the charter from the close of the Middle Ages to our own times. In addition to these, however, there are several special and casual types amongst the "Departmental Records" which possess a certain interest for the purpose of diplomatic study. The depart- mental procedure in respect of the registration and consideration of correspondence and other business which formed the subject of the official Letters and Orders, has been already referred to in another connexion*. This procedure is to some extent represented in an earlier period by the "Acts" and "Minutes" of the Council and of the extraordinary courts erected during the Tudor period, but it attains its highest point of development in the case of the several » "Orders and Instructions," &c. " "Marching Orders," &c. • "Orders in Council,'' &c. These are diplomatic instruments resembling Proclamations. * "Money Orders," &c. These arc rather Minutes. * In fact the official entry books of Warrants, Commissions and Orders compiled during the 1 8th and iQlh centuries are little more than lists of names for s|)ecitic d.ites, and it has sometimes proved to be a matter of considerable difficulty to ascertain the form of one of these instruments in a particular period. • Cf. above, p. 177. 28o Letters, State Papers and Departmental Instruments departmental Boards and the Committees of the Council which form a new feature of the royal administration during the 17th century. The practice in question is accountable for an extensive collection of Registers, Minutes and Reference or Report books in which there is little scope for variety of form. These Registers, indeed, can scarcely be regarded as diplomatic documents though interesting for the purpose of comparison with similar official compilations in an earlier period. The Minutes or Journals, however, exhibit a conventional formula which is preserved to the present day. This includes an official heading of an archaic character, followed by the names of the officials presents The business in hand is duly recited and disposed of by a Minute which is sometimes regarded as an Order. Mention has previously been made of the common official practice of referring intricate or technical matters to other departments or to individual experts. The formula of Reference is very much the same in every case. Usually, it is in the form of a memorandum, personal or impersonal, stating that the matter under consideration is referred to certain officials who are to consider thereof and report their opinion as to what is fit to be done in the same. In many cases the matter is already under the consideration of another department, which has transmitted the case for an expert opinion, and here the Reference appears in the shape of an enclosure. The Report, Representation^, or Opinion* is returned in due course as a result of the Reference. This return is made in a conventional form, characterized by a show of deference ^ In some cases space is left after the entry of the Report for the final Order of the Board thereon. In a later period the style of these reports, especially in the case of legal opinions, is less ceremonious. It will be gathered from a previous account of the remaining types of Departmental Records, such as precedent and commonplace books and deposited documents, that these are semi-official or private compositions which do not concern our present purpose. The latter types, indeed, cannot be regarded in any sense as departmental instruments, but unlike the casual deposits amongst the ancient Records their diplomatic construction is scarcely worthy of serious consideration, whilst the former kind are usually so much abbreviated as to present no diplomatic features whatsoever. 1 "At a meeting of the, &c. At X. the — day of — &c. Present, A, B, C," &c. ^ So termed in the records of the Board of Trade. * Of the Law Officers. •• Cf. the Notification "May it please," &c. and the conclusion "All which is humbly submitted," &c. ROYAL SURVEYS, INQUISITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS. (a) Agrarian Surveys. The origin of the English royal Inquest, which has produced one of the largest and most important classes of our Public Records, may or may not be found in the precisely similar device employed in the administrative system of the Prankish kingdom. Such an origin has been assumed in the case of the native diplomata on evidence of a far less substantial character. Nevertheless we are warned that the close resemblance between the laws and ministerial proceedings on either side is nothing more than plausible analogy. To derive one constitu- tional practice from the other would, we are told, be positively unsafe. It is fortunately unnecessary, for the purpose of a diplomatic com- parison, to press this interesting analogy any further. The pre- existence of certain diplomatic forms in the court of Charles the Great may be noticed without insisting that the constitutional pro- cedure which those forms might imply was borrowed from this foreign source by the Conqueror or his predecessors. The suggestion, how- ever, is so obvious that it can scarcely be suppressed*. The resemblance which is observable between the Prankish and Anglo-Norman systems of agrarian valuation is rendered still more striking by the use in both of identical formulas and terms which often have a technical significance I In both cases, moreover, it is noticeable that the Inquisition as a piece of ministerial procedure ' It is interesting to find, in an official survey made of the holdings of the North French colonists of Acadia in the year 1752, the following formula which bears a curious resemblance to the Prankish surveys of the 9th century. " The homestead that B. occupies was given to him verbally by A. It contains alK>ut — toises frontage on the sea-shore. There are on it bench and scaffolding for the dryipg of the (ish and i boats, and enough land cleared to sow a barrel of wheat. There is a very good garden which contains all sorts of fruit trees. It has — men and — Ixjys. He has in live stock one bull, one cow and 3 goats and i j fowls " (Ke/>orl on Canadian Archives, 1906). ' Cf. Capitulare Aquense, 807 (ed. Pertz), c. 7 ; Capitulare de Villis, 811, c. 61 ; and the Forma Inquisitionis, printed in I'ertz, Ml. 175 ; Capitulare Ai/uisgratunse, 81 j, c. 5 and c. 7 ; AnnaJes Hincmari,s.a. 869, in Pertz, I. 481; and Polyptichum frmini^^nis Ahbatis (cd. Guirard), pp. 30 sq. and 306. 282 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments may not only be employed for distinct purposes on several occasions, but for all of these purposes at one and the same time. This compo- site character is apparently due to the fact that these inquisitions were frequently consequent on royal edicts of a more or less statutory character. Traces of a similar ministerial device may be found in the States of Southern Europe, that were influenced by the Norman civilization \ The agrarian survey itself presents the same diplomatic construc- tion as will be observed in the case of other royal Inquisitions. There is a royal Precept^, to which may be appended an explicit Forma Inguisitionis'K To this a categorical Return is made by a sworn inquest, and the official record is delivered into official custody at a given date. Finally, a carefully arranged copy or digest of the original returns may be preserved in a Register for official or private custody. The constitutional distinction which appears to exist between the agrarian survey and the fiscal inquest need not perplex the student of diplomatic formulas. Both alike are royal inquests and the collection of the geld may become an ordinary incident in the manorial economy. In the case of agrarian surveys, we know that such valuations were made on the continent at a very early date. In this country, how- ever we have no evidence that these surveys were prepared as the result of royal precepts. A brief Return of this nature is found as early as the first years of the loth century, in the Beddington Survey, which has been printed in the Cartiilariiun Saxonicum*. This in- teresting fragment, which doubtless owes its preservation to the diplomatic form in which it was composed, is unfortunately unique, and it should be added that it is derived from a suspicious source^ Perhaps such agrarian descriptions had already taken a common form ^ Cf. Codex Kavennatensis and Inquirifaoes dos primeiros reinados de Portugal {passim). ^ In the Carolingian capitularies (cf. Capit. de Villis, c. 62) the substance of the writ is given as an "edict." For the Anglo-Norman writ ad inquirendum see Liber Eliensis (ed. Hamilton), p. xxi. * Cf. M. G. II. 175, Liber Eliensis (loc. cit.), and Domesday Book of St Paul's, p. iii. In most cases nothing more than a descriptive heading is found which recites the procedure indicated by the writ in a narrative form. Cf. the Canterbury surveys of 1216 in Exch. K. R. Ancient Extents, 46. ■» C.S. 618, 619. ' The Winchester cartulary (MS. Add. 15350), 12th century. The text of this return is evidently corrupt in respect of the stock entries, but can be to some extent reconstructed from the conventional formulas of the 13th century. Royal Survey Sy Inquisitions and Assessments 283 throughout western Europe, whilst from a still earlier date occasional descriptions of land and stock are found in Old English wills or conventions', The Domesday Survey, stands alone as an agrarian valuation, although we may well suspect that some system of royal survey was in use during the pre-Conquest periods Again, although the characteristic formulas of the Domesday Survey are found to prevail in the mixed fiscal and agrarian inquisitions of the 12th century, this circumstance must not be regarded as proving the abeyance of the agrarian survey of a Prankish type such as may be seen in the Beddington "charter" above referred to. It is true that no surveys of this nature have been preserved before the close of the 1 2th century, but the abstracts of manorial accounts recorded in the Pipe Rolls prove that this conventional enumeration of agrarian products was still in use^ There can be little doubt, however, that purely agrarian surveys during this period were subordinated to the all important business of the assessment and collection of the royal geld. Not only were the geld inquests more carefully preserved, but the new and inquisitorial formulas employed on these occasiotis were utilized for the purpose of agrarian and even of feudal valuations. To this composite type belong such descriptions as that of the Peterborough manors in the reign of Henry I*, the inquisition taken by the Canons of St Paul's, beginning in the reign of Henry IP, and the RoUili de Dominabus of the same reign*. In these, besides a calculation of the hidage ad geldum Regis and of military service or feudal incidents, the number of men and ploughs, the rent-roll and services, and the condition of the stock is also ascertained ^ At length, when the basis of fiscal valuation was shifted, in the 13th century, to the knight's fee and the tithe, the agrarian survey resumes its old diplomatic aspect under the title of a "royal extent." Here, whilst the process employed was strictly inquisitorial, the object in view is not merely fiscal supply but ' Cf. above, p. 205. ' Mr L. O. Pike, however (Public Records, p. 11), regiirds the roy.il iiKini-iiiion of 1086 as a new departure, in the shape of a returnable writ. ' Pipe- Roll of the Bishopric of Winchester (1902), p. ix sq. • Chron. Petroburg. (Camden O.S.), p. 157. • Domesday of St Paul's (Camden O.S.), p. iii, which may lie regartled as a private survey in imitation of royal inquests. • Ed. S. Grimaldi. ' In addition to the alwve the fioidon Hook (1183) and Survey of the Templars^ Lands (1185) may be regarded as agrarian surveys, though neither was authorized by a royal writ. 284 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments the improvement of the royal economy^ On the other hand, notices of agrarian conditions figure incidentally in most of the political inquisitions of this and a still later periods Moreover, such matters formed part of the routine business of the judicial Eyres or special commissions chiefly in connexion with royal escheats^ For general purposes, however, and especially for the convenience of private owners, the " Extent" was recognized as the approved method of agrarian survey throughout the remainder of the feudal period, and its procedure has even been formulated by a reputed Statute^ A single glance at the Forma I iiquisitionis of the Extenta Manerii will show that we have here the final evolution of the agrarian survey, a familiar feature of the Carolingian administrative system and fitfully traced in English royal or private instruments from the loth century to the 13th. ib) Fiscal Inquisitions. It has been previously suggested that in the Domesday Survey with its "satellites" and fiscal successors, we can recognize the normal diplomatic constituents of the Prankish imperial inquest. At the same time, in these Inquisitions made by local juries as to the extent, profits and stock of royal or beneficiary estates, together with the titles, customs and services relating thereto, special stress is laid upon the asse'^sment of the King's "geld," or its later equivalents in the shape of carucage, scutage, or other devices of imperial taxation, and the instruments with which we are here concerned receive their characteristic form from this exigency. The formula of the existing Returns clearly implies the issue of an antecedent precept which was also expounded in a Forma Inquisitionis. Finally, we can ascertain the probable nature of this Writ and Form of Inquisition alike, whilst we can classify the Returns themselves according to their local variants and official enrolments. Here, however, we are confronted at the outset with a difficulty which is only one of many that have occurred to those who are concerned with the interpretation of these early texts'. In the case ^ Cf. Chancery Misc. Inquisitions, passim, and below, p. 296. In some cases apparently the agrarian conditions form part of a semi-judicial enquiry. Cf. the "extent" of Ospring in Testa de Nevill, p. 2 1 7 sq. ^ e.g. The Hundred Rolls. * See below, p. 297. * Slat, of Realm, i. 242. Cf. also the provisions for the Escheatry {ibid. I. 238). ® The present writer must disclaim any special knowledge of the internal or external history of this famous survey, which has formed the subject of important studies by several Royal Surveys^ Inquisitions and Assessments 285 of the Domesday Survey more than one MS. of the existing Returns has been preserved and these are apparently connected with different stages in the compilation of the official Record and possibly also with distinct local interests. In the first place, it will be observed that no contemporary or authentic specimens of the Writ and Fortna Inqiiisitionis have been preserved in the case of the Domesday Survey itself The issue of such a writ is easily assumed, whilst the " form of inquisition " would, as usual in this early period, have been deduced therefrom. References of this nature are to be found in nearly contemporary chronicles\ but in any case the precise formula of the existing Returns would enable us to reconstruct without much difficulty the " form of inquisition," contained either in a writ or schedule. Indeed, the diplo- matic description of the Great Survey, which is given by mediaeval writers, refers more particularly to the actual Returns which are designated by various more or less unintelligent titles'*. By some writers they are referred to as Cartae or Cartulae and by others as Brevia, terms which are apparently applied indifferently to the original Returns (now missing), to the Exchequer volumes, or to any particular passage thereof To these titles may be added the still more general references to a Scriptum, RotiUiis or Liber, which seem to apply to the existing official compilations. In one account, of which mention has previously been made^ the Returns presented to the Conqueror are termed an Imbreviatio which was ordered to be copied in uno voluntine. This mention of a single volume reappears in Higden's narrative which seems to have been derived from another source. With regard to these Exchequer Returns, it is sufficient for our distinguished scholars, to one of whom, Mr W. J. Corbett, he is indebted for friendly advice. The diplomatic theory propounded here is purely tentative and has only been hazarded because a reference to the subject could scarcely have l)een omitted. ' e.g. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and the works of P'lorence of Worcester and Henry of Huntingdon. The most detailed and intelligent description of the probable procedure will be found in the anonymous Cotton MS. Vitellius, c. 8, fo. 15 b, etlited by Professor Lielxinnann in Ungedruckte Anglo-Normanische Geschichtsquellen, pp. tj — 14. For an apparently contemporary reference recently discovered by Mr W. H. Stevenson in a Bodleian MS. in the shape of a note by Koliert, Bishop of Hereford, on the Chronology of Marianus 5>cotus, see English Historical Keviexo, xxil. 72. ' Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Rolls), I. 353; Flor. Worcester (ed. Howard), p. 449; Will. Malmesbury {Gest. Reg), li. 317 ; Hen. Huntingdon, p. 107; Hoveden (Rolls), 1. 139; Rob. of Gloucester, 11. 552 surs as a safeguard against still further encroachments was perhaps a work of more practical value than to ap|)end useless claims and protests. * The Exchequer digest would inevitably suppress trivial details which might, however, appear of great importance to the injured party. Thus the latter has a particular relish for the word abslulil, though sumpsit is good enough f«)r the Exchequer clerks. It was also expedient to suppress or ignore the open vertlict (m-seiun/ tjuomodo) of jurors who had not the courage to call a spade a spade. 2 88 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments continental " briefs " already referred to, enables us to realize the significance of the formula habet in brevi siio. The scribes of the local Inquisitions will refer in these terms to the Exchequer version when they are not concerned to copy certain details of the Survey. Equally they can refer to their own Breve or Abbreviatio as a private copy. Thus the term may come to mean something like a counterpart, official or private, with variants emphasizing respective interests. The "Magister" of the royal Scriptorium, intent on his hides and capital fiefs, will ignore or condense local claims which the scribes of Ely (who have omitted the details of " ancient demesne ") will carefully preserve, for these may some day be tested. Of the remaining "satellites" of Domesday Book the Liber Exoniae^ has a special local interest, and possibly an official con- nexion with Winchester which is not unfortunately clearly indicated in the existing MS. The " Winton Book," apart from its curious inquest of burghal holdings, is of considerable diplomatic interest as preserving in a narrative form the substance of the originating writs and a Forma hiquisitionis. The Boldon Book on the other hand has a slighter resemblance to the official formula of the Exchequer survey and can by no means be regarded as a belated survey for the northern counties omitted from Domesday Book^ The series of diplomatic instruments connected with the position of the church of Worcester in the Great Survey^ bear a strong resemblance to those already described in connexion with the church of Ely. We find the same grievance existing in respect of the invasion of church lands, and we notice the same resentful tone in the compiler's protest against these violations^ Here, again, the statement of claim in respect of these Terrae ablatae appears to be the motive for the interpolation of certain glosses on the Exchequer Record. It does not, however, appear from these notices that this church possessed a private version of the Worcestershire survey. The chief interest of such allusions is connected with the references to certain Placita^, which remind us of the Rochester and Ely cases, and to the description of the liberty of Oswaldslaw as 1 See the suggestive and important essays by Mr Reichel and Mr Whale in Trans. Devon Assoc. 1895 and 1903. ^ See above, p. 283 n. ^ MS. Tib. A. 1 3 (ed. Hearne), ably dealt with by Mr J. H. Round in Feudal England. * Cf. above, p. 187, and Hearne, pp. 248, 283, 285. ^ Ed. Hearne, pp. 75 — 83, 269, 287, 298, 312. Cf. Bigelow, Plac. Anglo- Norm. The whole procedure is most lucidly descril)ed Ijy Mr Round in Domesday Studies, 11. 544 sq. (See below, p. 322.) Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments 289 given in autenticd Regis cartula, preserved in tJtesauro regali cum totius Angliae descriptionibus. It is somewhat disappointing to find that this reference (more than once given) is merely to the Exchequer digest with the addition of a few clumsy interpolations intended to emphasize the dictum of the official record'. During the century which followed the making of the Great Survey we meet with several fragments of purely local inquisitions which appear to reproduce to some extent the same formula ^ These fragments are probably the remains of a once numerous class of royal and private inquisitions taken with the object of ascertaining the extent of " hidage " within a certain district or holding and the corresponding liability for the payment of geld. This object will perhaps account for the difficulty of distinguishing between an actual survey and a mere hidage-book, which in some cases must have been " abbreviated ' from a detailed inquisition. In one aspect, indeed, Domesday Book itself may be regarded as a Liber Hidarimi^ abbreviated, in its present form, from a mixed fiscal and agrarian inquest, for convenience of official reference, and abbreviated still further during the 12th century for use as a hidage-book and nothing more. The "Breviates" of Domesday Book, which are still preserved^, offer this interesting fact for our further consideration. It will be evident that if these official or semi-official compilations can be traced far back into the 1 2th century we have here an explanation of the origin as well as of the purpose of some, at least, of the local "hidages" above referred to. That such a "Breviate" of Domesday Book existed in the 12th century may be inferred from th'e preservation of a local copy of that date. This was made apparently for Margam Abbey, a house founded by Robert of Gloucester in 1147*. Still earlier ' Cf. above and Hearne, pp. 77 and 283. The phrase De script ioties is not, however, necessarily confined to the original Returns now missing. The monkish interpolator is revealed by the phrase ttec aliquis regalis sen>itii exactor. * e.g. The Lindsay Survey (Claud, c. 5, ed. J. Greenstreet) ; the Leicester Survey (Exchequer K. R. Knight's Fees f , /'. E. p. 196) ; the Northampton Survey (Vesp. E. n, fo. 94, F. E. p. 115) ; and the Worcester Survey (ed. Hearne, pp. 198, 313). These have all been learnedly described by Mr J. H. Round in Feudal England. » Red Book, p. 4. * For a full account of these see Atheniuum, 15 Sept. 1900, and W. de G. Birch in Domesday Studies, Vol. II. p. 500 sq. The date of the "Breviate" connect ee of the Ely inquest by the abbot's legattts. 19 — 2 292 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments adopted. The extent and value of the holdings were to be returned into the Exchequer and this Return is termed an imbreviatio. Frag- ments of the Returns made to the inquest of 1198 have fortunately- been preserved in the collection known as Testa de Nevill^, vyhilst another version is preserved in at least one case which formed the subject of proceedings in the King's Court ^. In the later carucates of the years 1220 and 1224 the diplomatic procedure is still more clearly defined. Here there is a royal Writ which combines a precept with a Forma Inquisitionis'^. It should be noticed, however, that the Returns in this, as in many other instances under the new system of taxation, take the form of accounts instead of that of verdicts^ The inquisitions on the basis of the hide and plough described above are connected with the fiscal business of the kingdom. Besides these, the same plan of assessment was employed for an obscure system of local taxation which is indicated by a few fragmentary Returns dating from the latter part of the 12th century ^ In one aspect these local assessments are of communal or even of seignorial interest ; but in another they may be regarded as a distinct source of royal revenue and one that has survived in a direct descent to modern times". The local assessments referred to are connected with the collection of the " Sheriff's Aid " and court-fines or rents paid in respect of commuted suits of court. These and similar liabilities were assessed upon the basis of the hide, following the system of the geld assessments We know from the evidence of the Exchequer precedent-books and inquisitions, as well as from the extensive proceedings on writs of Quo Warranto during the Edwardian period, that from the close of the 12th century .the Crown was prepared to assert its claims to local contributions and compositions which had been allowed to swell the Sheriff's perquisites or had become attached ^ Cf. p. 72*^ (Record Commission). The existence of these interesting Returns was dis- covered by Mr J. H. Round, who has given a valuable account of the procedure of the Inquest of 1198 in E. H. R. in. 501. '^ Rot. Cur. Reg. (Record Com.), p. -216, and J. H. Round in E. H. R. he. cit. ^ Rot. Claus. I. 437. * 7'esta de Nevill, p. \},\^. ^ Cf. Red Book, 11. 774. Specimens of such fragments will be found in Exchequer Records under the following references : Accounts (K. R.) Vji Miscellanea ^3 and L. T. R. Misc. Rolls \. It is possible that these incidents have a good deal to do with the struggle over the encroachments of private franchises in the 13th century. The commutations of the liabilities of certain districts to suit and service in the sheriffs' courts may be traced in the Pipe Rolls down to the 19th century. * Cf. the modern records of the Land Revenue Office under the head of ' ' Viscontiel Rents." '' Dialogus, I. xi. Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments 293 to some encroaching franchise by collusion \ The suits or rents that were thus " withdrawn " and in turn " recovered " by the Crown from an ordinary subject-matter of the ministerial proceedings by way of Inquisition and Returns during the 13th century. Long before the final disappearance of the fiscal system repre- sented by the hidages and carucages of the 12th century a new one was in course of skilful preparation. The institution of Scutage was not merely an addition to the existing sources of revenue. It marks the beginning of a new method of assessment on the basis of the knight's fee which prevailed for another century. This resembles in its main features the geld inquest of an earlier period*, and here again we find the three-fold procedure represented by the Writ, Form of Inquisition, and Returns. The earliest specimens of this class are certainly imperfect, but as early as the reign of Henry II we are able to reconstruct the normal diplomatic process'. It would appear that in the case of the personal Returns made by military tenants a Form of Inquisition could be dispensed with, the procedure enjoined being categorically stated in the Writ and duly recited in the Return^ In the case of a general inquisition made by local juries the Form of Inquisition may have been more distinctly indicated, but the Writs and "certificates" or other Returns connected with the earliest military inquests are rarely preserved, and the existing Record takes the form of a schedule of assessments closely resembling a Compotus^. In a later period the Writ itself is preserved in the Chancery enrolments, the Returns being preserved for official reference in a precedent book. The Form of Inquisition, recited from the Writ, is also occasionally given as a heading to the Return*. * Besides the copious pleadings connected with the ministerial inquisitions above referred to, the vigilant interest of the Crown herein is seen in many cases which were recorded in the Chancery during the F4th and 15th centuries. Many of these "records" are still preserved amongst the Miscellanea of the Chancery. " A transition may be seen in the Peterlwrough Survey {temp. Hen. I), in which the numlier of the knights is appended to the extent of hides and virgates. ' This has l^ecn indicated in the case of the u66 returns by Bishop Stubbs and Mr J. 11. Round. * Personal returns by local officers were also made in the Chancery in connexion with summonses for military service as late as the reign of Edwanl III. * The formula of the Writ and Return for the marriage aid of 1135 seems to have been closely modelled on that of 1 166 and 11 ri (cf. Testa^ 11. 749). The form of a tomfvtus is seen in the Aid of 1.^46 (K. R. Miscellautous Book, No. 3). • Cf. Feudal Aids (Rolls), passim. Variants are found in the case of the "Scutage" and "Marshalsea" rolls (S. R. ScargillBird in Genealof^st, \. 65). Specimens of the original Returns from which the official precedent IkkjUs were compiled are preserved l)ctween 1166 and 1431. For the composition of these official lists see Red Book Vol. II. (Preface), and the Rolls edition of Feudal Aids (Preface). 294 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments The system of fiscal assessment based on the knight's fee was mauily applicable to a single class, and for this special purpose it was utilized down to the reign of Edward III. Long before this date, however, the commutation of military service for a conventional payment had given rise to new expedients for imperial taxation. As early as the reign of Henry II an equivalent levy in lieu of scutage was made upon the non-military classes in the shape of a Dommt, Auxiliuin or Tallagiiini, contributed by the knight's fee, or distributed upon the village or burgage holdings. Later still we find assessments calculated in convertible terms of the knight's fee or the hide, each of these in turn being approximated to a statement of liability in terms of pounds, shillings and pence or even of marcs. Before the close of the 13th century the normal holding of a tenant by knight's service is ofificially computed by librates^ alone, and this method prevailed down to the 17th century. The formula of valuation employed in the earliest general Aids of the 13th century would seem to have been partly connected with the librate valuation and in part again with the tithe custom of imme- morial antiquity. The latter connexion may be traced in the series of ecclesiastical assessments from the " Saladin Tithe " of 1 189 to the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. The former is seen in the general Aids levied from the beginning of the 13th century. Thus, for the Aid of 1 207 an assessment was made at the rate of 1 2d. on each marcate of property, and this is commonly regarded as a Thirteenths On other occasions any percentage from a Fourth to a Fortieth might be called for^ but the system of the librate, which was applicable equally to real and personal property, finally prevailed, whether as a levy of so many shillings in the pound by way of a land-tax or as an ad valorem duty on commodities. The diplomatic construction of these assessments does not differ from that of the earlier fiscal inquisitions except that, the consent of the Council or Parliament being now assumed, the royal precept may practically be regarded as a " writ in aid " of the sheriff for the purpose of collection ^ The Forma Inqidsitionis, however, is set out with careful details, including even the oath to be taken by the jurors, and instructions for sealing the Returns and safeguarding the treasure collected I 1 K. R. Knight's Service Bdle i and Miscellanea of the Chancery Bdle i. '^ Rot. Litt. Pat. I. 72, Ann. Waverley (Rolls), p. 258. 3 Stubbs C. H. and S. C. passim. * Cf. Pat. 3 Hen. IV, m. 23. ' Cf. Pat. 25 Edw. I, Pt 2, m. 3 {in cedula). In later times the Form of Inquisition may take the shape of a permanent official precedent book, such as the Book of Rates for levying Customs duties. Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments 295 The Returns in question naturally resemble accounts in their general construction, but in many cases they revert to the form of the agrarian survey'. They have a further interest from the fact that the original assessments appear frequently to have served as taxing lists which were examined and checked by another set of assessors, some- thing after the manner of the estreats of amerciaments returned to the Exchequer'. if) Feudal Inquisitions. A large group of miscellaneous Inquisitions will be found holding a somewhat anomalous position half-way between Agrarian Surveys and Fiscal Inquisitions, and Assessments and the Political or Judicial Inquisitions, which have distinct characteristics of their own. The class referred to is composed of the more purely feudal inquisitions connected with such matters as serjeanties, wardships, escheats, assarts, qualifications for knighthood, inquests of lunacy, and proceedings Ad Quod Dampntim. It is true that several of these have an agrarian or fiscal character^, but a distinction may con- veniently be made between the instruments which concern the royal prerogative or feudal droits of the Crown and those which have a special fiscal interests Moreover, although these feudal interests are recognized in several Edwardian statutes and royal inquisitions, we should find that for the most part escheats, alienations, purprestures and the rest, are usually the subjects of an inquisition sni generis. The diplomatic construction of these instruments is liable to con- siderable variation. Thus, the 1 2th century inquisition of widows and wards, known as the Rottdi de Dominabus, touches on both agrarian and fiscal matters, its real object being to ascertain the rights of the Crown in respect of feudal wardships and marriages'. No Writ or * Cf. Pat. 24 Edw. I, m. ii. The Taxatio of 1291 and Valor of 1535 may be regarded, in one aspect, as clerical extents like the " Parliamentary Surveys" of the Commonwealth. The Returns, in the form of Indentures, to the Inquisitiones Nonarum in 13 16, refer only, like the subsidy assessments, to a valuation (ui hot, though this is of an agrarian nature. ' Cf. Feudal Aids, passim. Specimens of these judicial amerciaments will be found in the Exchequer Accounts. ' e.g. RotuH de Dominabus, and many of the " Extents" formerly included amongst the Inquisitions post mortem. * Cf. the "Rotulus de escaetis, viduis, valettis et castellariis " for Norfolk amongst the unprintcd Hundred Rolls (No. 13). * Ed. Grimaldi, alwve. The agrarian and fiscal surveys of an earlier period are recalled by the use of the verbs valeo and possum and the enumeration of the stock. On the other hand the personal descriptions resemble those found in the Exchequer Feodaries and Accounts (cf. Ttsta de Nevill, passim, and "Receipt Roll of the Exchequer" (1185), p. 11). 296 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments Form of Inquisition of this interesting record has been preserved, but these could without much difficulty be reconstructed from the original Returns. In the next century we find inquests de valettis et ptiellis...de ctistodia domini Regis, forming part of the regular proceedings of the eyre, and in the same connexion we have a judicial supervision of escheats and serjeanties. Moreover, these proceedings seem to have formed part of a considerable collection, fragments of which are still preserved '. The periodical " Regards " of the royal forests constitute a distinct type of feudal inquisition, being obviously of a technical nature. The conventional visitations must, however, be distinguished from the special inquisitions of forest jurisdictions such as those held in con- nexion with the charter of 1217 and its later confirmations-. These must have been taken on an extensive scale, but for the most part only the Writs and the subsequent pleadings appear to have survived^. Inquisitions Ad quod dampnum, which might also be regarded as remedial measures, derive their feudal character from a typical exercise of the royal prerogative*. The same view will perhaps be taken of inquests De lunaticis. In another direction the feudal rights of the Crown furnish us with one of the largest and most important classes of ministerial Records. The familiar Inquisition Post Mortem is the chief representative of this class, which includes, besides pro- ceedings under the writ Utriini sit escaeta nostra^, a large number of miscellaneous extents which are frequently of an agrarian nature®. The wide scope of these feudal inquisitions will be seen from the ^ Cf. Testa de Nevill, pp. 270 and SQc**. An interesting description of a still earlier Return of feudal Reliefs is given in Feudal England, p. 308, from the Worcester cartulary (ed. Hearne, I. 79). This is actually in a diplomatic form, but its authenticity must be accepted with considerable reserve. ^ An excellent description of these will be found in Mr Turner's learned Introduction to the edition oi Select Pleas of the Forests issued by the Selden Society. For the inquisitions or perambulations connected with Disafforestations, see below, .p. 298. ' For the great inquest of 1244 see Matt. Paris (Rolls) iv. 400. A fragment of pleadings hereon is perhaps preserved in the L. T. R. Miscellanea \. Offences against the property of owners of parks and chaces (cf. Pleas of the Forest, p. xcii sq.) formed a subject of enquiry in the judicial eyres. For the proceedings in 1218, see Pat. 18 John, m. 2 and Pleas of the Forest, p. xciv. * Cf. Dialogus, II. X on the subject of Purprestures and the printed List of Inquisitions ad quod da mpn u m . ^ Cf. Bracton, 11. 345. ^ Cf. "Ancient Extents" and " Chancery Miscellaneous Inquisitions,"/aw?w. Theserelate to manorial stock, repairs, serjeanties, tolls, customs, fisheries, warren and other profits or rights of the Crown. Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments 297 "Ordinances of the Escheatry," preserved in several collections', whilst the directions for extending lands which may be found in both official and private precedent books may be compared with the hidage-lists connected with several aspects of fiscal assessment. The diplomatic procedure observed in these feudal extents is clearly defined. The Writ ad inquirendum is usually preserved with the Return, and it is also recited, almost vtrbatim, in the heading of the latter^ a separate Form of Inquisition being unnecessary in the case of mere escheats. The statutory Articles" administered to the jurors for the purpose of manorial Extents may indeed have been appended to the Writ as a separate schedule ; but they are probably more or less conventional. Their occurrence in various precedent books is, however, authenticated, and constitutes a link between these Feudal Inquisitions and those of a statutory or political nature, whilst the relationship of both to the judicial inquisitions recorded in the Eyre Rolls will be presently referred to. (alere foterit ado/aston. H. 20 3o6 Royal Surveys, Inquisitions and Assessments enquiry concerning the due observation of the Statute of Winchester \ Again in the case of the famous " Robbery of the Treasury" in 1303, we find the inquisition used for the purpose of a State triaP. From the close of the 13th century, as we have seen, the old inquisitorial procedure of the eyre was largely utilized for fiscal and political enquiries alike ^ though traces of special inquisitions can still be found down to the 15th century. Thenceforth, as we have also seen, we have to do with a new procedure devised by the Chancery and the Exchequer. In these " Special Commissions " of a later period the same diplomatic construction is still preserved. There is a Writ, now styled a commission, together with separate Articles of enquiry and more or less voluminous Returns. Connected with these we may have Pleadings and Accounts as formerly. Of this nature are the numerous and often important inquisitions and political "surveys" of the Tudor and Stuart periods, represented by such Records as the two great inquisitions of Depopulation through inclosures, in 15 17 and 1605 ^ and the Parliamentary surveys of Crown and Church lands under the Commonwealth^ together with inquisitions of forfeited estates extending as late as the Jacobite rebellions of the i8th century*. Occasionally these special inquisitions appear to be grafted on to the ancient procedure of the leet, and an archaic effect is pro- duced which reminds us of the antiquity of these devices of local and ministerial government ^ ^ Statutes of the Realm, I. 245. This ordinance has actually been regarded as a statute of 34 Edvv. I under the title of Artictili inqiiisitionis super Statutum Wytttonia:. The pjoint of con- tact with the " Trailbaston " enquiry is perhaps seen in the form of enquiry Quando observatur et in quibus \<:asibus'\ non ; et qui noluerunt observari, ant qui...observari natt penniserunt, if we may regard the system of " Trailbaston " as one of intimidation. ^ Palgrave, Kalendars, I. Appx. * Cf. the order for inquisitions to be mz-de per Justitiarios ad assisas in Pat. 25 Edw. Ill, Ft. I, m. 23'', and the case of the State Trials of 1289 (R. Hist. S. Camden, 3rd Ser. Vol. IX.). A supplementary procedure was available with the institution of the Justices of the Peace under Edward III, as seen in the cases connected with the Statute of Labourers. * Ed. Leadam in the Dofiiesday of Enclosures (R. Hist. See); cf. E. F. Gay in Trans- actions R. Hist. Soc. XIV and xviii. ^ Cf. D. K. 1th Report, Appx. il. 224. * Petty Bag, "Forfeited Estates." ^ Miscellaneous Surveys of the Ordnance Department (cf. Ordnance, Miscellanea, 1073). ROYAL ACCOUNTS. The ancient system of Account known by the comprehensive title of the Compotus can be clearly shown to have existed con- temporaneously with the diplomatic writings in use under the civilization of the later Roman Empire ^ It is true that the persistent employment of the symbols known as Dicae, tallies, and nmnerales acervi ("jettons") down to a comparatively modern period would seem to indicate an aversion from clerical accounts in the archaic practice of the Exchequer itself. It is not, however, in this direction that we shall find the connecting links between the practice of the royal Exchequer in England in the 12th century and the continental system from which the diplomatic arrangement of the conventional Account must be derived. The practical necessity of administering princely estates by some closer system of reckoning than that of the notched stick gave rise to an official formula which is the characteristic feature of the manorial Account evolved from the agrarian survey of the 6th century. Here a Descriptio of the tenement is combined with an Imbreviatio of the stock, both being ascertained by means of a sworn Inqiiisitio'^. But besides these periodical valuations, we have references, under the Prankish system, to yearly manorial accounts in which the Receipts, Disbursements and Balance are carefully distinguished*. In this distinction we may recognize the germ of the later con- ventional manorial account which is arranged on a similar plan for entries of stock or cash*. The connexion between the two types cannot indeed be traced in existing documents between the loth * Cf. G. Friedlein, Die Zahlzeicheti, &"€. vom 7 bis \ijahrhunderl \ Dialogus (Clarendon Press), Intro, p. 39. * Cf. al)ove, p. a8i s*]., and for the technical significance o{ imbreviare, p. 191 sq. * Mon. Gcrtti. {I.cj^s), p. 174 sq. Cf. Assize of Northampton (1176), Art. 10. •* Cf. the Winchestn- Pipe JioU, no8 — 9 (1901), p. vii. In the conventional Minister's Account of a later period the cash account is on the front and the stock account on the dorse. 20 — a 3o8 Royal Accounts century and the middle of the I2th^; but the loss of earlier manorial accounts is not altogether surprising. The Account, regarded as a diplomatic document, the Return made to a Writ of summons or inquisition, is broadly distinguished from literary Returns by the presence of appropriate formulas based on the tripartite arrangement above referred to. The terminology of the Account naturally varies according to the subject-matter and the period of its execution ; but whatever may be its official character or date, every account will normally contain the following divisions^: 1. The Heading, or Title, setting forth the subject of the Account, its date or locality, the name and capacity of the accountant and, in a later period, a reference to the royal Writ to which the Return is made I 2. The Arrears of the last Account (if any) and how disposed of. 3. The Charge {Otieratid) for the Receipts, Imprest, or Profits for which the accountant is required to answer. These are set out by items of value or quantity at the several dates of receipt, and the total follows, marking the first stage in the tripartite division above referred to. 4. The Discharge, .sometimes distinguishing between cash paid in and Disbursements and Allowances authorized or customary, showing the respective totals and the sum total. 5. The Balance or result of the subtraction of the Expenditure from the Receipts, indicating by a three-fold formula whether the Accountant is " quit," or " indebted," or possessed of a surplus *. It will be evident that this normal construction of an Account, with the many variants which occur ^ affords considerable scope for ' The manorial accounts of Bishops' Temporalities entered in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II. The admissibility of the loth century inventory of Beddington {C. S. 618) has been previously referred to (p. 282). * For a more detailed analysis of a manorial account see Winchester Pipe Roll {Intro- duction). * In the Declared Accounts of the Pipe and Audit Offices, the Writ (of Privy Seal) is usually recited in extenso. In the case of the process of the Exchequer, the Writ of Summons was actually issued and may even be regarded as the most ancient form of an official v/x'\t de cursii, but in other cases the appearance of the accountant at the audit and the oVjligation of presenting an Account at certain terms seem to have been understood without the issue of an official reminder. Moreover, the issue of the writs de cwsti, above referred to, was requisite in order to put in charge accruing debts which were appended as a schedule. * When the Account showed a normal excess of receipts over expenditure the clear profit made was frequently indicated by the word Clarum or Remanet. In other cases this profit was anticipated by a system of " assignment " as to which see Sir J. H. Ramsay, Antiquary, Vols. I. IV. VI. VHI. X. XIV. XVI. xviii. and H. Hall, Customs Revenue, II. 185. ' In the case of the Exchequer Pipe Rolls a precise charge is not always formulated, but may be inferred from the balance declared after a statement of disbursements and allowances, Royal Accounts 309 conventional terms and formulas of a quasi-diplomatic nature'. This aspect of the Account may be also modified by the technical or official form in which it is presented. Usually every Account passed through several stages of preparation or declaration which may be enumerated as follows : 1. The Particulars of the final Account, contained in the accountant's ledger or day-book, or in the separate Returns of sub- accountants^ These were usually annexed to the final Account in the shape of vouchers which are rarely preserved. 2. The Original (final) Account above referred to*. 3. "Estreats" and "Parcels" of Accounts in the form of abstracts communicated or preserved for official information'*. 4. The Enrolment of the Original Accounts in a continuous series for the purpose of an audit or for official reference*. 5. Entries or compilations, usually in book form, to serve as precedents or for statistical purposes*. In connexion with this sequence of forms there are several other types of a subsidiary nature", and in the case of certain sources of receipt or disbursement the Account may assume a narrative and literary form*. Again it is often difficult to distinguish between a mere Account and certain forms of Inventories, Taxations and Assessments which are usually classified with diplomatic Records'. each item Ijeing separately accounted for (cf. Cunningham, Iitdttstry, i. 158; H. Hall, Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 143 sq. and Dialogus (Oxford ed.), p. 51. 1 For some of these see Winchester Pipe Roll, loc. cit. and Pipe Roll Society's Publications, Vol. in. For the terminology of the Audit cf. Antiquities of the Exchequer, p- 135 sq- * Thus a manorial liailiff's Account was usually compiled from the Returns made by sulxjrdinate accountants like the flock-master, granger, &c. In the Exchequer itself the "day-books" on the Receipt side served as vouchers for Accounts presented for audit. * Represented by the great class of "Exchequer Accounts." The Visus compoti, or interim Account, can scarcely lie regarded as a distinct form. * e.g. Estreats of amerciaments (extracta debitorum), "Parcels of the Pipe" and the Peiies parcellarum amongst later Records. * For a description of these see Public Record Office Indexes and Lists, " Foreign Accounts," Introduction. * e.g. The Abstracts of the Pipe Rolls in the Ked Book of the Exchequer and the conventual accounts in the "Miscellaneous Books" of the Augmentation Office. Previous to the reign of John these were proljably in the form of Rolls. The lost Records known as the Rotulus Exactoriiis and the Danegeld Roll were of this nature. ^ These include some deposited documents. It was not till the 15th or 16th century that variants of the universal Compotus were familiarly designated as " Inventories," &c. * e.g. the Fine, Imprest, Misic and similar memoranda of the Chancery. * e.g. Inventories of Jewels. Plate and Records; tl»c Taxation of 1191 and certain assess- ments for Parliamentary Subsidies and Knight's Service ; also special Inquisitions such as the well-known Extents of Templars' &c. lands. 3IO Royal Accounts Finally it may be noticed that the royal Writ employed in connexion with these Records assumes several recognized forms according to the occasion of its issue. Thus the Writs which precede the Return made in the Account are those of Summons^ or Assign- ment^ of various kinds. Also every order or writ of allowance must be produced as a voucher at the audit of the Account^. Finally there are the writs of execution or special pardon which might be issued in consequence of the accountant's indebtedness ^. In spite of the presence of precise and technical formulas in the conventional type of account described above, the title has been somewhat loosely applied to a large mass of Exchequer Records which includes such utterly dissimilar forms as Diplomata, Letters, Inquisitions and Returns, Certificates, and even Pleadings. In one aspect indeed these documents may fairly be regarded as Accounts, since they can convey the same information in a diplomatic, epistolary or narrative form*. Reference has already been made to the difficulty that is frequently experienced in distinguishing between true Accounts and the statistical forms of certain agrarian and feudal surveys and inquisitions, but here we approach more nearly to the common origin of these two sections of our ministerial Records. 1 Dialogus, n. I. Cf. Bigelow, Procedure, on this subject and above p. 308 n. ^ Local supply writs entered in the Close Rolls. ' e.g. the writs of Allocate, Computate, &c. Cf. Dialogus, i. vi. * Entered in the Memoranda Rolls of the Exchequer and in the Patent, Close or Liberate Rolls respectively. * Cf. the well-known narrative account of Richard de Anesti (ed. Palgrave, Common- wealth') and the Returns of knights' fees in the Exchequer Feodaries. JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. (a) Judicial Records. Amongst the many legal terms that have passed into the vocabulary of mediaeval history, few are more familiar than the title which is somewhat indiscriminately bestowed on the more ancient Archives of the State. In a legal sense, the " Record " has a purely technical significance, but as a conventional expression it stands for the purest sources of history. If we wish to know the meaning of the term in its legal aspect, we shall find a learned and indisputable definition in some ancient commentary. But if we ask the further question " when were judicial pleadings first recorded in this country, and what was their earliest form and object ? " an answer will not be easily forth- coming. It is true that, from one point of view, the earliest extant form of a judicial Record is seen in the royal charter which was admitted as an evidence of title and which even served as a medium for recording judicial pleadings. Several interesting reports of cases, which in a later period would have been duly recorded in the Plea Rolls, are imbedded in the texts of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman charters'. Narratives of law-suits which remind us at one time of the famous pleadings on Pendon Heath, and at another time of the adventurous litigation of Richard de Anesti, have been preserved from the 8th century onwards, besides a considerable number of official writs, and a few inquisitions, licences and oblations. Naturally the authentication of these evidences is not always complete. A few are preserved in contemporary and presumably genuine charters, others in cartularies of both good and bad repute. Such as they are, however, they have been freely used to illustrate the legal procedure of the Anglo-Norman period'. ' C S. 378, 386, 387, 574, 575, 591, 1063, 1064, 1097; C. D. 758. For the composition between the churches of Canterbury and York in 1071, see Wilkins, CotuHioy s. a. ' Bigelow, Placita Anglo- Normannua (passim). 312 Jtidicial Proceedings In one respect, indeed, these diplomatic documents may be regarded as Records of consequence, for a grant contained therein was treated by the courts as res judicata in spite of the purely evidential nature of the instrument itself. At the same time it may seem somewhat futile to regard the Old English " land-bocs " and writs as a species of primaeval Record. To do so might tempt us to ignore the obvious distinction between the opportune production of many of these evidences and the systematic registration of royal grants, or private deeds, or the judicial conventions framed upon a diplomatic model, whereby land is securely held or easily conveyed in a later period. Setting these diplomata aside, we have still to discover the earliest date which can be assigned to the actual Records of the courts of law. Here we must distinguish between the judicial proceedings recorded in official enrolments and the private reports of certain famous Placita which have been preserved in monastic registers ^ The reports in question have been generally accepted by historians ; but it must not be forgotten that they are merely ex parte versions of the alleged proceedings, in most cases compiled long after the date of the events which they commemorate. Moreover, in some cases at least, the veracity of these relations is seriously impugned by the character of the charters which have been introduced as the subject-matter of reputed pleadings. Possibly a certain number of these narratives may give a true though confused version of the judicial procedure employed. Again it might be alleged that the charters cited therein, however glaringly false, would have been accepted without demur by the courts in a later age and recorded in their official enrolments. In any case these picturesque relations would appear to have been accepted by most modern writers without any suspicion of a possible motive for their composition. It is generally agreed that the Rolls of the King's Court date only from the reign of Richard I, just as we have learnt that the enrolments of the Chancery begin with the reign of John ; whilst no judicial proceedings of the Court of Exchequer have been identified before the reign of Henry HI. Of course we have Domesday Book, with its Appendix of "Claims" and its incidental references to pleadings, the exact value of which as precedents for curial procedure it has not been found ^ e.g. of Rochester, Worcester and Ely, together with Chronicles like those of Abingdon, Ramsey and Battle. Judicial Proceedings 313 easy to determine'. Again we have further references in the Great Rolls of the Exchequer which at least afford the presumption of an organized machinery of justice in the reign of Henry I though obviously this cannot be regarded as continuous. The date of the "earliest recorded plea" has been the subject of several learned and interesting speculations in recent years^ Certainly no original pleadings earlier than the reign of Richard I are known to exist, but a plea-roll of the year 1207 recites the record of a case heard in Hilary term of the 27th year of Henry H, which has been identified with that year^ This belated reference will remind us of the existence of certain " Rolls of justices itinerant " alluded to in the Dialogus*, though we have been warned against attaching a conventional meaning to a title which may possibly refer to mere lists of amercements'. In the case of the " Fines " of the King's Court, which have already been traced back to the year 1175, it is also necessary to distinguish between official rescripts which have been continuously filed in oflFicial custody and the private copies of alleged judicial Concords which occur in certain monastic registers for a still earlier date*. The exist- ence of these entries, however, coupled with the notices of judicial Concords found in the Pipe Rolls prior to the reign of Richard I and the fact of the great antiquity of the Concord or Convention as * It is noteworthy that as long ago as 1886 Mr J. H. Round in a remarkable paper in Domesday Studies (Vol. 11. p. 539 sq.) pronounced a decided opinion in favour of the judicial character of these proceedings. The "reconstruction," by the same learned writer, of the Worcester law-suit (1081 — 86) and other early pleadings is referred to below, p. 311. ' E. H. R. XI. 102, and below n. 6. ' Select Pleas of the Crown (Selden Soc.), pp. xxvi — xxviii. Mr Round in Donusday Studies (11. 548) adduces a reference from the Colchester charter of Richard I to Inquisitions taken liefore the justices itinerant in this reign. * Dialof^us, II. i. ' History of English Law (Pollock and Maitland), I. 135, n. a. It might still Iw urged with considerable diffidence, that the Rolls referred to in the above passage of the Dialogus must have l)een something more than mere lists of amerciaments, as we are told that these h.id to be picked out from the Rolls at the Exchequer. In a later period such lists (estreats) of amerciaments were separately returned. Again, we know now that these amerciaments were entered as aUivc in the Exchequer Receipt Roll, and the Pij>e Roll of 1 185 tells us that the record from which they were derived made mention of the "causes" of amerciaments /r<; forestd. It is certainly difficult to read the story of Richard de Ancsti's law-suit without supposing that some record of judicial pleadings was jirescrvcd Iniforc 1159. A later and clearer allusion is to Iw found in a passage of the Kotuli de Dominahiis (below p. 313, n. 7). " Cf. J. n. Round in Feudal England, p. 509, and E. H. R. xii. 193; F". W. Maitland in Select Pleas of the Cro7t>n (Selden Soc.), pp. xxvi— xxviii; Pollock and Maitland, History of English I.aiu, n. 96, n. 5 ; E. M. Poynton in E. H. R. xvii. iSj, and Gentalogist. The date 1 163 has been assigned by Mr Round to a Concord confirmed by the Curia (Pipe Roll Society, Vol. X. p. 67). Cf. also Pipe Roll, 31 Henry II, the Fine of Wm de Griseleia (p. 11). 314 Judicial Proceedings a diplomatic instrument, should perhaps prepare us for further dis- coveries in this direction. Now and again certain of our older antiquaries have implied in. oracular terms that the losses which we have suffered in respect of early Records are even more extensive than we have imagined ^ Mediaeval writers, it is true, are reserved as to the precise contents of the Record-chests in the royal treasuries at Winchester or West- minster ; but, at the same time, some recent discoveries of unsuspected Records would seem to justify a further consideration of the subject. A specimen of the writ of Liberate described in the Dialogus has lately been re-discovered amongst the Exchequer Records^. The Pipe Roll of the first year of Henry II can be to a large extent restored from an abstract that has been preserved in an Exchequer register*. Quite recently there has been brought to light a considerable portion of a noble Receipt Roll of the year 1185^ whilst Memoranda Rolls of the English and Norman Exchequers can be identified with the reigns of Richard I and John^ Now the Dialogus, which enumerates certain well-known Records, makes mention also of others, none of which were until quite lately known to have survived". It might fairly be argued, therefore, that the unexpected recovery of Records dated many years anterior to the earliest known examples of their class should lead us to attach greater importance to the statements of the above treatise with regard to these prehistoric plea-rolls. After all, however, the existence of a royal administration of justice before the last years of the 12th century does not depend on the survival of actual Records of its proceedings. That such an administration existed, we know well ; that its proceedings were unrecorded save in the form of a casual reference in a charter or Pipe Roll or of an interested narrative, we may believe or not as we please ; but to many it must still appear that a gulf is fixed between the earliest informal notices of judicial proceedings dating from the middle of the 12th century and the unbroken series of rolls and chirographs that date only from its close. 1 Cf. Quarterly Review, XXXIX. 60; Ayloffe, Calendars {^iq12lz€). "^ Printed in Pipe Roll Society's Publications, Vol. X. This interesting relic was found amongst some miscellaneous Exchequer fragments. ^ Red Book, p. 648 sq. * L. T. R. Miscellaneous Rolls, Bdle. i. Nos. i and 2, edited by the Palaeography Class of the London School of Economics (1899). ^ L. T. R. Memoranda Rolls, Bdle. I. Nos. 3 and 4, and Exchequer Accounts 505/4. Cf. also a curious reference to Exchequer proceedings about the year 1196 in the Chronicle of Jocelin de Brakelond. * Dialogus, I. xiv. and li. v. vi. Red Book, CCLII, 659 and 771. Judicial Proceedings 315 (<^) Judicial Inquisitions. There is one persistent feature of the prehistoric Records above referred to that must attract our attention. The claims asserted in Domesday Book and its surviving satelh'tes, the picturesque reports of royal pleas and early decisions of the Exchequer court have this in common with the later series of judicial Records, that they are equally Returns to royal Writs. From this point of view the Writ itself may be regarded as a Record, and as the Writ was returnable to the court which issued it, so it would become a material part of the Records of that court. In some cases, indeed, the Record, as we have seen, may assume a diplomatic form, and, in the case of the Concord, or Fine, the form of the private Convention has been utilized'. The Writ, however, was from the first a royal instrument. Even before the Conquest it was employed, as we know, for business of a ministerial character which may also have a judicial tendency*. With the accession of Henry II the Writ enters upon a new epoch of ministerial activity. In addition to the increased number of Returns made to royal inquisitions, we can trace the new influence of the Writ in the steady accumulation of Exchequer Records^ But, more than this, in the same reign we find the first organized machinery of royal justice towards which the com- munal and seignorial courts, the moots and sokes of immemorial antiquity, must henceforth preserve an attentive demeanour. It has been admirably suggested that the ministerial inquest provides the connecting link between the old judicial system and the new*. That is to say, the royal inquisition, whether of stock or tenures, or taxation, or for general purposes of local administration is extended to the procedure of justice in civil causes. The path of reform is marked by the judicial assizes of the reign, and these are supplemented by other litigious processes until the frame of the old royal Writ is covered by a net-work of complex forms. But although ' It must be remembered, however, that the originating Writ on which the judicial Concord was based had an important part in the proceedings. We find, indeed, that these writs were ordered by Statute (5 Hen. IV, c. 14) to Ix: enrolled as though they constituted the essential part of the Record. No such special enrolments seem to have been preser\'ed, however, before the reign of Elizal)eth. ' Cf. above, p. 1 1 3 sq. ' Bigelow, Protedure, p. 113 sq. The "Summons of the Pipe" is not only responsible for returns in the shape of various Accounts, but also for the priKeedings (Pleadings) thereon known to us as Memoranda, which in turn give rise to further Extracts (Estreats) used for departmental purposes. * History of English Law, I. 1 18 sq. Cf. C. Ilaskins in A. H. R. July 1903. 3i6 Judicial Proceedings the pleadings which resulted from these instruments have been duly placed amongst judicial Records, the significance of their evolution from the ministerial Writ has not been recognized in any scheme of Record classification. From a purely diplomatic point of view, therefore, a Record, as we have seen, may be regarded as a Return made to a special Writ of inquisition or else as a report of the proceedings on Original and Judicial Writs recorded in a court of law. In the former aspect we have to do with a long series of Inquisitions and Returns, made for a variety of purposes, from Domesday Book to the Special Com- missions of the i8th century. In the latter and more restricted sense of the term we have the actual Records of the several courts, the Pleadings and proceedings subsidiary thereto. The official distinction between the two classes of Records has been very sharply drawn, but we have already discovered from a diplomatic examination that some ministerial inquisitions, under the existing arrangement, are really curial Records, whilst others now classified as judicial proceedings are to be regarded rather as mere inquisitions. The true nature of either type of inquisition may be obscured, by accidental detachment from the covering Writ, or by the abnormal form of a lengthy schedule. In most cases, however, the essential construction can be easily perceived. The relationship of the Return to the parent Writ is in fact only a matter of degree. In one case this Return will take the conventional form of a diplomatic instrument which may embody the information required by the Writ or may append the same in a schedule. Indeed we are often able to reconstruct the Writ itself, where it has not survived, from the formulas preserved in the Return. In other cases a special type of diplomatic construction has been evolved from a judicial procedure, and this will continue to preserve its own distinctive formulas^ Finally there are cases in which we ' It is true that the ministerial and judicial writs of the i ith and 12th centuries are very general in form, and do not, except in the case of instructions for taking an inquisition, usually present any regular or conventional formulas which could serve as a basis for the form of sub- sequent pleadings. At the same time we cannot ignore the fact that such common forms were utilized in the case of Returns to official Writs or Articles of inquisition in the reign of Henry II, as in the well-known instances of the feudal circular of 1166 and the Inquest of Sheriffs in 1 1 70. However, as so few authentic pleadings exist prior to the age when royal writs were issued de cursu, and when the pleadings thereon assumed an appropriate form, the point cannot be insisted on. Probably the pending investigation of the Norman diplomata by Prof. Haskins will throw fresh light upon this subject. For the agrarian origin and use of the nth century Breve cf. above, p. 281 sq., and Ducange, Glossariwn s.v. Judicial Proceedings 317 find no regularity or persistence of formulas, whilst from the first a class of sterile Writs has existed to which no precise Return whatever is anticipated. Evidently, therefore, it will be a matter of some difficulty to distinguish between certain ministerial inquisitions executed by the royal machinery of justice and certain judicial proceedings in their ministerial aspect. Possibly this difficulty is due to our own narrow view of the relations between ministerial and judicial procedure and their respective Records. As matters stand, however, a rather fine distinction must either be made between judicial inquests and judicial pleadings, or we must, as far as possible, exclude from either category documents which assume the form of judicial proceedings whilst subserving a purely ministerial purpose. On the other hand we might be tempted to include amongst these judicial inquisitions certain ministerial Records which present a quasi- diplomatic form. One such feature is seen in their execution as a matter of official routine. Thus the Coroner's inquest with its ancient procedure' may be regarded as subsidiary to the judicial proceedings of the eyre. In another aspect, however, these functions have been regarded as of a ministerial and particularly of a fiscal nature*. From this point of view the coroner's inquest will resemble the " office " taken before the Escheator, a minister with whom he was frequently associated. Moreover his official rolls are auxiliary rather than subsidiary to the pleas held by the king's justices*, whilst their form is somewhat diplomatic. This may even consist of a Writ and Return, whilst the mere inquest ex officio is usually furnished with a narrative preamble. Some interesting variants are found in the kindred judicial Records known as " Ancient Indictments," especially in connexion with the custom of "abjuring the realm*." Another type of the conventional judicial inquisition is seen in the proceedings under the well-known writ De odio et atia. Although this and some kindred instruments have been included in a new official class of " Criminal Inquisitions," its ministerial character can scarcely be insisted on in view of the ex parte use of the Writ itself and the judicial proceedings which it originated*. * Capitula placitorum Corona (Hoveden, loc. cit.) and see Gross, Coroturs' Rolls (Selden Soc.), p. 14 sq. * Cf. Gross, op. cit. pp. xxiv — xxvi. ^ The Justices had the rolls l)oth of the Coroners and Sheriffs Ix-'fore thcni when dealing with the presentments made to the "Chapters of the Kyre " (I/isl. English Litw, II. 643). * Cf. A. Reville on the Abjuratio regni in Kex'. Hist. t. 50. A narrative form of Return occasionally in the first person, is found in the Ancient Indictments. * History of English lunv, \\. 585. 3i8 Judicial Proceedings Indeed, we are reminded that the early procedure of the Chancery itself was, in one sense, of a ministerial character, and possibly these " Criminal Inquisitions," like other waifs and strays from the "Chancery Files," should be regarded as subsidiary judicial records. Closely related to these judicial inquests in their legal aspect, though differing widely from them in their diplomatic capacity, are the presentments of the county by its " hundreds," " vills " and " liberties," made before the royal justices in their eyres. These, whether accusa- tive or merely inquisitive in character, are not actually Returns made to a special Writ. They cannot even be regarded as differing per- ceptibly from the like presentments that had been made in the local courts as determined by the ancient dooms. The "hundreds" and "vills" continue to make use of the old machinery of justice. The sheriff takes many a "turn" in the long intervals between judicial eyres and the coroner is in attendance to collect materials for future indictments. On the other hand the inquisitional nature of these formal judicial presentments is revealed by documentary evidences — the royal com- mission to the justices in eyre, the royal mandates to the sheriffs and coroners, the long schedule of the Articles of Inquisition with their Returns, and the subsidiary documents by which these will be verified, all tell of the new device of a " prerogative process " which here, as elsewhere, has been imposed upon an earlier judicial system. The inquisitional procedure of the old judicial eyres from 1194 to 1275 has been previously referred to' as the basis of the special or statutory inquisitions which assume such prominence between the years 1255 and 1275. These well-known returns, owing to their political environment, have been accepted without question as minis- terial records although they appear to have been administered for the most part by the same judicial machinery that sets in motion the detailed presentments to the " Old Chapters of the Eyre." These, in turn, from their fiscal and feudal importance, might even appear to be rather of a ministerial than a judicial typel Indeed, it may be that the king's justices inherited some of the administrative duties of the sheriffs whom they had replaced for judicial purposes since the close of the 1 2th century, just as they were relieved in turn of certain administrative functions by the justices of the peace under the new regime of the Tudor monarchy. However this may be, it is a some- * Above, p. 300 sq. ^ Cf. above, p. 291 sq. We gather from the Rolls of Parliament (ni. ■222'') that inquisitions taken before the Justices of Assize ex officio as to the value of franchises granted by the Crown out of the county might prevent a serious injury to ministerial interests. Judicial Proceedings 319 what significant fact that the enrolments of the presentments made to the " Chapters of the Eyre" have not been preserved with the judicial pleadings, although their extensive nature may be realized by reference to one of the few complete returns that have survived^ In the case of the judicial Records above referred to, namely the Coroner's Inquest, the so-called "Criminal Inquests" and the "Chapters of the Eyre," we have to do with the more obvious types of the judicial inquisition in its official or conventional aspect. In addition to these there are other types the exact position of which is more obscure. It has been seen that the royal inquisition of the nth and 12th centuries could be utilized for the purpose of a special judicial investi- gation. The exact nature of the judicial proceedings connected with the Domesday Survey is by no means clear^ but a good deal of material exists for a reconstruction of the presentments and pleadings consequent on several of the great political inquisitions of the 1 3th century in which the Returns made to the original Writ of inquisition serve in turn as information for a prosecution by the Crown* or for claims advanced by individual plaintiffs*. The actual pleadings referred to will be noticed elsewhere\ but something remains to be said with regard to the form of the inquisitions in question. It has been acutely suggested that the origin of the judicial inquisition may probably be found in the continental procedure which existed in the Norman and Angevin provinces before the accession of Henry II, as indicated by the famous Bayeux register*. But even before the memorable reforms of the first Plantagenet king, or the innovations of his continental predecessors, the judicial inquest can be recognized as an essential device of the fiscal inquisition of the Anglo-Norman period on the authority of certain monastic Registers^ In any case the machinery for this inquisitional procedure is clearly fndicated before the close of the I2th century. The ordinance for holding the judicial and fiscal eyres in 1194* may be regarded as the starting point of a newly-organized system of royal inquisitions, and this is followed by the notices which occur with increasing ' Assize Rolls, Nos. 890 — 906, a series of eyre presentments to both the Old and New Chapters for the county of Surrey alone, apparently of the date 1 305. The Returns present some interesting local variants, e.g. the condition of the salmon fisheries in several reaches of the Thames (cf. Pat. 33 Kdw. I, m. 7'' and 6'*). * Mr J. II. Round in Donu-siLty StucUts, n. 539 sq. • e.g. The Quo Warranto Rolls. < e.g. The Ploiita ociosione Turhaiionis (nji), ed. Hunter, and the State Trials of H89, &c. ed. R. I list. Soc. Camden (3rd Ser.), Vol. ix. » Below, p. ill. • C. llaskins in A. H. A\, lof.cit. ' Cf. below, p. 313. " Cf. al>ove, p. 191. 320 Judicial Proceedings frequency during the 13th century of special inquisitions in close connexion with this organization ^ It would even seem that the machinery of the local courts could be utilized for the purpose of these extra-judicial enquiries. In this connexion we may notice an interesting series of inquisitions or Extents relating to the royal manor of Ospring^ towards the middle of the 13th century. Articles of inquisition were administered to the local jurors, presumably in accordance with a Writ which has not been identified. These Articles comprise, in addition to the usual subjects of an agrarian Extent, questions concerning the alleged trespasses of local officers in the manner of the political inquests which have been previously described. Here, too, we find traces of pleadings and decisions of the court in individual cases which closely resemble the pleadings in Quo Warranto and " Rageman " of a later period. It is, however, the connexion of the two last-mentioned Records with the ministerial inquisitions so well-known to us as the " Hundred Rolls " that affords the clearest view of the development of the usual official enquiry into formal judicial proceedings, based in some cases upon further local presentments. In one direction we have these well-known Returns indicating the results of a royal Writ and Articles of inquisition ; in another we have the pleadings thereon which were communicated to the itinerant justices in order that informations might be laid thereon to recover the " rights " of the Crown. Again, we have special Articles of enquiry and special inquisitions and pleadings relating to the trespasses of evil ministers^ Of these, the pleadings on writs of Quo Warranto can be easily identified with the precedent inquisitions in the printed volumes of the Hundred Rolls*, but of the further proceedings taken under the statute of " Rageman " against the royal ministers we find only a few slight traces in the printed collection of pleadings in Quo Warranto^. Unfortunately, however, ^ The Record of the royal inquisition, whether ministerial or judicial, should properly include, besides the Writ, P'orm of Inquisition and Return, the Nomina Jiiratorutn. These, however, though they are, as we know, preserved as early as the Domesday Survey, are rarely met with as a separate schedule to the Return. A nearly complete list for all the hundreds of Gloucestershire, in 13 Edward I, apparently in connexion with Kirkby's Quest, will be found in L. T. R. Misc. Rolls \. ^ Testa de Nevill, p. 217. Somewhat similar cases occur amongst the large and miscel- laneous class of "Ancient Extents." '^ Cf. above, p. 302. * Cf. Vol. I. p. 100 and 103, the case of Thomas de Well's sergeanty, and the subsequent proceedings in the /Ya«Va rf(? Quo Warranto (p. i8i), from the Assize Roll (203) of 6 Edw. I. For a special enrolment of the presentments against the Earl of Gloucester in divers counties, see Misc. of the Exchequer -^^. ® Cf. p. 382'', where the king's attorney informs the court that quoad presentata in k Judicial Proceedings yiX the form of the articles connected with the special inquisitions " De Ministris" cannot now be ascertained from existing Records', whilst pleadings " De Ragemannis," analogous to the pleadings " de Quo Warranto," can be occasionally identified in the sparse collection of surviving Assize Rolls*. One other type of royal inquisition may be noticed here as pre- serving, externally at least, a judicial form. The reference is to those political inquisitions which are recorded in the form of judicial presentments, as in the well-known case of the proceedings connected with the robbery of the royal treasury at Westminster in the year 1303='. Such an inquisition as this must be distinguished from certain political commissions in which the court is constituted by a royal commission, but instead of the presentments of local jurors the Querelae or Petitiones of individual plaintiffs are the subject of formal pleadings^ Finally it may be noticed that, while certain types of the judicial inquisition, such as the Coroner's Inquest, may be met with down to a comparatively late date, the procedure that is associated with the great political inquests of the 13th and 14th centuries is practically unrepresented from the beginning of the Tudor period, not so much from " poverty of justice " as from the paucity of local Records. Rageman nondum est paratus, an allusion to the distinct proceedings in such cases enjoined by the Statute of 1276. Some pleadings, however, are recorded here (cf. p. 387''). ' The fragments preserved in Misc. of the Exch. ^^^ are not of this nature as claimed by an old ofticial endorsement. In the Extract Hundred Rolls, No. 4, we find references to a " Rotulus de Inquisitione," and this can be identified with the " Hundred Rolls," which give references, in turn, to special inquisitions De ministris. * Cases relating to Norfolk and Suffolk will be found in Assize Roll, No. H33 for 6 Edw. I, some of which can be clearly identified with the Hundred Roll inquisitions and the proceedings De ministris above referred to. For the noticeable variants occurring in these several versions sec the case of J. de Gymmingham in Hundred Rolls, i. 534", Extract Hundred Rolls, No. 4, m. I**, and Assize Roll, H33, m. 5''. ' Palgrave, A'alendars, I. Appx. I lere a commission was issued (letters Patent) indicating the form of the proceedings. * Cf. the trials of the justices in 1189 — 91 as recorded in two special Assize Rolls (edition R. Hist. .Soc. Camden (3rd Ser.), Vol. ix.). The special character of these proceedings is confirmed by the contemporary judicial ruling (cf. Abbrev. Placitorum, p. 305) that ap)x:als from the commissioners lay only l)efore the King and Parliament. The j)etitions and other proceedings respecting the Templars (Cole, Dotuments), and the forfeited lands of Normans and followers of de Montfort (Hunter, Rot. .Selecti) and I^mcaster {.4bbr<7-iixtio, P- .^43**) ^^^ certainly consequent on extensive intjuisitions, but no information with regard to . the process by which these further proceesequent proceedings thereon. Cf. also the remarkable fragment of the original " Hearing Notes" of Kirkby's Commission for Cornwall in L. T. K. Miscellaneous Rolls J and the relationship of these to the judicial proceedings during the same eyre recorded in Assire Roll ri6. The procedure thus indicated would seem to have l)een as follows : (1) The Writ. (7) The Form of Inquisition. (3) The Returns of the local jurors in the shape of presentments. (4) I'lejidings on the same l)efore the commissioners. (5) l'n)ceeleadings, (b) Memoranda of matters to l>e reported to the King's Council, (< ) Recognizances of persons implicated, (d) A register of tallies outstanding in the hands of the sheriffs. 326 Judicial Proceedings in the hands of an experienced prothonotary, the briefest memoranda were sufficient for the purpose of reconstructing the conventional pleadings upon a formal writ or bill. The notes made for this purpose were endorsed on the several instruments by which process was effected, and then, even if the Roll of the year and term were not available, these could be expanded at pleasure in the form of con- ventional pleadings after the lapse of many years \ By the time that judicial pleadings have attained their fullest development as an exotic form of Record composition, the special inquisition has fallen into disuse as a ministerial or political expedient, to be replaced by an elaborate indictment- or else by a Special Commission, the technical findings of which can be viewed with greater deliberation in the congenial atmosphere of the Chancery or the Exchequer ^ ^ For examples, see the Chancery Miscellaneous Files (formerly "County Placita"), e.g. Bundle 47, File 2, No. 21, and Bundle 48, File 2, No. 19. Cf. also the prominent part played by the antecedent inquisition, or presentment, in the Records of the proceedings taken under the Statute of Labourers {e.g. Assize Rolls 170, 312, 313). The same technical skill in expanding these brief notes of pleadings may have been possessed in an equal degree by the officials of the local courts and special tribunals such as the Marshalsea (cf. the Record of proceedings in the Nottingham County Court, 19 Edward I, amongst the " County Placila" and the Records oi Placita Aides in several counties in the same collection). From the reign of Edward III, however, the Records subsidiary to pleadings coram Rcge were apparently preserved in "bags " for each session and noted in the Controlmenl Rolls. - Cf. "Ancient Indictments " /awm and the elaborate informations /;-o /"^f^ entered at full length in the Controlment and Crown Rolls, based on sworn depositions the originals of which were formerly preserved. The proceedings in the "State Trials" of the period 1450 — 1600 seem to have been preserved specialiori Diodo in the bagae de secretis, the precursors of the "dossiers" still preserved amongst the Treasury Solicitor's Records. '^ e.g. Revenue cases or matters of public policy in which the inquisitions or informations are recited at great length. Instances of these narrative enrolments will be seen in the cases of the Marian exiles and Polydore Vergil printed by Mr I. S. Leadam in Transactions R. Hist. Soc. N. S. XI. and xix. APPENDIX P. A CLASSIFIED TABLE OF DIPLOMATIC INSTRUMENTS. I. DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS. (i) OFFICIAL INSTRUMENTS. A. Royal Charters (Grants), 1. Anglo-Saxon (597 — io66)^ (a) General Form (Land-bocs). (<^) Special Forms (Foundation, grant of Liberties, exemption from Taxation, &c.)*. 2. Anglo-Norman and early Angevin (1066 — 1200). (a) General Form (Feoffment). {p) Special Forms (Free-Alms, Liberties, Assart, &c.). 3. Later Charters (1200 — 1516)*. {a) General Form. (J)) Special Forms: Incorporation", Fee- Farm". Office. Market. Fair, Disafforestation". Imparking*. ' For examples of the following selected forms of diplomatic instruments see Formula Book {passim). ' Confirmations, writs (vernacular) and private conventions will Ix; found under their appropriate headings, ' These are mentioned as the most familiar, if not the most characteristic instruments for this period. The same remark applies to the selections which follow, * The date of the abandonment of separate enrolments ; but the charter had long since ceased to possess a really distinctive character, • This term has also l)een applied to the later incori>orations by letters Patent. • The words ad feodi firmam do not seem to l)e essential in early times. ' Usually in the limitcj Special (Chancery or epistolary) ' forms : 'Commissions \ ♦Grants of Office', * Pardon", Reprieve ^ Approbation*, Warrant for Game^ to swear", for engraving new Signets, for ambassadors' wines, &c. duty-free", to press ships'*, for civil" or military Establishments"; Licence to plead", to print'*, to kill stags'*, to return to England'", to enclose'*; to enter foreign service, or wear foreign orders, &c. ; to search for pirates'", wreck, &c. ; for denization, change of name-"", to bear arms; for inventions-', to be absent from duty^-. 5. Proclamation'". 6. Secretary of State's Warrants'". ' Chiefly used for procuring Letters Patent ; distinguished (in English) by the precept "Our will and pleasure is"; including warrants for Creations, Writs of Error and other special judicial processes ; for ecclesiastical instrunnents (Conimendams, Dispensations, Royal Assent, iSic), Revocations, ^:c., &c. ■* Chiefly used as missive instruments; distinguished by the address "Trusty and well- beloved," &c. ^ Characteristic of the 17th and i8th centuries. Those marked with an asterisk are also largely used as warrants for issue. ■* e.g. military down to 1794. ' i.e. those no longer granted by Letters Patent. ' e.g. Special Pardons for insertion in a General I'ardon. Also conditional Pardons. ' For respite or non-execution of the death sentence. * Of the election of Mayors, Recorders, Town-clerks, foreign agents, iVc. " For the preservation of game in a certain district by a local magnate; also for the King's game. '" To swear in household officers, &c. " l^ter efl'ected by Treasury Warrant. '■" In much the same form under Charles II as under Edward III. '* I>ater procured by the Secretary at War. '* For King's Counsel to take private briefs. '* A " privilt^e" in the nature of a monopoly. '• Usually for keepers of royal forests. '^ For Jacobites and other political offenders. • • '* Paths and high-ways, &c. '" e.g. for Fast India-men. *" Including that of a foreign vessel (prize). ■■" Pending the grant of Letters Patent. *• For .Secretaries of State or for sheriflfs, iVc. to reside outside their counties. '^ See above, p. 330, n. 6. *• For search, apprehensitm, and commitment of suspected |K"rs<»ns ; to seach the Presses for treasonable documents; to prevent duels; to keep in custwiy; to deliver to messengers; to "take up" witnesses; to admit a prisoner's friends; to discharge from custt)dy ; for the protection of individuals. AU of the above were attested by the Secretary of State. 334 Appendix I 7. Secretary of State's departmental Warrants. Special Forms: Pass\ Pass-port'-, Post-warrant^ Caveat"*. {b) Foreign affairs. 8. Pass. (For envoys and subjects travelling abroad^) 9. Credentials. (Letters of credence for envoys to foreign courts*.) 10. Letter of Recall (or "Revocation") for the same". 11. Full Power*. (a) Notarial Form. (b) Chancery Form. 12. Certificate for an envoy to kiss hands on his departure or return*. 13. Commission for a Consul*". {c) Royal Household". {d) Delegated authority to local officials^^ G. Royal Letters". I. King's Letters (Mediaeval). ^ A safe-conduct or licence to travel (for discharged soldiers, foreign agents or refugees, emigrants, &c.). ^ For ships. Addressed to admirals and governors of forts, &c. '^ Either an order for the supply of post-horses, &c. to king's messengers, &c. or a "bill of craving" allowed to ambassadors, &c. for "postages," &c. generally known as his ' ' extraordinaries. " * A minute to suspend the placiiig of the Signet to instruments intended to pass the Great Seal in view of official or private interests to the contrary. ^ Latin (till middle i8th cent.) and English ; the former in a notarial style as letters commendatory addressed to all foreign princes, &c. ® Later in an epistolary style. Also "Recredentials" for the same. '' In a two-fold form (a) addressed to the envoy, enclosing {b) an intimation to the foreign court that his services are required elsewhere. ** Originally a commission appointing a royal proctor. The essential vi'ords were "plenam pote3tatem...communicandi, conferendi et concludendi...spondentes,...in verbo principis quaecunque,...nostro nomine transigentur,...rata, &c. habituros." * Countersigned by the Secretary of State, but not under the Sign Manual. This formality was probably to indicate the period of employment and consequent allowances. ^^ Commissions were also issued to Secretaries of Legation. Two forms of Consular commissions were used, (a) for a new port, with a preamble setting forth the advantages to Trade from the appointment, {b) for an existing port, omitting this preamble. ^^ Addressed to the Lord Chamberlain's and Lord Steward's departments, including Warrants for servants, stables, public funerals, &c., provisions, swans, playhouses, &c. *^ ^-S- prerogative of Pardon exercised by Colonial governors ; Passes issued by Consuls ; Warrants of Justices of the Peace, &c. i"* These do not include (according to the usual practice) letters addressed to the Sovereign. The former should be classified from a diplomatic point of view amongst semi-official docu- ments preserved amongst State Papers as "Royal Letters" or official "In-Letters." Appendix I 335 (a) Early style (12th and 13th centuries) (Latin and French)'. {b) I-ater style (14th and 15th centuries) (I.atin, French and English)'. 2. King's Letters (Modern)'. (Latin, French and English'.) (rt) Ceremonious (I^tin, French). {b) Familiar (French, English). 3. Secretary's Letters. (English.) (a) In the King's name^ (b) In the Secretary's name^ 4. Departmental Letters-^ (English.) H. Departmental Instruments". (English.) I. The Minute". 2. The Reference. 3- The Report. 4. The Order. 5- The Instruction. 6. The Warrant. 7- The Commission. 8. Miscellaneous Instruments*. (ii) SEMIOFFICIAL INSTRUMENTS. A. Conveyances". Deed Polls'", Indentures", Releases'-, Fines", Leases and Pensions'*. ' See above, p. 270 sq. * Tliese are the "Royal Letters" addressed to foreign ]X)tentates on ceremonious occasions which are preserved under that title amongst the Foreign State I'apers. * In the style of Signet Letters (see above, p. 375). * One of the forms of the olVicial letter still employed. ' From a board of otlicers or individual minister or agent. Another form of official letter slill in use. * Si>ecial forms or developments of the departmental letter. ^ For this and the secjuence of forms that follows, see alx»ve, p. 176 sq. * e.g. Certificates, I)el)enlures, Cartels, &c. * Enrolled or fded by favour or common pr.ictice in the Rolls of Chancery (Close, Fine) or King's Courts. *" Feoffments. " Lease and Release, Bargain and Sale. '* Actpiiltanccs, Quit-claims (in favour of the Crown), Surrenders of Office, &c. '■' Concords made and enrolled in Courts of Law. '^ Conventual I .eases, Pensions and Corrodies, &c. 2,2,6 Appendix I B. Contracts ^ Bonds ^ Recognizances ^ Assignments ^ Indentures', Oaths ». C. Certificates. Notifications^, Acknowledgments*, Awards", Mis- cellaneous^". D. Letters and Reports". E. Petitions and Addresses^-. F. Notarial Instruments ^^ (iii) DIPLOMATIC DOCUMENTS (Private)". A. Conveyances (original and derivative). 1. Feoffments. Fee-simple, Fee-tail, Demise for life. Demise for years. Fee-farm, Frankalmoigne, Mortgage, Will, Manumission, Exchange, Partition, Rent-charge, Pension, Corrody or Pit- tance, &c. 2. Confirmations. 3. Releases. Quit-claim, Surrender, &c. B. Contracts. Concord, Use, Simple bond, Defeazance, Letters of Attorney, Letters of Proxy, Assignment, Oath, Fealty, Ho- mage, &c. ^ Enrolled, chiefly, in the Close Rolls or Exchequer Memoranda Rolls. * Jewish "Starrs," obligations to "royal merchants," Statutes Staple, &c. * For due performance of office, &c. ■• Of interests, appointment of attorneys, proxies, &c. * Articles of Clerkship, Disentailing Deeds, Charitable Uses, Indentures of War, for safe transfer of jewels, records, &c. •^ Official or judicial and political (enrolled or entered as precedents). "^ Yox naturalization, change of name or residence, sacramental certificates, &c., "Deputations" of persons to perform the duties of certain offices on behalf of Household officers and others. * e.g. by married women under the Act of William IV. * Enclosure Awards, &c. ^^ By local officers, &c. 1' These written by private individuals and addressed or communicated to ministers form a large portion of the State Paper collection. Their semi-official character is due to their having been filed or entered in the Archives. ^- Classified here for the same reason as above. For Petitions in Chancery see above, E. (a) and (c). ^■' Executed by order of the Crown or procured by royal officers in connexion with diplomatic correspondence or semi-official business. Also occasionally enrolled from an ecclesiastical source. Later a large mass of Admiralty Records of this nature is preserved. " P'or examples of the following types see Madox Formulare Anglicanum, and Calendar of Ancient Deeds (Rolls). Many collections of formulas exist both early and modern, printed and manuscript. It has been explained elsewhere that these instruments and letters have found a place amongst official documents by casual or arbitrary means, and we are not directly concerned here with their evolution or significance. Appendix I -^^il C. Certificates. NotHia, Receipt or acquittance, &c. D. Letters^. E. Notarial Instruments*. II. MINISTERIAL AND JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. (i) ROYAL SURVEYS, INQUISITIONS, AND ASSESSMENTS^, {a) Agrarian Surveys. (b) Fiscal Inquisitions and Assessments. (i) Assessments on the Hide (Geld Rolls, Inquisitions of Hidage, Hidage Books, Inquisitions of Carucage, Local Assessments, &c.). (2) Assessments on the Knight's Fee (Scutage, Aid, &c.). (3) Decimal Assessments, &c. (Tithe, Poundage, Capi- tage, cSjc). {c) Feudal Inquests (Escheats, Proofs of Age, Sergeanties, Knighthood, Lunacy, Ad quod Damnum, Regards of the Forest, &c.). (^) Statutory and Political Inquisitions. (ii) ACCOUNTS. A. Royal Accounts. (a) Original. (i) Subsidiary* ("Particulars" or vouchers). (2) Final' (as engrossed for audit). (p) Enrolments. (i) Exchequer (Revenue) Rolls*. (2) Departmental Accounts'. * From one private individual to another. ' Indulgences, &c. casually deposited in official custody. ' For examples of these Records, see Formula Book, Part II. * The details in the ledger or sub-accountant's return, r.arely preserved and referred to in the final account as '* Particulars." * Summarizing the above in a conventional form. * i.e. Pipe Roils, Foreign Rolls, Receipt and Issue Rolls, Declared Accounts. The Pipe Roll itself embodies returns made to the Summonses of the Exchequer. ' i.e. Journals, Ledgers, &c. of the several Departments of State. H. 22 338 Appendix I {c) Estreats (or Parcels) \ {d) Precedents I B. Private Accounts\ (iii) JUDICIAL INQUISITIONS. (a) Original Writs, {b) Judicial Writs. {c) Pleadings. ^ Abstracts communicated by one department to another or preserved for convenience of reference. ^ i.e. Compilations or statistics entered in various Registers such as the " Miscellaneous Books " of the Exchequer departments. ^ Usually following the same forms as Royal Accounts {a) and {d) and to be regarded (like private deeds and correspondence) as casually deposited in the Archives. APPENDIX II. Early Diplomatic Criticism. Numerous instances of diplomatic criticism could probably be found in mediaeval histories or chronicles in addition to the following passages to which reference was made in the text^ Next to the pseud-Ingulf and the chronicler of Battle, the author of the Historia Monasterii Sancti Augusti?n is the most explicit of our mediaeval commentators upon the Old English diplomata. Although the naivete of this writer's explanations may provoke a smile, we should really be grateful for any explanation at all. It was in connexion with the foundation charters of this church that a hot dispute between the Abbot and the Primate was brought before the Roman Curia in the reign of Henry IP. Fortunately for us this local rivalry caused one of the greatest of the Canterbury scholars to take part in the diplomatic discussion concerning the validity of the above " charters." This was Gervase the historian, who remarked" in connexion with the famous instruments which still occupy the place of honour in our Codices*, that the oldest erat rasa et subscripta, ac si esset emendata, et absque sigillo, whilst the next in date mul/o erat recentior, de qua bulla plumbea...^ no7>a valde, dependebat. He also notes that objection was made to the material of the bulla and to the phraseology which a Romano stilo dissona videbatur. The History of Ramsey, compiled in the 13th century, preserves some ex- tremely curious notices of Anglo-Saxon charters, including an explanation of the absence of seals which apparently comes from the same source as that previously referred to in connexion with the works of the pseud-Ingulf and Thomas of Elmham*. Another instructive topic of early diplomatic criticism is found in the discussion by mediaeval writers of the admissibility of I^tin versions of Old English charters. Here, whilst admitting the possibility of a certain amount of scepticism being excited by the non-production of vernacular deeds, the inconvenience of reference to these barbarous instruments" is held to justify ' P. 185. » Hist. Mon. S. Aug. (Rolls), p. 118. » Gervase, l. 396 (Rolls ed.). * C. S. l. • Chron. Rames. pp. 65, i6i, and above, p. 109 sq. " Some instructive comntents on the etymology of the place-name Thorney will he found in W. Malmes. Gest. Pont. 326; Liber de I/ida, 182; Chron. tie Abingdon, II. 161; /Wy- chroniton, v. 426 (cf. C. S. mS, and Ordn. Fais, Part II. Preface), throwing some light on the authenticity of a supi>oseil 8th century charter (C. S. 145). 22 — a 340 Appendix II an idiomatic translation into Latin. In other cases, however, the vernacular is preserved alongside of the version to satisfy any scruples that may be enter- tained by the parties concerned. In other cases, however, the commentaries of mediaeval writers will be found to be of very little value. Heming, the faithful and industrious carto- grapher of the church of Worcester, was apparently unable to distinguish in every case between a genuine document and a forgery, and the same remark will apply to the equally ingenuous compiler of the Textus Roffensis. Again, Matthew Paris, who may be regarded as the type of the scientific historian of his age, did not hesitate to accept the mythical origins of the earliest diplomata of his own house'. Although the inclusion of so many worthless forgeries in our printed Codices must deter us from passing any harsh judgment on the critical intelligence of the mediaeval historian, we may feel some surprise and impatience at the general indifference displayed by these learned clerks for diplomatic niceties. An archdeacon, for instance, should surely have known better than to certify to the Pope that a disputed charter of King Edgar appeared to be genuine because it was sealed with the seals of that king, of archbishop Dunstan and of Alfred, duke of the Mercians^. Nevertheless the mere fact of these forgeries being questioned is of interest. Still more interesting is the action taken by the Roman Curia in the case of a forged bull in the year 1 1 98, the canons of diplomatic criticism that were laid down on this occasion being singularly valuable ^ A little later we have another interposition by the same authority, in the famous suit between the bishop of Worcester and the Abbot of Evesham. On this occasion a commission was issued for the examination of certain suspected charters which purported to have been procured by bishop Egwin in the reign of King Offa*. At the same time it may be necessary to distinguish between the critical capacity of the monkish historian and that of the official scribe. The know- ledge displayed by writers like the author of the Dialogus de Scaccario, Glanvill and Bracton^ is quite remarkable. This knowledge is even shared by the clerks who drafted ordinances of Parliament* or entered royal letters in the Chancery' rolls''. ^ Gest. Abbat. I. 39; Chron. Major. VI. A more critical account is, however, found in Gest. Abbat. I. 151, and n. 262. ^ Rot. Chart, i. xxxv. «. 6 ; Hickes, Dissert. Epist. p. 71. ^ Potthast, No. 365 ; Giry, Man. de Dipt. p. 682 sq. * Hist. Evesham (Rolls), pp. xviii, xix, 17, 193. ^ Cf. Rolls ed. III. 208, VI. 140 sq. ® See the Indexes of the Statutes and Rolls of Parliament and cf. Owens College Historical Essays, p. 193 sq. '' Above, p. 230. APPENDIX III. The Charters of King /Ethelstan. This comparatively short reign of less than 15 years has enriched our Codex with upwards of too diplomata of which, however, about a third are negligible forms'. Of the residue of credible examples, by far the largest proportion (18) is furnished by the church of Winchester, whilst Abingdon (12), Malmesbury (8), Christ Church, Canterbury (6), Exeter (5), and Worcester (4), are well represented. The following houses contribute the remaining forms : Shaftesbury (3), Wilton (3), Sherborne (2), Crediton (2), Bath, Chichester, St Augustine's, Canterbury, Chertsey, York, St Paul's, Thorney (i). Whether we have here the bulk of the genuine diplomata executed during this reign is a question that could not easily be answered*. Those enumerated above may be regarded as permissible forms merely on account of their regular construction and without regard to their origin or probable authenticity which would depend on considerations that have been expressed elsewhere*. Fourteen of the charters of this reign purport to be in an original form, and thirteen have been reproduced in the official series of Facsimiles*, whilst the remaining specimen has recently been printed*. Of these, however, one is a later imitation*; another is an nth century copy^ and four of the Exeter group may be regarded with a certain amount of suspicion. Twenty-eight charters of this reign are marked as suspicious in the Codex Diplomaiicus, though one of these at least may be considered genuine* ; whilst several others which have not been "starred" by Kemble might be considered doubtful. It should be noticed, however, that two of these charters (C S. 670, 671) should be dated 941 instead of 931 on the high authority of the editors of the Crawford charters, and therefore belong properly to the reign of Edmund. At the same time the obviously mis-dated charter of Edward (C S. 635) has been counted amongst the charters of his successor, whilst the charter of 943 • i.e. imperfect, irregular or grote.s) With F/ehVia, 6rc. Qua de re, infima quasi peripsema quisquiliarum abiciens, superna ad instar pretiosorum monilium eHgens, animum sempiternis in gaudiis figens, ad nanciscendam meUiflute dulcedinis misericordiam, perfruendamque infinitae letitiae jocunditatem. C. S. [635], 674 — 677, 689, 691, 692, 694 — 696 {^vith variants). (c) With Egregius, dr'c. Quamobrem...desiderio regni coelestis exardens. C. S. 728, 730, 740^ IV. Dispositive Clauses. (a) With Flebilia, ^c. and Eortuna, 6^r. Quandam telluris particulam meo fideli ministro...; id est... cassatarum in loco quern solicolae...vocitant, tribuo, ut ille earn, sine jugo exosae servitutis, cum pratis, pascuis, silvis, rivulis, omnibusque ad eam utilitatibus rite pertinentibus Hberaliter ac aeternaUter, quamdiu vivat, habeat; et post generalem, qui omnibus, certus incertusque, homuncuHs ^ C. S. 694 has the form in (b) below. C. S. 718, 719, 745 are incomplete or imperfect. ^ With noticeable variants in C. S. 719 and 745. * C. S. 734 has Quapropter and no more. This Exposition is closely involved with the Superscription, a not infrequent occurrence. Appendix III 345 constat transitum, cuicumque successionis haeredi voluerit imperpetuum derelinquat'. C. S. [635], 674—677, 689, 691, 692, 695,696, 702—704, 745 {b) With Egregius, ^'c. Cuidam adoptive fideli meo...vocitato ob illius amabile obse- quium dignatus sum largiri...mansas agelluli ibidem ubi vulgares prisco more mobilique relatione vocitant...; cum pratis, pascuis necnon et silvis, silvarumque densitatibus : ut haec prospere possideat ac seternaliter teneat dum hujus aevi fragilis cursum uti audebit; post se autem, veluti affirmavimus, cuicumque voluerit heredi derelinquat. Fiat etenim praefata terra ab omni servili jugo libera, exceptis his tribus, expeditione, pontis arcisve coedificatione^ C. S. 728, 730, 734, 740. V. Sanctions. (a) With Flebilia^ &'c. and Foriuna, dr'c. Si autem, quod absit, (non optamus) aliquis diaboHco inflatus spiritu banc meae donationis breviculam infringere vel elidere temptaverit, sciat se novissima ac magna examinationis die, stridula clangente Archangeli salpice, bustis sponte de- hiscentibus, somata jam rediviva relinquentibus, elementis omnibus pavefactis, cum Juda proditore, qui a satoribus pio sato "filius perditionis" dicitur, aeterna confusione edacibus ineffabilium tormentorum flammis periturum^ C' S. [635], 674—677, 689, 691, 692, 694—696, 702—704. {b) With Egregius, ^^c. Si quis autem, quod non optamus, banc nostram difinitionem, elationis habitu incedens, infringere temptaverit, perpessus sit gelidis glaciarum flatibus et pennino exercitu malignorum spirituum, nisi prius inriguis poenitentiae gemitibus et pura emendatione emendaverit^ ■ With many variants, notably a curious periphr.xsis for i/natndin vivat. In some a condition is inserted, and in others the assertion quamdiu Christianitas vigeat occurs. The dispositive word in the Exeter group is largitus sum. For the special form of C. S. 694 see Formula Book, No. 4. ' With special variants in C. S. 734. • This corrupt composition has numerous interesting variants, as though successive rhetoricians were bent on enhancing the impressive effect prmluced by the description of the Day of Judgment and Kternal Punishment for transgressors. In C. S. 716, 718, 719 and 745 (the last iK-ing incomplete), from the Church of Malmesbury we find the simple version Quot/ si ^.^.J^ -IS S;-T3 -4-10;-*-' S i; rt u- *-■ ^^ ti .'i .5 SH u O O O O ci! 1) rt I— I "5 rt JJ r; >-i > ^- -Tl O) U-. !U h> O O "d "dJ w. i„ o ;s D J- "S I" "S '- CJ .« o ^>.^ood =yo2 ^ o -S o _ _^ ^ ,_^ gc .„ -t-j^-*-*-" -"UD -woaju S'^P„ii>£^„So>>rtori u .S/^t^ 'CS*^ > J2 JSI S tM a. O 3 n3 c O ^ 1) .is bjoi^ Md tJOti 3 Mp oasSw^pioQf§Q o Q csaoooaao^i .3 s >^t; ^^ D •— ^ t« M 13 V 'd a B bD « « H^ C/} P^ " 5 c^s eu '^':3 -s^ -d »« rt a bo rt . D >-; (XI .5 M >■ D . •" D Zi W D.C •go c >- ,_. - DU •=3se c Ph (u E .VI is aed >, D C J5 •= W rt 3-^ l^ D ^ M ti D "rt C/i 13 2 C e of cedu thes >- > J2 cl rtu Dro tof lil "u (X, "> /^^r > D S H„< ii^iO, S43 .-. (J a) SiO 2 c b^ 2 '^ Sod -S 2^ D *-• (J ^ "o D 'C <« >-. Ph X! D t3 S > CO D t/3 3 ~ -^ ^ .s mC c '^S •S, « '5 -Sr! -^ D.2 o a a o S •^ G t^ a S Ci (A c "! e •; d O D ^ en in d - <« : •5.« cS '^ D -C ^ < ■" ■" U5 , O ^ (Ti- .2 D gvo ^ " <" C c S? S S I Ji § ^ .^ D C " ^ 4: D C d"" D c ^ D C ->,„ D *i c! " s s •= t; ^ •s ^ C/} J5 "^ D^S 2^ tuo taO.O & >~. ci Ji ."S £ Sj D r-' ^ ;g c, ■c ^ o C dCJ O O D _ o C 5 5 e <^ ?J ^ kiTi . ^< g , 5 s:^ i d c i: S MJ ^ 3^ 3m c« ? APPENDIX VI. FEES of the SEAL. The Accounts of the Clerk of the Hanaper' at the close of the reign of Edward I show that the average receipts approximated to ;^iooo yearly. This revenue was of course that derived from the " Fees of the Seal " alone, the greater portion being derived from writs for which the usual fee was 2S. Charters were divided into two classes, those paying the "small fee" of i6j. 4eau TraiU, III. 373 sq.). Hickes [firamm. A.S. 139, and Dissert. Epist. 66) follows suit. ' Cf. Hickes, Gramm. A. S. 160 n. Gale, Scriptores, I. 61, 71. » Cf. Notrveau Traiti, ill. 373, 374, 375 n. Hickes, Dissert. Efist. 144, 145, Mabillon, De re Dipt. p. 52, where we have such references as the following: " Tautoril^ d'Ingulfc, AbW de Croyland, ne pcrmet pas d'en douler" ; " En cffet, Ing\dfe, auteur du temps, dit," &c. ; Ut cum Ingulpko loquar ; lestante Ingulfo in kisloria Croylandtmi, !a'<. 364 Palaeography some of these instruments, continued to use the insular style is very noticeable. Again there is an alternative source of production in the case of the Anglo-French diplomata above referred to, some of which are believed to have been written by foreign monks in English houses. At the same time it has to be considered whether in any case examples are sufficiently numerous or important to justify the sup- position that French monks were introduced into this country for the purpose of reforming the insular script. We may remember, indeed, that a similar argument has been disputed on very high authority^ We are forbidden to assume that the native Gallo- Roman style was influenced by the Irish-Saxon models that were undoubtedly intro- duced into the continental Scriptorium in the 8th and 9th centuries, and the more agreeable explanation is now accepted that the Anglo- Irish scholars were in demand as illuminators and not as scribes. But there is another consideration which appears to have been entirely overlooked in the course of these interesting discussions. From the reign of Cnut the use of the formal diplomata, in which the foreign handwriting and notarial influences may be most frequently detected, begins to give way to that of the vernacular writ. It would seem, therefore, that so far from these influences being paramount in the diplomatic writing of the first half of the nth century, they are connected with a decaying practice and also (it may be added) with a class of instruments which in themselves compare unfavourably with vernacular forms. The authenticity of a large number of these later diplomata is far from certain, and suspicion might well attach to specimens which have hitherto been accepted without question. Perhaps the time has not yet come for entertaining the suggestion that the " English rounded minuscules " of the loth and i ith centuries were in fact evolved from an earlier calligraphy which is associated with the insular Half-Uncial script, and that this stately hand existed side by side with a Half-Cursive vernacular script and with wholly foreign writing. Nevertheless, as it is now admitted that the " Caroline minuscule" was evolved from the Half-Uncial and Minuscule models which were clearly at the service of continental scribes, we may fairly consider the possibility of a parallel evolution of the insular writing. Be this as it may, such speculations are certainl}'^ less harmful than the tacit acceptance of an ancient dogma which leads us back, through an almost incredible series of confident mis-statements, ^ L. Delisle, Essai sur fecole calligraphique de Tours. Palaeography 365 to the most suspect source of Anglo-Norman history. And if we do not need the hypothesis of an enforced reform by Alfred the Great, or by the Confessor, or by the Conqueror to account for the resemblance of the " rounded minuscules " of the later Old English script to the reformed continental writing, still less shall we need the artificial distinctions built up by older writers on the evidence of lithographs and fantastic forgeries. Indeed few scholars would now trouble themselves with the dis- tinctions between a " Roman-Saxon " and a " set Saxon," a " cursive Saxon," a "mixed Saxon," and an "elegant Saxon"; between an " Anglo-Saxon " and a " Dano-Saxon," a " semi-Saxon " and a "Norman-Saxon'" script. It has been well said that " les Ventures minuscules romaines sont plus ou moins elegantes a proportion de I'habilit^ des mains qui les ont trac^esV' and Old English scribes possessed at least abilities and traditions which would have enabled them to play their part in the international movement which led to the assimilation of all the Western national scripts to a common type. With certain limitations, then, we may claim a national continuity for our own branch of the great Latin family of writings from the 6th century to the nth. Even after the Conquest, there is unmis- takable evidence of the existence of local schools of English scribes, undismayed by French fashions and certainly undisturbed by Norman chancery clerks. Of these men, some at least must have been young, and we have here, as has been lately pointed out*, one means of bridging the gap between the revolution of the Conquest and the reorganization of the I2th century. {b) Mediaeval Writing in Latin, We have seen that the Prankish calligraphy was destined to influence the national writings between the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 13th. It is no easy matter, however, to trace the progress of the new Minuscule writing in this country during the period which immediately followed the Norman Conquest. This difficulty may be partly due to the survival of insular traditions, but it is certainly much increased by the scantiness of surviving specimens of the Anglo-Nofman script. It has also been alleged by early ' Astle, Origin of Writings 96 sq. Hickes, Gramm. A. S. 134 sq. ' Notntau Trail/, III. 167 ; cf. ibid. 175. • Mr W. H. Stevenson in E. H. A'. XI. 733. 366 Palaeography writers that the Norman writing itself displays Lombardic rather than PVankish characteristics, and although this view may be easily disregarded, it must be evident that the more cursive forms of diplomatic writing before the end of the 12th century exhibit con- siderable divergencies from the typical calligraphy of the Franco- Roman school. The latter may, however, be recognized amongst the few existing originals of the period. A more upright and angular writing is found in official registers down to the beginning of the 13th century and a characteristic hand is seen in the Pipe Rolls of the whole period. Finally we have occasional glimpses of the con- ventional script which was once known as " elegant Saxon " and which is still employed in the vernacular specifications of the boundaries in the hybrid diplomatic forms of the period. It is almost useless to say that we must eliminate from our examination many suspicious docu- ments which pass as contemporary charters. From the end of the first quarter of the 12th century a marked change is noticed in the insular calligraphy no less than in the diplo- matic writing of the continental chanceries. The curial writing of this century is perhaps unique in its artistic development of the best characteristics of the Franco- Roman calligraphy. Power rather than elegance of style is indicated in the thick upright compact letters and the long tapering strokes above the line. A marked feature of this writing is that both the letters on the line and the upper strokes preserve an exact level. Another is that whether this hand is large or small, its characteristics are well preserved. Possibly, too, the attractive features of the earlier type of 12th century calligraphy are enhanced by the excellence of parchment and ink and the scientific methods of the contemporary Scriptorium^, whilst the accentuated contraction marks, the occasional ligatures and the introduction of Majuscule letters in the middle of a word lend a peculiar distinction to the writing of this periods At the same time we may fairly conclude from the discovery of an increasing number of original fragments that an alternative form was freely used in the shape of a Half-Cursive writing. This may be either small or pointed, or, especially in the middle of the century, larger and broader and more loosely constructed, with some Gothic characteristics. Towards the close of the century this stately curial writing is already beginning to lose much of its pure grace of outline. The ^ Hardy, Catalogue, Vol. U. Introduction. Dialogus de Scaccaiio, I. 5. •^ Cf. above, p. 361. Palaeography 367 letters are loosely formed, notches and other embellishments are introduced, and in judicial Records we notice a fine incisive writing which reminds us of the cursive glosses in literary MSS. The curial writing of the 13th century will be found to differ in its general character from the Franco-Roman calligraphy above described and by a gradual transition it assumes the form which has been styled Gothic. The Franco-Roman writing may, however, be traced, especially in such documents as Royal Charters and Pipe Rolls, at least as late as the reign of Edward I. The so-called Gothic writing can be recognized from an early date in the I2th century, but is at first almost exclusively confined to literary MSS. In the 13th century we may sometimes find this hand in official registers, and its influence is doubtless to be traced in the greater angularity both of the calligraphy and the cursive writing of the period, as well as in the fanciful embellishments which in the shape of " clubbed " strokes and "bows" are so familiar between the end of the reign of Henry III and the beginning of the reign of Edward III. The typical official hand of the first half of the 13th century is a small, loose Cursive, in which the letters appear broad or elongated according to the extent of the influence which the fine writing of the previous century continues to exercise. The characteristic official " register " hand of the same period is small and compact, the letters being somewhat thick and square in shape rather than rounded or angular as in the case of diplomata and literary MSS. respectively. In the last years of the reign of Henry III the influence of the Gothic style begins, as we have seen, to affect the curial writing materially. During the reign of Edward I the new fashion of " clubbed strokes " and " bows " reaches its height. It is continued in the next reign, but the writing of the first quarter of the 14th century has to some extent an individuality of its own. Curial writing it is true exhibits little change during the 14th century, but the bulk ofthe semi-official documents and registers of the period are written in a large and somewhat angular Gothic hand which continues in vogue during the whole of this century, becoming loose and irregular in the reign of Richard II. The note of decay is indeed struck before the end of the reign of Edward III. The curial writing in which the principal series of Records are inscribed begins to undergo a rapid decadence which is eventually arrested by the appearance of a uniform and practically artificial hand known as Half-Cursive Gothic. Before the reign of Edward IV this conventional hand is further responsible for two eccentric offshoots known as " Chancery" and "Court- Hand," 368 Palaeography which effectually superseded all other forms of curial writing in Latin. The general characteristics of the Gothic hand may still be traced as late as the reign of Charles I in vernacular cursive writing. From that date it is completely superseded by the Humanist calligraphy. {c) Mediaeval Writing in Old French. The mere fact that a considerable proportion of the official writings of this country between the latter part of the 13th century and the middle of the 15th is found to be in the French language, does not necessarily imply the existence of any real palaeographical distinctions between the contemporary French and Latin scripts. On the con- trary the same Gothic characters are clearly recognized in both, and herein the French of Stratford-le-Bow, as it was written, cannot be distinguished from the French of Paris. At the same time, though not in this palaeographical sense, there is a considerable difference between the mediaeval French and Latin scripts from the point of view of the modern student. In the first place the comparatively uncontracted form of the French MSS. will be easily noticed. But, as though to counterbalance a facility of perusal in this respect, new difficulties of a linguistic nature must be encountered. Here, indeed, the mediaeval scribe is seen to labour under the same disadvantage as our modern students. French is not the mother tongue of either, whereas a learned familiarity with Latin may be assumed in the case of both. Even the orthographic eccen- tricities of native writers in the vernacular are governed by a phonetic system which is fairly intelligible to the foreign reader ; but the official French, as droned in English courts, was ever attuned to a false key^ A necessary auxiliary to the study of this branch of Palaeo- graphy must therefore be sought in a working knowledge of the grammar, syntax and vocabulary of Old French as used, and much abused, by English clerks. To this small accomplishment we might add with great advantage an elementary knowledge of the philology of the language itself But although a comparatively slight acquain- tance with these archaic phrases will give us the sense of a typical document, it will not enable us to reproduce the text in an extended form without certain misgivings. A ceaseless vigilance will be needed to ascertain the method or rather tastes of individual scribes, and, despite every heed of precedents and idiosyncrasies, we can only proceed in many instances by guess-work. 1 Year Books (Selden Soc.), Vol. I. Intro. Palaeography 369 Perhaps one cause of these difficulties may be traced to an un- conscious disinclination to take the conventional compendia of this Gallic script quite as seriously as we should do in the case of their Latin equivalents. In fact the very poverty of the scribe's resources diverts our attention from his occasional use of orthodox devices. For example, if the article makes as good sense as the pronoun in the form of lis, we are liable to ignore the almost invisible contraction which signifies that the word is leiirs. These pitfalls may doubtless be avoided with the exercise of due circumspection, and the assistance of certain elementary hand-books ; but nothing less than pure intuition will enable us to divine which of two or three orthographical forms a scribe would have selected for the extension of a word which may be represented by a single letter. It must be admitted, however, that these are extreme cases, and that in the great majority of mediaeval official documents written in French these supreme difficulties will not be encountered. Indeed, we may remember that the forms of Old French preserved in English official documents are comparatively intelligent when compared with the usual renderings of Old English terms. Moreover it should be borne in mind that, many of these French documents contain mere versions of recognized Latin formulas and the student will receive considerable assistance from this circum- stance. A French version of Letters Patent or of a Privy Seal, for instance, can be more easily read than an Ancient Petition. From a still more practical point of view these Old French documents are of secondary importance, since, numerous as they are during the 14th century, they form but a small proportion of the historical documents of the whole mediaeval period. Moreover, a large percentage of the more important series, notably the Rolls of Parliament, has been already printed. (d) Later Official Writing. A careful study of the development of our national writing will reveal a very considerable change in the character of that writing between the close of the 14th century and the beginning of the i6th. At the same time it would not be an easy matter to determine the approximate date of the change referred to, or to indicate its precise nature in the case of official writings. It is well known that the change in question was accelerated by certain external causes such as the official recognition of the vernacular from the year 1362, the H. 24 370 Palaeography discovery of printing, and the loss of the clerical monopoly of writing under the influence of the New Learning. Closely connected with these agencies we have the important revival of the old Franco-Roman calligraphy in the 15th century. At one time this stately script seemed in danger of disappearing before the inroads of the modern Gothic ; but the Humanist studies gave a new impulse to the artistic feeling which has kept alive the traditions of an elegant Minuscule writing down to our own times. In another direction, however, the increasing use of the vernacular produced a fresh tendency towards national individuality. In the meantime, as we have seen, the Gothic writing of the 14th century had already begun to assume a Half-Cursive form. Finally, before the close of the 15th century a new cursive vernacular script had been evolved, in which, however, the forms of several Gothic letters can be traced at least as late as the close of the i6th century. In another direction the conventional characters of the Gothic script are preserved in an artificial style of writing to which the terms "Court-hand," "Chancery," and "Secretary" have been applied. This style of writing continued to be used for the enrolment of legal Records with scarcely any change till the beginning of the i8th century. We may fairly assume, however, that from the middle of the l6th century the spontaneous habit of writing in a Gothic hand had been lost, although the forms of many Gothic letters were preserved for a century longer. The scribe who wrote love letters and kept accounts in a cursive vernacular writing, deliberately cultivated an artificial hand for recording the proceedings of the Courts of Law or for enrolling an instrument in the Chancery. Other official writers who laboured in the Signet Office or in the study of some minister of the Crown, affected the more elegant hand which is known as " Secretary." Naturally we shall find every sort of combination between the new cursive and official hands, but this is a circumstance which must depend in every period upon the individuality of the scribe. The writing of a mere clerk will continue to be as conventional, relatively, as mediaeval script whether the characters are formed upon a Gothic or an Italian model. But when for the first time the laity begin to write for themselves, the ultimate triumph of individuality, expressed in the cursive vernacular, is assured. Thus the bulk of the official writings of the 17th and i8th centuries is endited in the natural handwriting of statesmen, governors, military and naval officers, and their numberless correspondents. Even Palaeography 37 1 when the services of a secretary are employed his "copper-plate" writing ceases, from the end of the 17th century, to retain any vestige of the Gothic script. The latter, preserved as an artificial Court-hand, is henceforth confined to the purely legal Records. It is true that the volume of these Records has considerably increased in the 17th century, but their historical and legal interest has proportionately diminished. The State Trials and Law Reports which are printed or else accessible in cursive MSS. provide convenient evidence and familiar case-law for the modern historian or lawyer. The indiscriminate use of the terms Court-hand and Chancery in connexion with the later Gothic writing of the 15th or even of the 14th centuries is probably responsible for some confusion. As a matter of fact the form of writing which is usually described under these titles is really that which occurs in the post-mediaeval period, though earlier writers regarded the term Court-hand as equally applicable to the reign of Henry I or to that of Henry VU. It is obviously un- desirable that a table of the forms of the written alphabet during the Tudor period should be regarded as descriptive of the three preceding centuries. Such a table, however, is presented to us in more than one of the most authoritative treatises upon the subject, and the impression is thus conveyed that "Court-hand" is a general term for all official writings. The term itself, however, is a very convenient one and might be retained with advantage if its use were confined to the proceedings of the Courts of Common Law and Exchequer from the reign of Edward IV onwards. This date may be regarded as approximately marking the final evolution of this conventional hand from the de- cadent Gothic'. The chief point of resemblance between the two styles of writing is seen in the angularity of the Minuscule letters, but in the later period a lozenge-shaped con.struction is noticeable in the bodies of the letters b, c, d, g, o, p, q and s. A further characteristic of this Court-hand writing is found in the habit of continuing the bottom of the down stroke in the letters a, c, k in an upward direction so as to form a bow. A third distinction is seen in the " minims " themselves, the strokes being disconnected, broad throughout and conspicuously erect. These peculiarities are also responsible for the undoubted difficulty found in reading this distinctive hand, and they constitute a marked distinction between this writing and the older Gothic. The actual forms of the Court-hand letters differ from the Gothic ' See Appendix. 24 — a 2i']'2 Palaeography in a very slight degree. Some capitals closely resemble those of an early period. Others are clearly of an uncial type and the eccentric . outlines of a few more do not constitute a specific distinction. On the other hand some letters, notably P and S, do present important differences, and these once more give trouble to the reader who is accustomed only to the Gothic script. The "Chancery" hand which runs a parallel course with this Court- hand in the i6th and 17th centuries may probably be distinguished from the Gothic before the middle of the 15th century\ Its structural resemblance to that form of writing is in fact much closer than in the ca.se of the conventional Court-hand, although certain letters are much alike in both. In their general aspect, however, the difference between the "Court-hand" and the "Chancery" hand is very marked. The latter is not only rounder and flatter in appearance, in distinction to the upright and sometimes backward lines of the Court-hand, but the letters are more open and loosely formed. The two styles, however, possess this common characteristic, that they are equally artificial and uniform in point of execution so that the writing of the i6th century presents almost the same features as that of the i8th. The third conventional handwriting of the post- mediaeval period is usually known as "Secretary" owing to its use as the fair hand in which letters and formal documents were prepared for signature or for official preservation. This writing was developed more slowly than the preceding forms but it is evidently based upon the calligraphy of the late 1 5th century with an admixture of Gothic and a few Court-hand letters, especially C and S. One of its most characteristic letters is a small p, which is often mistaken for an x. In the i6th century this hand abounds in flourishes which disguise its close affinity to the Humanist calligraphy, whilst many letters used in the Court-hand and Chancery alphabets are introduced. From the middle of the 17th century looped capitals begin to replace the Gothic forms. In addition to official documents, numerous private deeds and formal writings in this hand have been deposited amongst the legal Records and State Papers, for this calli- graphy was largely practised by the scriveners whose professional successors still preserve its general forms. A detailed description of the cursive vernacular writing^ which was used with increasing freedom from the middle of the 15th century would be impossible here. Moreover, this new style must be regarded ^ See Appendix. Palaeography 373 as a hybrid growth containing many forms of letters that were clearly borrowed from the Gothic itself as well as from the later official writings above referred to. This is especially evident in the case of certain capitals which continued for another century to be modelled on the artificial Gothic forms. The use of these and even of small letters derived from the same source by individual writers may probably be explained by the use of certain models in the course of instruction. At the same time archaic or artificial forms would naturally be affected by those engaged on official or legal business, whilst the influence of the Humanist learning is seen in the "copper-plate" writing of many statesmen or scholars. An examination of a variety of hands during the i6th century might lead us to suppose that certain letters were usually formed on a different plan to that which has prevailed since the close of the 17th century. This fact is noticeable in respect of certain small letters as well as several capitals. Of these some may be regarded as mediaeval survivals whilst others are derived from Court-hand models. At the same time several partial ligatures occur as in the conjunction of t with the vowels o and e, and that of h with s, c and t. The use of back strokes in this vernacular writing resembles a device of mediaeval scripts, continued in the artificial curial writings. The cursive vernacular writing above described occupies a middle place between the artificial Gothic script and the Humanist calligraphy of the period. For another century the resemblance to the former is very noticeable; but from the beginning of the 17th century the Franco-Roman Minuscule resumed its former sway. At the same time it is interesting to observe that, in purely cursive writing at least, these conventional characters are insular in their formation. That is to say, a national type of writing may be distinguished from the i6th century onwards in distinction to the cosmopolitan scripts of the four preceding centuries. We might even venture to proceed a step further and to assert that just as the Scottish writing of the i6th century exhibits several traces of the close political relations of that country with France, and as the vernacular Irish script continued with little change of form until the reign of Henry VIH, so this new English cursive bears an inherited resemblance to the Old English cursive of pre-Conquest times. 3 74 Palaeography {e) The Royal Scriptorium. It has been previously observed ^ that the information available as to the institution of the Chancery in this country and its working establishment is of a very scanty kind. The same remark must almost necessarily apply to our knowledge of the actual apparatus for writing the royal acts or official compilations which comprise practi- cally the whole bulk of the Records preserved in the State Archives before the end of the 12th century. It must at least be assumed that such documents were written within the precincts of the Court, but this necessary assumption is the cause of a serious difficulty. In the case of a foreign Court the needful apparatus was naturally provided by the Chancery with its elaborate notarial establishment, but the existence of such an establishment in England before the Conquest has not yet been proved^. Even a century later we fail to find any traces of such a curial department^ and when its existence can be clearly distinguished, a large part of its duties are performed by other clerical agencies^ Indeed in the case of the most ancient and characteristic instru- ments, Royal Charters and other public acts, we are scarcely justified in assuming that the actual writing was performed by an official scribe. There is no uniformity of style such as distinguishes the acts of the foreign Chanceries at a glance, and the O. E. " land-boc " and Anglo-Norman charter are clearly home-made ^ We have some evidence of the employment of experts for this purpose by certain religious houses, but these scribes do not appear to have formed a professional class of notaries^ In fact the actual writing of the great bulk of the diplomata issued before the middle of the 12th century was apparently provided by individual enterprise, and the ceremony of execution itself involved no clerical apparatus, whilst no official rescript of the original instruments was apparently preserved until the be- ginning of the 13th century. Even as late as the Tudor period we have seen that it was usual for the tenor of a royal grant to be prepared ostensibly at least by the grantee himself, and this original draft was submitted for the ^ See above, pp. 157 — 162. ^ See above, p. 163 sq. ^ Dialogus, l. 5. * The Exchequer and the Wardrobe. ^ Cf. above, p. 175 sq., and below, p. 377. Is it possible that Bishop Stubbs had this in mind when he wrote : "Abundance of charters... attest the activity of the Church, and of the monasteries " (C H. i. 242) ? ^ See above, p. 175. Palaeography 375 royal signature and is still preserved as a record of the first stage of an official transaction which was now protracted with a sole regard for fees'. One reason for this display of individualism is to be found in the well-known fact that in England the Church was before the State and that in this connexion as in others its organization was utilized for the requirements of the whole community. That the clergy alone possessed a knowledge of letters was not a circumstance peculiar to this country, but probably in this country alone we find the very ink supplied for the royal Scriptorium by the nearest church, which also took charge of the most precious contents of the royal Archives and still harboured these Records almost within the memory of living men*. Moreover the allusions of mediaeval writers would seem to indicate a conversance with affairs of State on the part of certain learned canons or monks, which might well have been acquired by them in the exercise of some official task. When, during the controversy relating to the Scottish supremacy, Edward I requi- sitioned the monastic Archives for early State Papers the extent of these intimate relations was at once revealed '. Perhaps we shall find that very similar relations between the Church and the clerical departments of the State existed on the Continent, at least as late as the prohibition of notarial employment to the regular clergy ^ But although we find no traces of a "notarial art " in connexion with the earliest establishment of the royal Scrip- torium in the shape of formula books or other technical precedents, we must not suppose that on this account the business of the State was inefficiently conducted. Whether in the Curia or the Camera, the Chancery or the Exchequer, important instruments and extensive accounts were dispatched with remarkable skill and precision. Earlier still the Great Survey remains a monument of clerical labour', and this was the precursor of a long series of stupendous inquisitions. These will be found to extend throughout the whole of the succeeding period, but of the actual apparatus employed for the execution of these writings we have no exact knowledge. One thing indeed is certain; clerks there were in plenty. England in the 12th centur)', we have been assured, was a "paradise of clerks." We have un- fortunately no means of ascertaining whether the clergy who found maintenance and advancement at the Court formed an organized * Sec above, pp. 163 sq. and 349. * Dialogus, I. V. Cf. E. //. A'. Apr. 1904. ' Above, pp. «, 14. * Hy the Council of Kheims in 1 131. ' Eyton, Notet on DouusJay. 376 Palaeography official body ; whether they were borne, so to speak, on the establish- ment of the Chancery and Exchequer or eked out the emoluments of a canonry or benefice by fees or perquisites. Especially we should wish to know under what conditions they worked and whether they wrote these charters and rolls with their own hands or dictated the entries to subordinate scribes, and if so, whether those scribes affected the character of a learned caste. Such evidence as we have perhaps seems to indicate that clericus and scriptor were in most cases convertible terms, and in mediaeval illustrations the clerk is de- lineated in the act of writing. In some cases the clerk appears to have been an executive officer, acting as the deputy of an officer of State and merely supervising the labours of the official scribes^ In other cases a clerk held a permanent appointment as the writer of a particular record and was paid, not as a clericus, but as a scriptor. The records of such payments are, however, very infrequent and we are tempted to suppose that the permanent officials or patent officers provided such clerical assistance as they required'^, a practice followed in the government departments until comparatively recent times. The patent offices referred to, which were held antiqtio jure, were nevertheless few in number and quite inadequate to supply the requirements of the most primitive system of administration. The greater number of clerical posts must therefore have been filled by " supernumerary " clerks paid by fees received on a recognized scale from suitors or accountants^. Such a system would tend towards the creation of a professional class such as the Cursitors afterwards became, whilst in the Curia itself the necessary writing was no doubt undertaken by the prothonotaries. It will be evident from the above instances that a practically un- limited supply of competent scribes could be provided for the service of the Crown before the close of the 12th century. In addition, ^ In this connexion we may remember that clericus was a recognized rank in the mediaeval Household, being that above the sergeant and next to the hereditary chief [Magister) of a department {ministerium) or his nominee. ^ Thus the Magister Scriptorii (Regis), who was in receipt of a large salary, was required to provide (invenire) suitable scribes at the Exchequer for writing the Chancery rolls and writs there {Dialogus, i. v.). One of these, however, was paid with the Exchequer staff. Cf. Red Book, p. cccxxxv, citing a contract in the reign of Edward I, from which it appears that as many as 68 supplementary clerks were employed during vacation in 1290 by the permanent officials at the Exchequer who were reimbursed by the Crown. ** As for instance in connexion with the "Judaism " (Hoveden, ni. 262). That such fees were not unknown in an earlier period is clear from Dialogus, I. vi. In the reign of Henry VIII the system was carefully protected by legislation (27 Hen. VIII, c. 11). Palaeography 377 however, to the original diplomata and rolls written or compiled in the royal chapel or Treasury, or in the Camera Clericorum of the itinerant Household, a large portion of the existing Archives was composed at the instance of the local officers of the Crown. Thus nearly every original or judicial writ that issued from the Chancery, Exchequer, or Curia bore an appropriate Return endorsed or in a schedule. In the case of the great inquests of the period, these Returns were, as we know, voluminous, and the Accounts of sheriffs and bailiffs were even more extensive. To these must be added the documents connected with the local administration of justice, so far as they were not prepared by the itinerant justices or their clerks. Here we have no question of an official machinery in the shape of notarial bodies in certain local centres. The writings which emanated from these scattered bailiwicks must have been provided out of purely local resources. How was the thing done } It was a simple matter for the Crown to give an order for the taking of a general inquest with the injunction added Facias inbreviare or redigere in scriptum, but the burden thrown upon an unlettered community must have been a heavy one. For we can scarcely doubt that these Returns were home-made, by the hands of domestic chaplains, village priests and itinerant scholars. The few surviving fragments of 12th century inquests written by unskilful hands in uncouth Latin upon odds and ends of precious parchment bespeak their origin', and here we have another process of casual production to add to the primitive methods of the royal Scriptorium. For an exact description of the materials or implements of writing used by the official scribe, we should look in vain amongst the earliest mediaeval Archives, seeing that we do not know with any certainty where he was housed. We have already seen that ink was specially provided, and we know on the same authority that parchment was supplied by the permanent scribes-'. The necessary implements of his craft in the shape of pens, knives, compass, &c. would obviously have been the same as those which are known to us from other sources. The recognition from an early date of the im- portance of the office of the Magister Scriptorii^ might certainly lead us to infer that the same discipline and professional traditions were observed as in the case of the well-ordered monastic copying-room*. > Kxch. K. R. Knights' Service, Kdlc. I. ' Dtalogm, I. iii and v. In the reign uf John the tatter is supplied out uf the royal revenues (Rot. de Misis, &'c. f>assim). * Dialogtu, I. V, vi. Red Book of the ExchtqutTy p. 807. * Hardy, Catalogut, Vol. II. Intro. SyS Palaeography We know at least that it was a point of honour to copy accurately^ to space consistently^ and to avoid erasure^ The conventional system of cancellation and interlineation is well preserved^ and at a later date is deserving of careful attention. It is even clear that the rubrication and illumination of official or semi- official registers was as usual performed by a distinct hand, since we find many spaces for these ornaments left in existing Records. At the same time we owe to the individual talent or enterprise of official scribes, from the 13th century onwards, many curious marginal figures, together with a code of symbols which has a special archaeological value in connexion with the history of the Exchequer*. The clerks of that ancient court were also credited with an exclusive system of arithmetic but, beyond the use of a curious combination of points or "dots" in the margin of Accounts*, this distinction is not apparent in official MSS. The writing of tallies was entrusted to a special clerk, but the device was not employed in official circles only. Although the official scribe of the post-Conquest period scarcely attained the high standard of calligraphy set in the preceding period by the Old English school, his work on the whole compares favourably with that of his foreign contemporaries. In point of intelligence and accuracy moreover he was not their inferior, although subject to the same failings that characterize the methods of the whole fraternity. His worst mistakes, in spite of the widely circulated glossary known as Expositiones Vocabidornni'' , are committed in copying Old English terms, whilst his difficulties in respect of insular French have recently been the subject of an enlightened criticism^ But in connexion with the severe test of personal names and place-names we can scarcely fail to be astonished at the extent of his general information. In the mere copying of continuous works we have, it is true, frequent 1 Dialogus, I. V. 2 Ibid. Official punctuation, so exasperating in a later period, is almost a negligible quantity during the Middle Ages. A noticeable feature in Accounts is the point usually placed before and after the individual figures of a sum. * Ibid. The use, or rather abuse, of palimpsests, the particular aversion of continental notaries, seems to have been very rare amongst English official scribes. ■* Dialogus, I. V. ^ For the explanation of these signa see Palgrave, Kalendars, and Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 55 sq. ^ To represent the counters used in various combinations of figures, cf. Antiquities of the Exchequer, p. 146. English official scribes appear to have been conservative with regard to the use of Arabic figures. The earliest of these noticed by the present writer occur in the Hargrave MS. 313, which probably had an official origin and which was compiled soon after 1250. ■^ Red Book of the Exchequer, p. 1032 sq. ** Above, p. 368 n. Palaeography 379 instances of carelessness and arbitrary treatment of an exemplar, but work of this kind was often merely of a semi-official character. In this connexion it may be worth while to point to the need for some special term descriptive of the compilations in book-form which are written in a style that seems to occupy a middle place between the curial writing in rolls and diplomata and the set-hand of the monastic Scriptorium. Perhaps the term " Register-hand " may be regarded as sufficiently characteristic of the large class of official and semi-official compilations which are technically known in the present day as " Registers " and " Books of Remembrance." (/) Palaeographical Terms. If we are able to enumerate a fairly extensive series of technical terms connected with official writings in this country in ancient and modern times, it will also be found that this terminology is of a somewhat promiscuous and casual type. It will in fact be desirable, in order to avoid confusion, to discard entirely such terms as have been coined by later official antiquaries, in the 17th and iSth centuries, without any regard to recognized mediaeval forms. The latter in turn appear to have been frequently confused with classical analogies, real or fancied, and an adequate list of native terms is still a desidera- tum.. Under these circumstances it will only be possible here to give a few indications of the contexts in which these terms generally appear. In the first place the written document itself is very variously described and, as a rule, it is only in official documents that the terms employed in this connexion amount to anything more than a generali- zation or even to a mere abstraction. This is especially noticeable in the case of cultured but unofficial writers. The clerks of the King's Court at least attached some weight to the terminology of their profes- sion. Such words as scriptura, conscriptio and scriptum for example may mean anything, but descriptio, inbrevatio and abbrevatio have a special significance'. We do not, however, find these general terms employed in a technical sense according to the style of the continental notaries*, and their use on the whole has little .scientific value. The same conclusion must apply to the several terms employed to describe the materials of writing. The composition and quality of ' These arc the terms used for roy.il surveys or in<|uestH, for the compiUtiun of the statistics ascertained by iiujuest, and for the brief ditjesls of the results for convenience of reference, respectively. ' t.g. Siriptum doHtUionis, &c. 380 Palaeography mediaeval ink are subjects that have little concern for us here. The respective uses of incaustum and atramentum, of chrysography and rubrication play their part, it is true, in the bella diplomatica of the 17th and 1 8th centuries. Possibly too the probability that the monastic forgers of Westminster or Winchester used the very ink that was supplied for the writing of Domesday Book, the Pipe Rolls and the Royal Charters of the 12th century is a fact of little more than sentimental interest. Whether the ink of the later official Scriptorium differed in any important respect from other preparations may well be doubted. At the same time a superficial difference between the appearance of the ink in official and literary MSS. may be easily remarked. This effect, however, is possibly due to the quality of the parchment which in the former case is usually less finely dressed and of a darker tint. Owing to this circumstance, perhaps, the ink of rolls and loose membranes appears to have been applied with a lavfsh hand, and this is particularly noticeable in the smaller " pieces " on which so many original documents were written. In fact when thickly laid on the rough surface of this stout parch- ment the viscid and lustrous ink of the 12th century stands out like black enamel. The terminology of the earliest Archives is notoriously per- plexing, as may well be the case when such widely different forms as a roll, a file, a book and a single sheet may be described in con- vertible terms as rotiihis, liber, volumefi, carta and breve'^. The rotulus itself may consist either of membranes sown together end to end, or of membranes and portions of membranes filed at the head. The former type is officially distinguished as a " consecutive " and the latter as a " headed " roll, but these terms like that of " rotulet " applied to the individual membranes of a " headed " roll are of modern origin. There appears, however, to have been a well-marked dis- tinction between the use of membrana and rotultis in the above connexion, for the membranes of headed rolls are always referred to as rotuli. Again, a somewhat vague distinction is made between the " pagination " of official and the " foliation " of unofficial books. Writings made on separate pieces of parchment but connected with the main entry were described as iri cedula, a term which had not, however, at any time an exclusively official usage. A rarer term occurs in the use o{ peciae to denote the component parts of a file of loose documents. ^ Instances will be found in the literature of Domesday Book. A variety of synonyms for a single document will be found in the collections of Old English charters. Palaeography 38 1 The practice of filing {in filaciis) was very ancient, though in the 1 2th century it seems to have been also the custom to preserve loose documents in separate compartments {in forulis), an alternative method of filing which perhaps suggested the official " pigeon- holes" of modern times. Such points as these would be of purely antiquarian interest were it not for the importance of noticing the recognition of each membrane or leaf as a distinct unit for the purpose of official reference. Each has its front and its dorse, and before the period of consecutive foliation cross references are made according to the number of precedent or subsequent leaves'. We even find the continuation of a particular entry not only carried from the front to the dorse of a membrane and thence to a new membrane, but also to any convenient position in the roll with an appropriate direction in each case*. These precautions were doubtless the outcome of the very ancient practice of regarding every diplomatic document as consisting properly of a single roll written only on the front and complete in itself*. Paper as a substitute for parchment can scarcely be regarded as a recognized official material before the 15th century, and even for another century the great majority of documents in this form were received from private sources. The various terms employed to describe the external tegument of official documents when bound or sewn together have no distinctive character. Such terms as Liber Albiis, Liber Pilosns, &c., denoting the colour or texture of the cover, were in general use, but it should be remembered that it must not by any means be assumed that either the existing binding or outer covers of official books or rolls are of contemporary date with the record itself. This remark applies with special force to the lettering, pagination and even to the order of the contents. It is of some interest to find that the date of the existing binding of several historical records can be ascertained from official entries*. ' Reference was even made in the case of a complete roll to the fint or other roll preceding. ' J'liis in dono — Adhue de — Kesiduum de — Post — 9iC. ' So we have even in the 13th century such official terms m /Hirt'i rittuli, Imtgi rt>/n/i, &c. and a considerable number of single, rolled membranes wiillen and preserved in the same manner as/>a/>yri. * The Kxchequer Books appear for the most part to have been bound in the 14th century, and repaired in the i6th. Kew, if any, ancient ImwUs of the Chancery can be recognized. The Liter Decree Btwks, like many other ofticial tNM>ks cnmpiletl after the 15th century, were usually Ixjund in vellum. For the mtxtern series, including the State Papers, calf was largely used. A large numlier uf registers, which are now preserved amongst the Public 382 Palaeography There is of course another aspect of the terminology of official MSS. which is occupied with their contents rather than with their composition or preservation ; but this is a subject which does not concern us here. i^g) Palaeographical Tests. The conclusions which may be drawn from the character of the handwriting and other external indications afforded by official MSS. have been referred to generally under the head of Diplomatic. Obviously certain palaeographical tests must form part of the process of scientific "description " by which we seek to determine the purport, date and authenticity of a given document. This description, however, involves the consideration of other features of the MS. besides the handwriting itself. In fact as a final test of date or authorship, the results of a close examination or comparison of handwriting are admitted by most ancient and modern writers to be unsatisfactory. Even though an expert can usually satisfy himself at a glance as to the approximate date or general character of the greater number of historical MSS., it does not follow that others will agree with his opinion. Moreover the most confident opinions have in so many cases ^ proved to be erroneous that a wise reticence is usually observed in matters of any consequence. It has been recorded in his own handwriting by a famous official antiquary- that a certain Register is of the time of King Henry VII from the character of the handwriting, and this opinion, he adds, is confirmed by the style of illumination peculiar to that period. Later official authorities have assigned the date of the MS. without hesitation to the reign of Edward I, and this is now the accepted date*. Curiously enough, another "Breviate" of Domesday exists in official custody* to which the same date has been officially assigned. A third " Breviate" however, which is not in official custody^ has been authoritatively described as a 12th century MS. although the writing is to all appearance of the same character as the last mentioned official Records were not compiled in official custody. From an early date rolls, whether headed or consecutive, were protected by a thick vellum flap. ^ The evidence of experts in handwriting can scarcely be regarded as convincing in really difficult cases. * Peter le Neve, Norroy King of Arms ( 1 704-29) in the case of the ' ' Breviate " of Domesday referred to below. Possibly the cause of his error is to be found in the descriptions of the illuminations scribbled on the fly-leaves in a late Gothic hand. * Scargill-Bird, Guide, p. 122. Cf. Court Life undtr the Plantagenets, p. 203. * Exch. K. R. Miscellaneous Book, No. i. ^ MS. Arundel, 153. Palaeography 383 volume, and on the strength of this resemblance and other indications it has been suggested that both these additional "Breviates" are MSS. of the late 12th century or early years of the 13th'. This uncertainty and inconsistency in dating comparatively obscure records is perhaps excusable, but more than one historical text of the highest constitutional importance has been derived from a misdated MS. Thus the Feodary known as the Black Book of the Exchequer has been persistently ascribed to the reign of Henry II by mediaeval historians whilst by official experts it is connected with the reign of Henry HI. The actual date of its compilation must be placed towards the end of the reign of King John*. The imperfect description of the collection known as the Testa de Nevill is another instance in point', and when we recall the early misconceptions which prevailed with regard to the famous Pipe Roll of 1130* we may even feel prepared for a disillusionment concerning the contemporary date of Domesday Book itself. For from a purely palaeographical point of view the gulf fixed between the existing volumes of the Great Survey, between the official transcript and the official "Breviate," appears indeed impassable within the span of six months or of six years. If therefore we have to admit that the comparison of handwritings is unsatisfactory, it is clear that we must employ this palaeographical test as sparingly as possible. Other methods that are based on the observations of the materials employed possess the same defect of inconclusiveness. In theory the exceptions to a convenient generaliza- tion may prove the rule, but in practice, especially legal practice, they are clearly inconvenient. Such are the general indications afforded by the texture or tint of the parchment and the spacing, lineation, punctuation, rubrication, illumination, contraction marks and accents of MSS. Moreover the periods determined by these distinctive signs are usually too wide to be of much practical value. The familiar rules of the "dry point," of the "tagged e," of the acute contraction mark, of green or blue initials may fix the date to a century or to half a century, but for official documents we require some narrower margin. This is frequently supplied by diplomatic evidence, such as the style or signatures, and therefore on the whole the above indications are of less service in the case of Records than ' Atheiueum, 15 Sep. 1900. ' Ktd Hook (Rolls), p. Ivi. ' Ibid. p. ccxxi s3 o bfi 2; C H ♦^ S ^ X > (A 'S ii Ij 3 o o 25 , U t— t o X z •— < o c H 2 3 w o > eu u cu u bo C < O z 1 «> i 3 u X en t« 3 C bd m] ii BQ < t^ « 2 o- -^ < y ^ I ■^ b kl :;i 5 ^ N, ■-•o — S ^ w ■o" X :^ bc o -7 s c ^^ rie i- — 2 « 2 ^ S3 hO^ "3 C4 3 ~ u -.H 1 t: *: S \l Ej: 'J 5 3 * a 5u :^u >> a. rH E •§ 1 ^ *3 •J _'^_^ , 1 .•5 J .a \% .^ s S I.I >; ■« •|i- APPENDIX II. Classification of the Bibliography of Palaeography. The following classification is intended to assist the selection of published works which deal chiefly with official documents. The classification adopted here is intended to emphasize a distinction in point of date of publication. Possibly most of the early authorities might be dispensed with by those students who have access to the more recent works which have not, unfortunately, as yet found their way into many public libraries of this country. A. Bibliography of Bibliographies. (a) Early publications. (d) Modern publications. B. General Authorities. (a) Early. (d) Modern. C. Special Authorities. I. National writings. 1. England. (a) Early. (d) Modern. 2. Scotland, Ireland and Wales. (a) Early. (^) Modern. 3. Other national writings. i. Italy. (Papacy and States.) (a) Early. (d) Modern. Appendix II 397 ii. Germany. (Empire.) (a) Early. {b) Modern, iii. France. (a) Early. {b) Modern. iv. Spain. {a) Early. (b) Modern. II. Miscellaneous. (History of Archives, Materials of Writing, Ciphers and Shorthand, Watermarks, Illuminations and Marginal Drawings, Autographs, &c.) D. Dictionaries of Abbreviations. (a) Early. ip) Modern. E. Collections of Facsimiles. i. General. {a) Early reproductions. (b) Modern „ ii. England. (a) Early reproductions. (^) Modern „ iii. Scotland, Ireland and Wales. {a) Early reproductions. (b) Modern „ iv. Other national writings. (rt) Early reproductions. (^) Modern „ TABLE OF MATTERS^ Accounts, Royal, 307-310, 337, 338; " Foreign," 231, 309 ; Continental, system of> 307 > agrarian, 307 ; diplomatic of, 308-310; construction of, 308, 309; classi- fication of, 55, 56, 59, 77, 78, 97, 98, 131, 308-310. See Surveys, see Inqui- sitions, see Records, see Departmental Records Acknowledgments, see Charters (Later) Addresses, see Petitions Admiralty Courts, see Writs (Great Seal) Admiralty Departments, see Departments, see Departmental Records Admiralty Records, see Departmental Re- cords, see State Papers, see Warrants, see Instruments (Departmental) Affidavits, see Records, see Charters (I^ter) Agriculture, Board of, see Departments Aliens, see Denization, see Departmental Records America and West Indies, see State Papers "Ancient Correspondence," see Letters, see Records "Ancient Deeds," see Charters (Anglo- Norman and Later) Ancient Indictments, see Records, see Inquisitions (Statutory), see Judicial Proceedings Appointments, see Letters (Patent), see Departmental Records Approbation, see Warrants Arc ha /udaeorunt, see Charters (Later) Archives (English), i-isition of a Manual, the names of Penoos and Places, being, with a few exceptions, only mentioncti incidentally in this work, have not been indexed. The frequently recurring titles of Slate offices, l«»cal repositories of Archives, classes of documents and technical terms conncctcagcs. They have also liccn imlicaled in a Table of Contents and brought together in voluminous Appendices. NametuM references arc given in the footnotes. 400 Table of Matters i68, 215, 227 sq.; duties of the, assumed by the Secretaries of State, 61, 229, 275 Chancery, Enrolments, 218, 227 sq., 249 sq., 263 sq.; warrants, 230, 270 sq., 275 sq., 331 sq., see Warrants; Memoranda, 230, 231,263; Fees, 349; Records of the, iSsq., 30, 61, 81, 86, 129, 130, 162 ; establish- ments of the, 15, 18 sq., 30, 61, 161, 163-168, 175, 215, 227 sq. ; Seals of the, see Seals; on the Continent, 163 sq., 173, i74i I77> 189 sq., 201, 204, 205, 208, 211, 241, 257, 281, 322; the pre-Conquest or Old English, 163 sq., 208-211; the Anglo-Norman, 164 sq., 215 sq. ; the later mediaeval, 227 sq.; see Courts of Law, see Records "Chancery" hand, see Palaeography Channel Islands, see State Papers "Chapters" of the Eyre, see Inquisitions, see Judicial Proceedings, see Eyre Charters, Anglo-Norman, 201-226, 310, 326; bi-lingual forms of, 204, 207-210; special forms of, 222 sq., 327; evolution of, 205, 2 1 1-2 14; diplomatic of, 204, 208-227, 347 ; palaeography of, 356, 364 sq. ; authenticity of, 181 sq., 205, 207-211; confused with Writs, 174, 204, 205, 208 sq., 210-212; formulas of, 204, 210, 219-226; private forms of, 225 sq., 327 Charters, Anglo-Saxon, 163-207, 310, 322, 326; preservation of, 14, 175, 178-182, 186-189 ; preparation of, 166-168, 175- 177, 186-189; authenticity of, 14, 180- 189, 208-211, 339-341; diplomatic of, 183 sq., 189 sq., 208-211, 339-341, 347; special forms of, 327; palaeography of, 355-.S58, 360-365, 374, 395; formulas of, 167 sq., 183 sq., 189-211, 341-346; publications of, 163, 177 sq., 190 Charters, Later or Conventional, 227-240, 327, 328; replaced by Letters Patent, 237 sq. ; private forms of, 244 sq. ; semi- official forms of, 244 sq., 335 .sq. ; special forms of, 233, 234, 237, 238, 327, 328 Church Books, see State Papers Church, Instruments relating to the, 164 sq., 175 sq., 187 sq., 248, 257, 258 Ciphers, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Palaeography (Contractions) Civil List, see Departmental Records Classification of Documents, see Archives, see Records, see State Papers, see Depart- mental Records Clerks, see Chancery, see Palaeography (Scriptorium) Close Rolls, see Chancery Enrolments Codex, see Charters (Anglo-Saxon) " Cokets," see Charters (Later) Collations, see Letters (Patent) Collector and Transmitter, see State Papers Colonial Office, see Departments, see State Papers, see Departmental Records Colonies, see State Papers Commissariat Department, see Departments, see Departmental Records Commissions, see Writs (Great Seal and Smaller Seals), see State Papers, see De- partmental Records, see Instruments Composite Charters, see Charters, see Con- firmations, see Inquisitions (Fiscal), see Instruments Computate, see Fiscal Writs Concords, see Charters, sec Fines Confirmations (Charters, Letters Patent), 176, 213, 222, 225, 240-244, 328; new practice respecting, under Henry III, 241 Confirmations (private), see Charters (Anglo- Norman) "Conge d'elire," see Writs (Great Seal), see Warrants for issue Constat, see Letters (Patent) Continental Chanceries, see Chancery, see Writing Contrabreve, see Fiscal Writs Contractions, used in official writings, 386- 389 Contracts, see Charters (Later) " Contrariants," see Inquisitions (Statutory) Controlment Rolls, see Records, see Judicial Proceedings Conventions, see Charters (Anglo-Saxon), see Charters (Anglo-Norman), see Treaties Conveyances, see Charters (Later), see Feoffments Cornwall, Duchy of, see Records (repositories Coroners' Rolls, see Inquisitions (Judicial) Corrodies, see Charters (Later), see Inqui- sitions (Judicial) Corrodies (Templars'), see Judicial Pro- ceedings Council, Records of the, 36, 40, 229, see State Papers, see Departments "Court-hand," see Palaeography Court Rolls, see Records, see Documents deposited Courts of Law (Chancery, Exchequer, King's Bench, Common Pleas, local and abolished Courts), 16 sq., 54 sq., 81 sq., Ill sq., 163, 213, 214, 2IS, 223, 228, 229, 233, 245 .sq., 257, 260, 284, 292, 298, 299-304, 312 .sq., 317, 326, 370-373 Credentials, see Writs (Great Seal), see Instruments Curia Ke^is, see Courts of Law Cursitors, see Chancery, see Records Cursive writing, see Palaeography Customs, see Departments, see Depart- mental Records, see ' ' Cokets " Debentures, see Charters (Later), see Depart- mental Records Decrees, see Chancery Deed Polls, see Charters (Later) Denization, see Letters (Patent) Departmental Records, definition of, 60, 61, 89, 99, 100; methods of study of, 90 sq. ; custody of, 43-52, 123-128, 231; classification of, 70-74, 141-143; analysis of, 89-100, 149; bibliography of, 50, 89, 100, loi-iio, 150-153; diplomatic of, Table of Matters 401 272 sq., 276 sq., 334 sq. ; Lists of, 70, 90 sq., loi sq. Departments, Public, history of the, 43 sq.; Records of the, see Departmental Re- cords Depopulations, see Inquisitions (.Statutory) Diplomatic, 186, 257, 258; progress of the study of, 157 sq. ; methods of the study of, 160 sq. ; bibliography of, ro2, 158, 161, 350, 351; of Records, 161, 281-326, 312 sq., 337, 338; of Charters, writs and mediaeval instruments, 157-269, 327-332; of Letters, State Papers and later instru- ments, 270-280,331-335; of private and semi-official instruments, 205, 206, 225, 226, 244-248, 3.?.=;-337 Disafforestation, see Forests Dispensations, see Writs (Great Seal), see Diplomatic Docquets (Chancery), 230, 269, 275, 348 ; (Secretarial), 275, 348 ; (Departmental), 279 Documents, deposited, 47, 59, 73, 98, 123- iMpassiin, 336, 337 Documents (historical), use of, i, 2 ; preser- vation of, 4-6 ; publication of, 4, 5 ; dis- covery of, I, 8 ; bibliography of, loi sq., 150 sq.; palaeography of, 159, 355-397; diplomatic of, 157-351. See Archives, see Records, see Sources Domesday Survey, see Inquisitions (Fiscal), see Charters (Anglo-Saxon) Domus Conversorum, see Records (Custody of) "Dormant" Warrants, see Writs Drafts, see Letters, see Departmental Records Durham, see Records (repositories of) Ecclesiastical Courts, see Writs (Great Seal) Ecclesiastical Records, see Church Elections, see Parliament, see Church Entry Books, see letters, see Records, see State Papers, see Departmental Records Escheats, see Records, see Inquisitions (Feudal) Establishments, see Archives, see Chancery, see Departmental Records, see Warrants Estreats, see Accounts, see Doccjuets Exchange, see Writs (Great Seal) Exchequer and Audit Office, see Depart- ments, see Departmental Records Excise, see Inland Revenue Exemplifications, see Confirmations Exemption, see Charters (Later), see Letters (Patent) Extensions, of mediaeval contractions, 390- 394 Extents, see Surveys (Agrarian) Eyre, " Chapters " of the, 300-304, 317 sq., see Inquisitions (Statutory) Fairs, see Markets Fee-farm, see Charters (Anglo-Norman) Feoffment, see Charters (Anglo-Norman) Feudal Incidents, s^e Inquisitions (Fi.scal), see Inquisitions (Feudal) Feudal Service, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Fiat, see Warrants for Issue Fines, see Chancery, see Charters (Later), see Records, see Judicial Proceedings Fiscal Writs, see Writs (Great Seal) " Foreign " Accounts, see Accounts Foreign correspondence, see State Papen, see Departmental Records Foreign Office, see Departmenl.s, see State Papers, see Departmental Records Forests, see Charters (Anglo-Norman and I^ter), see Inquisitions (Statutory), set Warrants (Secretarial) Forfeited Estates, see Inquisitions (Statutory), see Departmental Records Forma Inqnisitionis, see Inquisitions Formulas, see Charters, see Writs, see Re- cords, see Inquisitions, see Pleadings, see Diplomatic Foundation, Charters of, see Charters (Anglo-Saxon) Frank-almoigne, see Free Alms Free Alms, see Charters (Anglo-Norman) French, Records written in, see Palaeo- graphy (Old French) Full Powers, see Writs (Great Seal), see Treaties, see Instruments "Geld inquest," see Inquisitions (Fiscal) General Surveyors, see Courts of Law, see Records Grants, see Charters, see Writs, set Warrants Grants of arms, see Warrants (departmental), see Charters (Later) Great Seal, see Seals Half-Cursive, see Palaeography Half-Uncial, see Palaeography Hanaper, see Chancery, see Seal, set Records Hidage, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) History, Auxiliary studies of, 10, 75-77, 101 sq., 150 sq., 161, 350, 351 : Divisions and subjects of, 77, 78, 9^), 108- no, 150- '53. 350. 35' ; Meth(xls of Study of, I sq., 8 sq., 74 sq., 109, no, 158, 356 Homage, set Charters (I^ter) Home Office, see Departments, tu State Papers, see Departmental Records Household, Ruyal, 163 sq., 115, in% sq , 264, see Departments set State Paners, see I)e|)artmental Records, stt Writs (Smaller Seals), tee Warrant» " Hundred Rolls," /^^ In<(uisitions(Slalutory) Immediate Warrant, jw Warrants for Issue Inclosurc award*, st* Depopulatkma, ttt Close Rolls Incor(x>ration, stt Charten (Ijiter) Indentures, fartmenial Keconls, ttt Bibliography Indictments, stt Records, ttt InquisitiofU (judicial) Informations. x<^ Judicial Proceedings 402 Table of Matters Inland Revenue, j^^ Departments, see Depart- mental Records In-Letter, see Letter Innotescimus, see Confirmations Innovation, see Confirmation Inqnisitio Cantabrigiensis, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Inquisitio Eliensis, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Inquisitions, judicial, 300-306, 315-326; diplomatic of, 282-326 Inquisitions, Royal, 281-326, 337 sq.; Con- tinental, 280-284, 3i9> 322 j Fiscal, 284-295; Feudal, 295-297; Statutory or Political, 297-306, 315 sq. ; Administra- tive, 297-304, 315 sq. ; Remedial, 301-303, 315 sq.; Punitive, 301-306, 315 sq. Inspeximns, see Confirmations, see Letters (Patent) Instructions, see Departmental Records Instruments, see Charters, see Writs, see Warrants, see Church Instruments (Departmental), 276-280, 335 Instruments (Official), 327-335 Instruments (Secretarial), 275, 276, 332-334 Instruments (Semi-ofiicial), 244-248, 335, 336 Interpolations in Charters, 182 sq., 224 Inventions, see Writs (Great Seal) Inventories, see Accounts, see Records Ireland, see Records, see State Papers Jews, see Charters (Later), see Inquisitions (Statutory) Journals, see Departmental Records "Judaism," see Jews Judgment Rolls, see Records Judicial Proceedings, Records relating to, see Records, see Pleadings ; Diplomatic of, 311-326, 338 Justices Itinerant, see Eyre, see Assizes, see Records King's Bill, see Warrants for Issue King's Letters, see Letters, see State Papers "Kirkby's Quest," see Inquisitions (Statu- tory), see Judicial Proceedings Knight's Service, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Lancaster, Palatinate and Duchy of, see Records (repositories of) " Land-bocs," see Charters (Anglo-Saxon) Legations, Records relating to, 85, 258, 274, 279; Archives of, 70, .f^^ State Papers, see Departmental Records Letters, mediaeval, 270, 271 ; connexion of, with Writs, 270 sq. , 275 sq. ; formulas of, 270 sq., 275 sq. ; modem, evolution of, 272 sq.; formulas of, 272sq.;" Royal," 274- 276, 334, 335; departmental, 90-92, 276, 2771 335) missive, see Signet Letters; Patent, 229 sq., 249 sq., 263 sq., 329-3^0; Close, 229 sq., 253 sq. ; under the Great Seal, see Writs, see Charters, see Letters Patent, Jif^ Seals; under the Smaller Seals, see Writs, see Warrants, see Privy Seals, see Signet Letters Liberate, see Fiscal Writs Liberties, Charters of, see Charters (Anglo- Norman) Licences, Jtr Writs (Great Seal), see Warrants Lists, see Records, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Bibliography Livery of Seisin, see Charters (Anglo-Saxon), see Writs (Great .Seal) Loans, see Letters, see Writs (Smaller Seals) Logs, see Departmental Records Lunatics, see Inquisitions (Feudal) Mainprises, see Records, see Charters (Later) Majuscule Writing, see Palaeography Malefactoribtts, de, see Inquisitions (Statu- tory) Mandate, see Chancery, see Writs, see Letters Patent, see Letters Close Markets, see Charters (Anglo-Norman) Marque, Letters of, see Admiralty Court Marshalsea, see Writs (Great Seal) Memoranda Rolls, see Records Methodizers, see State Papers Ministerial Proceedings, see Records, see Inquisitions Ministers' Accounts, see Accounts, see Documents deposited Mhiislris, de, see Inquisitions (Statutory) Mint, see Departments, see Departmental Records Minuscule Writing, see Palaeography Minutes, see Departmental Records Miscellaneous, see Records, see State Papers, see Departmental Records Missives, see Writs, see Warrants, see Letters Muster Rolls, see Departmental Records National Debt Office, see Departments, see Departmental Records Navy Board, see Departments, see Depart- mental Records Nolutnus, the clause, 2:52 Nomina Villarum, see Inquisitions (Statu- tory) Normans' Lands, see Inquisitions (Statutory) Notarial Instruments, see Instruments, see Documents, see Chancery, see Charters (Later), see Palaeography Notitia, see Writs, see Instruments, see Documents Oaths, see Charters (Later), see Instruments (Semi-official), see Documents Obligations, see Bonds Office, Grants of, see Charters, see Writs, see Warrants Offices (Government), see Departments Out-Letters, see Letters Orders, see Departmental Records, see Instru- ments (Departmental) Ordnance Records, see Departmental Re- cords Palaeography, of official documents, 159, 355-397 ; Bibliography of, 396, 397 ; of Continental archives, 355 sq., 395; of Old English charters and writs, 175-177, Table of Matters 403 360-365, 374 ; of Anglo-Norman charters and writs, 363 sq., 374 sq. ; of mediaeval writing in Latin, 365-368 ; of mediaeval writing in French, 368, 369 ; of later official writing, 369-373 ; terminology of, 376-382 ; tests employed in, 38359. Pancarta, see Confirmations Pardons, ^^^ Writs (Great Seal), see Warrants Parliament, Proceedings relating to, 231-233, 256, 257 Passage, see Exchange Passes, see Instruments (secretarial), see State Papers Patent Rolls, see Chancery Enrolments Pay Books, see Departmental Records Paymaster General, see Departments, see Departmental Records Pensions, see Charters (Later) Perdonavimtis, see Fiscal Writs Petitions, see Chancery, see Records, si-e State Papers, see Departmental Records Petty Bag, see Chancery, see Records Pipe Rolls, see Records, see Accounts Placita Aulae, f^^ Judicial Proceedings Plantations, see State Papers Pleadings, Records of, see Records ; in diplo- matic form, 31 r, 312, 322 ; on Inquisitions, 322-326; construction of, 322 sq. ; recon- struction of, 326 Post Office, see State Papers, see Depart- mental Records Poundage, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Precedent Books, see Records, set State Papers, see Departmental Records Precept, see Letters (Patent), see Chancery Presentations, j 364-366, 374-379. 384. 385 Scutage, su Inquisitions (Fiscal) Seals, use of, before the Conquest, 168 aq., 347 ; use of, after the Conquest, 21 1, 115 sq., 229, 347; of the Confessor, 168 sq.; Con- tinental practice of affixing, 168, 173; Smaller, 229, 231, 158-169,337; Fees of the, 211. 349; see Privy Seal, set Signet, «v Charters, ste Writs Secretary of Slate, see State Papers, dm In.struments (.Secretarial), ste Departmental Records Serjeanties, see Inquisitions (Feudal) Sheriffs' Aid, ste InquisilionN (Fiscal) Sign Manual, see Charten> (Anglu-SasiHi); warrants under the, 130, 258 sq., }6jaq.. »75SS' 33«-334 ». 01, 33 «. .«» Signet Ixrtters, 61, 959K|>« •63K]., «75 Klo Signet Office, ste Departments, «r State Papers, set Slate Pajicr Office, ste Seals Sipiifiotvit, tee ( 'barters ( I j»tcr) Sources (historii-nl), drltnilion i>f, l-l SourccK (official), IntriHluclion lo the Mudv of, i-ii; use of, 7S»q> : )Mbi>iigni|)hy ol, lOi-iiOt 150-153 404 Table of Matters Special Commissions, see Inquisitions (Statu- tory) Specifications, see Charters (Later), see Writs (Great Seal) State Paper Office, history of the, 30-43, 50, 51. 65sq. State Papers, custody of, 36-43, 121, 122; classification of, 60-70, 132-140; analysis of, 70-74, 147, 148; bibliography of, loi-iio, 150-153; diplomatic of, 270- 276, 348 ; methods of study of, 84 sq. ; definition of, 83 sq., 270 sq., 275 sq. ; Calendars of, 82, 85-88, loi sq. ; formulas of, 270 sq. State, Secretary of, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Chancery ; official instruments connected with the office of, 275 sq. State Trials, see Records, see Inquisitions (Statutory), see Judicial Proceedings Stationery Office, see Departments Statutes, see Letters (Patent), see Parliament Statutes, Enrolments of, 231, 233, 256, 257 Statutes Merchant, see Charters (Later) Statutes Staple, see Charters (Later) Summons to Parliament, see Writs (Great Seal) Surrenders, see Charters (Anglo-Norman), see Charters (Later) Surveys, Agrarian, 281-284, 307; Con- tinental, 281, 282, 307, 355 ; Parliamentary, 306 Tallies, Exchequer, 15, 304, 307, 325, 378 Taxatio (1254-91), see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Templars, see Inquisitions (Statutory), see Corrodies Terms, Palaeographical, 379-382 Tests, Diplomatic, see Charters (Anglo- Saxon) Tests, Palaeographical, 382-386 Texts, see Bibliography Thegns, Charters granted to, 176, 187 sq. Tithes, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Trade, Board of, see State Papers, see State Paper Office, see Departmental Records, see Departments " Trailbaston," see Inquisitions (Judicial) 7'ranscripts, see Bibliography Transmitter, see Collector Treasurer (Household), see Warrants (de- partmental) Treasury, see Departments, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Instruments (departmental), see Warrants Treaties, see Chancery, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Writs (Great Seal) Tri-lingual Instruments, see Writs, see War- rants, see Letters, see Palaeography (Old French) Ulnager, see Warrants, departmental "Vagabond Monks," see Warrants, see Church Valor Ecclesiasticus, see Inquisitions (Fiscal) Vidimus, see Confirmations Volutnus, the clause, 252 Wales, see Archives, see Records War Office, see Departments, see State Papers, see Departmental Records, see Instruments (departmental), see Warrants (departmental ) Wardrobe, 15 sq., 61, 82, 212, 229, 250, 275. 349 Warrants, see Seals, see Writs Warrants, Immediate, 267 sq., 348 ; Chan- cery, see Chancery (warrants) ; Secretarial, 275 sq., 331 sq. ; Departmental, 277 sq., 331 sq. ; for Issue, 263-269; formulas of, 266 ; later procedure for, 267-269, 348 Warranty, see Charters (Later) Warren, see Charters (Anglo-Norman), see Charters (Later) Williamson, Sir J., see State Papers Wills, see Charters (Anglo-Saxon), see Documents deposited Wilson, Sir T., see State Papers Works, Office of, see Departments, see De- partmental Records Writing, official, types of, 358, 360-373, 395 Writs, original and judicial, 57, 213, 214, 250. 3i5-3'7' 322 Writs, pre-Conquest or Old English, 169-174, 201-21 1, 347; formulas of, 201-207, 219-222; "versions" of, 205, 208-211; post-Conquest or Anglo-Norman, 205, 207, 208 sq., 211-214, 216-222, 347; Assart, 223 ; or Letters under the Great Seal, 213, 233, 234, 249-258, 270, 328 sq.; under the Smaller Seals, 2 58-269, 2 70, 2 7 1 , 331 sq. ; "Dormant," 262; of Summons (Exchequer), 308, 310; of Inquisition, 249 sq., 284 sq;, 297 sq., 312 sq. 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