was theirs as of old title. An act passed 13 Edward I. crippled this; but afterwards they were brought into use again to evade the Statute de Donis, which had forbidden alienation by tenants in tail, and in 12 Edward IV. it was established that a recovery suffered by a tenant in tail effectually barred his issue and the remainder men. They then, of course, became very frequent.

On the recovery, seizin had to be given by the Sheriff, and the award of the writ of execution was entered on the recovery. The recoveries should have been entered on record, but many were not, especially between the reigns of Anne and George II., which default occasioned the Act 14 George II., cap. 20.

The Remembrance Rolls of the Common Pleas begin 36 Henry VIII.

The inventory of the Recovery Indexes is to be found at p. 127 of 3rd Report, Appendix II. The "index" to the Recoveries begins Michaelmas, 22 Henry VII.; but until 4 Anne, 1705, it is not arranged in counties, and is simply a list. It is in the Long Room.

CHAPTER V.

Legal Proceedings relating to (1) Land, (2) other matters not criminal.

THE Rolls of the King's Court or Curia Regis end with the reign of Henry III.,2 Edward I. having then split up the jurisdiction into three by the constitution of (a) the King's or Queen's Bench, (b) the Common Pleas or Common Bench, and (c) the Exchequer of Pleas.

1 For criminal matters see next chapter, and for a separate report on the Records of Wales and Chester see 1st Report, pp. 79-122.

2 Mr. M. M. Bigelow published in 1879, under the title of Placita Anglo Normannica, reports of certain law cases, from William I. to Richard I., preserved in historical records, but these are chiefly interesting to the law student, and might have been immensely increased by further research.

Before this subdivision, the Rolls were sometimes styled— Domino Rege in Parliamento suo, or

Placita Coram Concilio Domini Regis, or

Domino Rege et locum suum tenentibus, or

A B justiciar' Angliæ, and so on.

A folio vol. of selections from these rolls, from 6 Richard I. to 20 Edward II. was printed in 1811 by the Government, under the title of "Placitorum Abbrevatio." 1 A facsimile of a part is in Nos. xxvi., xxvii., and xxviii. of 1819 Report, and now sells at a low price.

It must be borne in mind that this is a selection, and a small selection indeed only of the vast mass of rolls which are extant; and moreover, that the selection was made by Agarde, who as a rule was on the look out for entries relating to well-known families, and preferred to print them rather than entries which might have a greater historical interest to us now. Very few extracts indeed were given about criminal matters. The whole (?) of the rolls for Richard I. and the 1st year of John were published in 2 vols. 8vo. by Sir F. Palgrave in 1835, under the title of Rotuli Curiæ Regis, which sells for £2. 28. About twenty-five membranes, temp. Richard I., remain in MS., but will be printed by the Pipe Roll Society. When the split was made, the King's or Queen's Bench still retained exclusive jurisdiction over criminal proceedings, which were held on what was called its "Crown side," and which are dealt with in my next chapter under Crown Plea Rolls, all other actions being brought on what was called its "Plea side." For an account of the records of the Queen's Bench, see 1800 Report, p. 112; and 1837 Report, p. 131; and as to the more modern records, see 2nd Report, pp. 50-57.

1 There is a MS. vol. with the same title, which contains extracts temp. Edward 1. among Maynard's MSS., Lincoln's Inn, xiii. Three volumes from these and other rolls, were printed in Prynne's Records (small folio, 1665-8) which is still a work of great interest and value. Some pedigrees collected from the Coram Rege Rolls by Richard St. George were printed in the Collectanea Top. et Gen. i. p. 128, &c., from Rawlinson MSS., Oxford, No. 116.

The Court of Common Pleas or Common Bench, whence its rolls were commonly called De Banco Rolls, claimed exclusive jurisdiction over land. These rolls were again eventually subdivided, being separated into the Placita Communia and the Placita Terræ. These De Banco Rolls contain material enough to supply illustrations to every English pedigree, for nearly every family must have had a dispute about land at some time or another, and the pleadings very often give long descents and proofs of the greatest value.

Unluckily, however, the entries on the roll were written down just as they happened to come in, one after the other, without the slightest attempt at arrangement, and the bulk of the rolls is so immense that a lifetime would not suffice to search them. I know it is said that private indexes exist; but they cannot include a hundredth part of the entries, even if so much. For example, there are 151 rolls, containing 102,566 skins, for the single reign of Henry VIII. There are Doggett or Judgment Rolls, which serve as indexes from 1509; and Doggett Books from 29 Charles II. For an account of the details of the modern records of the Common Pleas, see 2nd Report, pp. 57-61; General Reports on the records of this court. are in the 1800 Report, pp. 120, 127, and 213 b; and 1837 Report, p. 132.

The Exchequer of Pleas, the third Court, was supposed to be devoted to litigation arising directly or indirectly from debts due to the Crown, but of late years jurisdiction in general matters was obtained by a fiction by which the plaintiff alleged that he was a debtor to the Crown, and that through the defendant not paying him, he in turn was "the less" able to settle with the King, a fiction technically known as "quo minus."

For excellent (but unindexed) Calendars of the Special Commissions of the Exchequer, from Elizabeth, see 38th Report, pp. 1-148; and of the Depositions by Commission, 38th Report, pp. 150-775; 39th Report, pp. 307-531; 40th Report, pp. 1-466; 41st Report, pp. 1-670; and 42nd Report, pp. 1-312, which carries the calendar down to 34 George II. This is probably the

most useful calendar yet produced by the Record Office. For details of the modern records of the Exchequer see 2nd Report, pp. 61-69.

An Index to the orders, decrees, and enrolments of this Court, from Edward I. to George III., is said to be in the Inner Temple Library, and no doubt is that which was compiled by Adam Martin, and published by the Inner Temple in 1819, 8vo. pp. 242. It consists of an Index Locorum to entries on the Queen's Remembrancer's side, which struck the compiler, who was an official of the Court, as being interesting,' and sells for 68. or so.

Similarly Additional MSS., British Museum, 4500, 4508, 4534, to 4531, are said to be Exchequer Bills and Answers from Edward I. to 28 Henry VIII., and Additional MS. 9780, is said to be an Index to the Exchequer Decrees, 1-8 James I.

This Court also, in 1 Elizabeth, assumed an equity jurisdiction known as the "Equity side of the Exchequer" or the "Exchequer Chamber," a jurisdiction abolished in 5 Victoria.

The indexes to the Equity side at the Record Office are to— (a) Depositions, 1 to 26 Eliz., an excellent modern calendar. 1 to 11 James I., ditto.

12 to 22 James I., ditto.

(b) Decrees, 1 to 31 Elizabeth. A volume of old calendars, the counties are in the margin, and the arrangement chronological. This is very valuable and useful, and should be indexed.

(c) Entries and Decrees, James I. to Charles II. Old indexes,

id.

(d) Decrees, 10 to 28 Charles I. Old index, counties in the

margin.

(e) Decrees and Orders to present time. Thirteen small vols.

of indexes.

A return as to the records of the Exchequer Chamber is in 1800 Report, p. 215 b.

Very many actions and other matters are enrolled on the

1 It is to the credit of the Court that it also produced so industrious a man as Jones, whose Index to the Originalia and Memoranda Rolls is mentioned hereafter.

rolls of the Exchequer, and to these there are twenty MS. vols. of calendar, with alphabetical indexes in eighteen vols. These are in the Round Room. Unluckily, they are only arranged in the first three letters, and not entirely lexicographically.

I may here mention that from the early part of the reign of Henry VIII. there are what are called Doggett (q.d. Docket) Rolls belonging to each of the three Courts,' containing short entries of the Pleadings, Judgments, &c., which are infinitely easier to search than the bulky Judgment Rolls themselves. These Doggett Rolls were afterwards turned into books, the Doggett Books of the Exchequer, which are complete from 1 Elizabeth, which is the earliest.

Very few records give more information of a varied character than those of the Court of Chancery. An interesting article on them will be found in the Genealogist, iv. (n. s.) p. 71, &c., and some specimens of early petitions are printed at length in the prefaces to the Calendars for Elizabeth, published 1827-32, mentioned below.

The series of petitions which commenced proceedings in Chancery commence 17 Richard II., and very many of this reign exist, and though the series is far from perfect until the reign of Henry VI., yet there are many for the intervening period, though none for Henry IV.

That no calendar of these early proceedings has been attempted, and that few facilities are given for their inspection, is a public scandal. The same amount of trouble which has given us such excellent calendars as those of the Exchequer Depositions by Commission, of a much later date, would have rendered these vastly more interesting documents accessible. A bare list of names of plaintiffs and defendants and counties would be a great boon, but it is denied us, and, consequently, this most interesting series of records is practically unused. There

1 Calendars and indexes of the Docket Rolls of the Common Pleas were ordered to be printed (1819 Report, p. 19), but were afterwards postponed, p. 62.