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The Hearth Tax Rolls are also very full as a rule, and begin 14 Charles II., but were soon abolished-1 William and Mary.

To those who are interested in tracing the component parts of the present English race, there are many "Alien Subsidies " and other documents in this series which will interest them, e.g., "118 Roll of Inquisitions, showing the names of foreigners, &c., in the hundred of Earsham, chargeable to the Alien Subsidy."

The records of the Treasury side of the Exchequer are most interesting. A rough report on them will be found in the 7th Report, Appendix II., and a statement of receipts and issues from 1625-1699 in the 7th Report, Appendix II; but the student should consult Thomas' Ancient Exchequer of England, 8vo. 1848, which sells for about 68. The documents relating to the office of the Queen's Remembrancer of the Exchequer are a class by themselves, and are described in 1837 Report, pp. 143 and 194. The miscellaneous records of the Queen's Remembrancer are calendared in the 40th Report, pp. 467-479.

The Custom Rolls form another series, and are of the highest value to all who are interested in the growth of English trade. The text book (and an excellent one too) on this subject is Mr. Hubert Hall's History of the Custom Revenue in England, 2 vols. 8vo. 1885. For a list of rolls relating to the collection of customs at the various ports, from Edward I., see 20th Report, pp. 115 and 116, and 1837 Report, pp. 185 b-189.

Among other fiscal documents are the Pell Records, which comprise Liberate Rolls, Issue Rolls, Entry Books, and recording payments made out of the King's Revenue, and are very interesting. Three volumes of extracts from them, viz., (i) extracts from the Liberate and Issue Rolls, Henry III. to Henry VI.; (ii) The Issue Roll for 44 Edward III., 1370; (iii) Extracts from the Entry Books of James I.; were published by the late Frederick Devon in 1835-7, the first being issued under the title of Devon's Issues of the Exchequer, and would sell for about £1. 18.

Specimens of a short tabular calendar of the Liberate Rolls will be found in the 1837 Report, p. 74.

For reservation of income, &c., to the Crown, see the Originalia Rolls mentioned in Chapter XIII., p. 96.

CHAPTER XI.

The Descent of Layd. Jyquisitions Post Mortem. Proofs of Age.

ayd Administrations.

Wills

THERE can be no doubt that, besides the various presentments of fines due to the King on heirs succeeding to their estates and not being knighted, which we find on the Crown Plea Rolls, there were from early times separate inquisitions taken as soon as any one of importance died, to ascertain of what he died possessed, and who was his heir. Probably the findings on these inquisitions were communicated to the authorities who attended the Court, and made up the roll, and were the origin of the entries in question.

Whether these inquisitions were taken on each death, or periodically, we do not now know.

Traces of inquisitions of the latter class will be found in the roll printed from Harleian MS. 624, which was printed by Stacey Grimaldi in 1830, under the title of Rotuli de Dominabus et Pueris et Puellis. The date of this roll is 1185. It is said by D'Ewes to be collected from the Pipe Roll of 31 Henry II. (see 1837 Report, p. 181), and was long missing, but has now been found among the Miscellanea of the Exchequer.

It gives returns as to the heirs and their ages, and the value of their lands, for twelve counties, viz., Beds, Bucks, Cambridge, Essex, Herts, Hunts, Lincoln, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northampton, Rutland, Suffolk; but of course only refers to the marriageable ladies who were then in the King's gift and the boys and girls in ward.

2

Of the Inquisitions Post Mortem1 there are two series, which were certainly taken separately for each individual, one of the

1 For a form see Appendix I., p. 139. There are also many entries

relating to heirships on the Fine Rolls of the Chancery, q. v.

2 Besides that of the Court of Wards and Liveries mentioned hereafter.

Chancery, and one of the Exchequer; and one series often serves to fill up lacunæ or to explain illegible documents in the other. The Chancery series begins nominally 2 Henry III. (1217), but really eighteen years later, and extends to 20 Charles I. (1644).

The Exchequer series begins Edward I. A calendar of them from Henry VII. to Elizabeth will be found in the 10th Report, pp. 2-222, to which there is a MS. index in the Record Office.

It has been said that transcripts were made, under the old commission, of all inquisitions from Edward III. to Elizabeth (see 1819 Report, p. 39), which would be very useful to those who cannot read the old hand; but I believe the statement was only one of those pleasing fictions which abound in the old reports.

When the tenant in capite died, the King at once sent down a writ to the Escheator who was appointed for each county, and was so called from having to look after the escheats or fines due to the King. This writ, which was called a diem clausit extremum,1 directed the Escheator to call a jury, who were to enquire of what land the dead man died seized, and by what rent he held it, and who and how old was his heir.

The writ and the return were sent back together into Chancery, where they were filed and are now consultable.

2

A Calendar to this (the Chancery) series exists from the beginning in 1217 to 2 Richard III. (1484) with an appendix of some inquisitions as late as James I.' Unluckily, this calendar is extremely scanty and incorrect,3 and does not give the heirs, but has long indexes of names and places.

In 1865 another series of Calendars was commenced, two royal 8vo. vols. being published for the Government by Mr. W. H. Roberts, under the title of Calendarium Genealogicum (sells for £1.)

1 From its form, which ran as shown in Appendix I.,

p. 139.

2 The Appendix contains references to about 3,000 Inquisitions long thought lost, but found just in time to be included out of their order! See Cooper i., p. 333 n.

8 A copy corrected and annotated in MS. will be found in the Round Search Room at the Record Office, where there are also 9 vols. of lists of the Chancery Inquisitions, Henry VII. to Charles I.

It covered the reigns of Henry III. and Edward I. only, and is conceived on opposite lines to the old calendar, for it gives detailed particulars as to the finding of the heir, but omits all reference (except to the county) of the property. This is a great pity, for though a searcher can get the substance of any inquisitions by combining the entries in the two calendars, it gives him needless trouble.

The publication of Roberts' Calendar was stopped, but a few years of Edward II. were printed in the first Appendix of the 32nd Report, and Mr. Vincent' is slowly going on with it in the columns of the Genealogist.2

From 32 Henry VIII. transcripts of the Chancery Inquisitions were sent into the Court of Wards and Liveries,3 which was instituted in that year (1540); but this Court was practically extinct during the Commonwealth, and was abolished by the statute 12 Charles II., cap. 24 (1660).

The best description of the Records of this Court will be found

1 In 1877 Mr. Vincent put forward a proposal to print an Index to the Inquisitions during the Tudor period, being a Handbook to the Official Calendars used in the Public Record Office, with the names arranged alphabetically, and grouped under the several counties, followed by a general index; but, unluckily, what would have been a most valuable work was not proceeded with for want of subscribers.

2 For Lancashire and Norfolk Mr. Selby has published Calendars of the later Chancery and Exchequer and the Court of Wards Inquisitions in his Lancashire and Cheshire Records, and his Norfolk Records.

3 Duplicates of these, being the Feodaries Certificates of Inquisitions, were among the Rolls Chapel Records, and are now known as Enrolments of Escheators' Accounts. They were made up for each county every two or three years, and give very nearly the same information as the Inquisitions. A Calendar of these Escheators' Accounts, from Henry VII. to James I., is printed in the second Appendix to the 10th Report, pp. 2-223, and there is a MS. Index in the Long Room at the Record Office. There is an excellent paper on Escheators' Accounts by the Rev. J. Hunter in the 1st Report, pp. 139-142. For Inventories of the Records of the Court of Wards and Liveries, see 4th Report, pp. 81-98, and of the deeds, &e., belonging to the various wards, and left in the Office, see 6th Report, pp. 1-87. A Calendar of the MSS. of the Court is in the 24th Report, p. 54. As to proceedings in the Court of Wards and Liveries, 1540-1660, see 1800 Report, p. 39 b.

on pp. 176-177, of Mr. Walford D. Selby's Lancashire and Cheshire Records.

. A rough Calendar of the Inquisitions of the Court will be found in vol. civ. of Palmer's Indexes (Record Office).

Thomas Cole collected from the Records of the Court of Wards a great deal of very valuable matter, now forming Harleian MSS. 410, 411, 756, 757, 758, 759, 760, and beginning 32 Henry VIII. An Index to this collection was printed by Sir Thomas Phillipps, and is of very great use.

Probably no class of records has had more extracts taken from, or abstracts made of, them than these Inquisitions Post Mortem. Nearly 4 pp. of Sims' Manual (125-8) are taken up with a detailed catalogue of some of them, and the searcher interested in any one county should, by all means, refer first to this, and see whether any one has already been collecting what he wants.

Of published County Calendars there are not many. Phillipps' Index to Cole's collection is mentioned above.1

Calendars of the later Inquisitions for Lancashire and Cheshire and for Norfolk, have been printed by Mr. Selby; and the Yorkshire Association have printed one from James I. to Charles I.

Besides the regular series of Inquisitions Post Mortem, it must not be forgotten that there are very many relating to the tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster, whose officials exercised a separate jurisdiction over them. There are three folio volumes of printed Calendars of (i.a.) these Inquisitions, and if the searcher is interested in counties in which the Duchy had possessions, he must by no means omit to search them.

When by the Inquisitions Post Mortem it was found that the heir was the King's "ward,” his rents were received by the King during his minority or sold by him to some purchaser.

Naturally, therefore, the grip of the King and his receivers on his income was not relaxed until it was proved up to the hilt that

1 Extracts from some of these for Middlesex are printed in the Top. et Gen., i. pp. 330 and 520; and for Somerset and Dorset in id. ii. p. 48; while for a Calendar of Lancashire Inquisitions, Richard II. to Elizabeth, see 39th Report, p. 533.

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