Patent Rolls: entries for Somerset
(1277-1278) Calendars of the patent rolls of the reign of king Edward I are printed in the Calendars of State Papers: but these cover only a fraction of the material on the rolls. From 1881 to 1889 the reports of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office also include calendars of other material from the rolls - about five times as many entries as in the State Papers - predominantly mandates to the royal justices to hold sessions of oyer and terminer to resolve cases arising locally; but also other general business. The calendar for the 6th year of king Edward I [20 November 1277 to 19 November 1278], hitherto unindexed, is covered here.CHENE. Cost: £6.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons
(1317-1321) The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 11th to the 14th years of the reign of king Edward II (8 July 1317 to 7 July 1321) were edited for the Public Record Office by G. F. Handcock, and published in 1903. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons. Most extensive are the commissions of oyer and terminer to justices to investigate complaints about specific crimes and wrongs in particular counties.CHENE. Cost: £2.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Inhabitants of London
(1337-1352) Letter Book F of the City of London contains enrolments of recognizances between inhabitants, particularly citizens, for sums of money lent or due; grants of pieces of land or property; and various records relating to the city administration, minor infractions, &c. The book includes an assessment of the inhabitants in 1346 (pages 143 to 149) listing many householders; a list of mayors and sheriffs from 1189 to 1548 (276-303), and records of the city's use of infangthef (summary execution of certain criminals) down to 1409. The text was edited by Reginald R. Sharpe and printed by order of the Corporation of the City of London in 1904.
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Clergy, the religious and the faithful in Britain and Ireland
(1342-1362) These are abstracts of the entries relating to Great Britain and Ireland from the Regesta of popes Clement VI and Innocent VI, from the period when the papal court was resident at Avignon. Many of these entries relate to clerical appointments and disputes, but there are also indults to devout laymen and women for portable altars, remission of sins, &c. This source is particularly valuable for Ireland, for which many of the key government records of this period are lost. Clement VI was consecrated and crowned 19 May 1342 (the day from which his pontificate is dated); Innocent VI was crowned 18 December 1352 and died 12 September 1362. The extracts were made by W. H. Bliss and C. Johnson from Regesta cxxxvii to ccxliv, and published in 1897. The registers are almost complete for these two pontificates. At his accession, Clement VI promised to grant benefices to all poor clerks who should come to Avignon and claim them within two months of his coronation. As many as 100,000 are said to have come, and the register for the first year of his pontificate runs to twelve volumes.CHENE. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Fine Rolls
(1356-1368) The close rolls of the 30th to 42nd years of the reign of king Edward III record part of the government administration in England, with orders sent out day by day to individual officers, and commitment of particular responsibilities and duties. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. CHENE. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Fine Rolls
(1377-1383) The fine rolls of the 1st to 6th years of the reign of king Richard II record part of the government administration in England, with orders sent out day by day to individual officers, and commitment of particular responsibilities and duties. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. CHENE. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Staffordshire Jurors (1412) Jurors at inquests held in Staffordshire before Thomas de Wolaston the king's coroner.
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Servants of the Scottish crown
(1473-1498) Under the direction of the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, the earliest Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, under the series Compota Thesauriorum Regum Scotorum, were abridged and published. This first volume, prepared by Thomas Dickson, curator of the Historical Department of the General Register House, was published in 1877. It contains the earliest surving accounts, from 1473 to 1474 in the reign of king James III, and the next, from 1488 to 1489 in the reign of king James IV. These were printed verbatim; but there then follow (page 166 onwards) accounts through to 1498 'considerably curtailed by the omission of unimportant entries'. These accounts are mostly lists of royal expenditure: many purchases of items for the court do not give the name of the merchants from whom they were bought, so the bulk of the personal names in the text are those of intermediaries, messengers, and various servants of the king.CHENE. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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Liegemen and Traitors, Pirates and Spies
(1542-1547) The Privy Council of Henry VIII was responsible for internal security in England and Wales, and dealt with all manner of special and urgent matters
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Inhabitants of Aberdeen
(1398-1570) Extracts from the first 27 surviving volumes of Aberdeen burgh (borough) records were made by John Stuart for the Spalding Club and published in 1844. Although it is believed that the town records were preserved on parchment rolls until about 1380, and in book form thereafter, by 1591 the town clerk remarked that there existed of the earliest records only 'peces and partis of four ald imperfyt and informall buikis conumitt and eitten be mothes, for aldnes and antiquite euill to be red, yit to be keipit for a monument be resoun of the antiquite'. The regular series of books surviving comprised 61 folio volumes from 1398 to 1745, and these contained the proceedings of the Council of the Burgh, of the Baillie Court, and the Guild Court.CHENE. Cost: £4.00.  | Sample scan, click to enlarge
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