Exchequer: King's Remembrancer
Item
Country
GB
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
Kew, Richmond TW9 4DU London
Contact information: phone number
0044 020 8876 3444
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
E 101 - E 230; E 501
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Exchequer: King's Remembrancer
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
King's Remembrancer
Date note
circa 1154/1994
Language(s)
dut
fra
eng
lat
Extent
128 series
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
This collection is a division of the Court of Exchequer fonds and includes the records of the King's Remembrancer (or Queen's Remembrancer), one of the two major Exchequer officials concerned with the accounting and audit procedures and also in the wider administrative functions of the Court of Exchequer. The records are thus extensive and diverse, including:
- Memoranda Rolls and Books, the main formal records of the King's Remembrancer's business (E 159 and E 160);
- accounts presented to the Crown for payment (E 101 and E 102); records relating to taxation: lay and clerical taxation (E 179), certificates of residence of some taxable persons (E 115), receivers' accounts (E 181), and land tax accounts (E 182-E 184);
- customs accounts: particulars (E 122), port books (E 190), excise accounts and debtors (E 139 and E 145), and coast bonds (E 209);
- escheators' accounts and files (E 136 and E 153), sheriffs' accounts (E 199), and estreats from various courts and judicial commissions (E 137);
- records relating to feudal tenures and distraint of knighthood (E 198);
- inquisitions post mortem and inquisitions ad quod damnum on potential Crown dues (E 149-E 152), records of outlawries (E 172 and E 173), and records of some special commissions of inquiry (E 178);
- writs in Exchequer cases, or on other Exchequer business (E 202-E 204), bille files (E 207), files of barons' writs brevia baronibus (E 208), and other writs (E 226 and E 227);
- affidavits in legal cases (E 103 and E 218), depositions (E 133 and E 134), exhibits (E 140), bills and answers (E 112 and E 113), with replications and rejoinders (E 193 and E 223), petitions (E 185, E 186 and E 188); reports (E 194 and E 195), and appearance books (E 107);
- information in revenue cases (E 148) and cases stated (E 201);
entry books of decrees and orders (E 123-E 127), with files (E 128-E 131) and accounts (E 225), and ordnance decrees (E 170 and E 171);
- minute books (E 161 and E 162), notice of trial books (E 168), miscellaneous equity proceedings (E 111), and proceedings in error (E 228);
- account books of funds in court (E 217);
- warrants for the issue of process (E 220 and E 224), other warrants (E 229 and E 230), and registers of process (E 221 and E 222);
- extents of alien priories (E 106), inventories of church goods (E 117), conventual leases (E 118), and miscellaneous ecclesiastical documents (E 135);
- records relating to property issues, including forfeited lands (E 142-E 144), returns of papists' estates (E 174), Crown lands (E 121), and other matters (see E 119, E 120, E 141, E 146, E 147, E 154, E 158, E 176, E 177, E 180 and E 187);
- deeds relating to Chatham fortifications (E 116), and other deeds (132 and E 210-E 214);
- original letters patent (E 156) and registers of licences to pass overseas (E 157);
- records of ancient ceremonies (E 189 and E 191);
- records relating to the administration of the Court of Exchequer (E 108, E 109, and E 114);
- papers of the clerk to the Deputy Remembrancer (E 167) and other clerks (E 219);
- Seal Office records (E 197);
- records of commissions on fees, James I and Charles I (E 215); oath rolls (E 169 and E 200) and sacrament certificates (E 196);
Parliament and Council proceedings (E 175);
- records relating to the audit of the Alienation Office (E 104 and E 105);
- miscellaneous records (E 163-E 166 and E 216), with private papers and exhibits (E 192);
- records relating to the functions of the King's (or Queen's) Remembrancer as an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature, after the abolition of the Exchequer (E 103, E 114, E 148, E 159, E 161, E 165, E 171, E 186-E 189, E 191, E 201, and E 203-E 205).
Throughout these numerous series are assorted records regarding Portuguese conversos and Sephardic Jews living in England and abroad. Some series are of particular relevance, such as Port books (E 190, described apart in this database), Ancient deeds (E 210, which include bonds made with Jewish moneylenders), as well as series whose content could be related to commercial activities, such Baron's depositions (E 133), Depositions taken by Commission (E 134) and Exhibits (E 140). See also the registers of licences to pass overseas (E 157) for information on Sephardim in the British West Indies (Hotten, 1874).
Three particular examples of Sephardic-related material are the following:
E 210/9929: Hector Nunes, physician to Queen Elizabeth: assignment of a debt due from Sir Walter Leveson, knight, in payment of money due to the farmer's wines. 1589-1590.
E 178/5469: Certificate that Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, late physician to Queen Elizabeth, was a native of Portugal. 1632-1633.
E 134/5Geo2/Mich30: Deposition regarding a case on estates of people becoming bankrupt or insolvent in Holland involving Jacob de David Lopes Henriques, Francis Pereira, Jacob Nunez Henriques, Isaac Nunez Henriques, Samuel Martins, and Abraham de Moses Pereira (alias Alexandro Pereira), merchants from Amsterdam. 1731-32.
- Memoranda Rolls and Books, the main formal records of the King's Remembrancer's business (E 159 and E 160);
- accounts presented to the Crown for payment (E 101 and E 102); records relating to taxation: lay and clerical taxation (E 179), certificates of residence of some taxable persons (E 115), receivers' accounts (E 181), and land tax accounts (E 182-E 184);
- customs accounts: particulars (E 122), port books (E 190), excise accounts and debtors (E 139 and E 145), and coast bonds (E 209);
- escheators' accounts and files (E 136 and E 153), sheriffs' accounts (E 199), and estreats from various courts and judicial commissions (E 137);
- records relating to feudal tenures and distraint of knighthood (E 198);
- inquisitions post mortem and inquisitions ad quod damnum on potential Crown dues (E 149-E 152), records of outlawries (E 172 and E 173), and records of some special commissions of inquiry (E 178);
- writs in Exchequer cases, or on other Exchequer business (E 202-E 204), bille files (E 207), files of barons' writs brevia baronibus (E 208), and other writs (E 226 and E 227);
- affidavits in legal cases (E 103 and E 218), depositions (E 133 and E 134), exhibits (E 140), bills and answers (E 112 and E 113), with replications and rejoinders (E 193 and E 223), petitions (E 185, E 186 and E 188); reports (E 194 and E 195), and appearance books (E 107);
- information in revenue cases (E 148) and cases stated (E 201);
entry books of decrees and orders (E 123-E 127), with files (E 128-E 131) and accounts (E 225), and ordnance decrees (E 170 and E 171);
- minute books (E 161 and E 162), notice of trial books (E 168), miscellaneous equity proceedings (E 111), and proceedings in error (E 228);
- account books of funds in court (E 217);
- warrants for the issue of process (E 220 and E 224), other warrants (E 229 and E 230), and registers of process (E 221 and E 222);
- extents of alien priories (E 106), inventories of church goods (E 117), conventual leases (E 118), and miscellaneous ecclesiastical documents (E 135);
- records relating to property issues, including forfeited lands (E 142-E 144), returns of papists' estates (E 174), Crown lands (E 121), and other matters (see E 119, E 120, E 141, E 146, E 147, E 154, E 158, E 176, E 177, E 180 and E 187);
- deeds relating to Chatham fortifications (E 116), and other deeds (132 and E 210-E 214);
- original letters patent (E 156) and registers of licences to pass overseas (E 157);
- records of ancient ceremonies (E 189 and E 191);
- records relating to the administration of the Court of Exchequer (E 108, E 109, and E 114);
- papers of the clerk to the Deputy Remembrancer (E 167) and other clerks (E 219);
- Seal Office records (E 197);
- records of commissions on fees, James I and Charles I (E 215); oath rolls (E 169 and E 200) and sacrament certificates (E 196);
Parliament and Council proceedings (E 175);
- records relating to the audit of the Alienation Office (E 104 and E 105);
- miscellaneous records (E 163-E 166 and E 216), with private papers and exhibits (E 192);
- records relating to the functions of the King's (or Queen's) Remembrancer as an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature, after the abolition of the Exchequer (E 103, E 114, E 148, E 159, E 161, E 165, E 171, E 186-E 189, E 191, E 201, and E 203-E 205).
Throughout these numerous series are assorted records regarding Portuguese conversos and Sephardic Jews living in England and abroad. Some series are of particular relevance, such as Port books (E 190, described apart in this database), Ancient deeds (E 210, which include bonds made with Jewish moneylenders), as well as series whose content could be related to commercial activities, such Baron's depositions (E 133), Depositions taken by Commission (E 134) and Exhibits (E 140). See also the registers of licences to pass overseas (E 157) for information on Sephardim in the British West Indies (Hotten, 1874).
Three particular examples of Sephardic-related material are the following:
E 210/9929: Hector Nunes, physician to Queen Elizabeth: assignment of a debt due from Sir Walter Leveson, knight, in payment of money due to the farmer's wines. 1589-1590.
E 178/5469: Certificate that Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, late physician to Queen Elizabeth, was a native of Portugal. 1632-1633.
E 134/5Geo2/Mich30: Deposition regarding a case on estates of people becoming bankrupt or insolvent in Holland involving Jacob de David Lopes Henriques, Francis Pereira, Jacob Nunez Henriques, Isaac Nunez Henriques, Samuel Martins, and Abraham de Moses Pereira (alias Alexandro Pereira), merchants from Amsterdam. 1731-32.
Archival history
The records of the King's Remembrancer were kept in the King's Remembrancer's Office adjacent to Westminster Hall, London, until the beginning of the 19th century. In 1800, the select committee on the state of the public records reported that the records were in serious danger due to the disrepair of the storage areas and the hazard of fire. In 1822, in order to make way for building work, the records were moved into a makeshift shed inside the Hall itself. It was later reported that during the move large quantities of parchments were stolen. In 1831, the records were moved to the royal mews at Charing Cross and then on to Carlton Ride, the former royal stables, in 1835. This move saved them from the devastating fire which broke out at Westminster Palace in 1834, but their condition remained extremely poor. Henry Cole reported in 1836 that the 5000 bundles which made up the Exchequer miscellanea were stored at Carlton Ride in two giant sheds 4136 cubic feet in size. The records were very damp, some coagulated beyond repair, with others stuck permanently to the shed walls. On packing the records in 1836, five hundred sacks of records were filled, and 24 bushels of dust and dirt were discarded. The conditions of the records of the King's Remembrancer were some of the worst discovered by the select committee, whose report eventually led to the creation of the Public Record Office in 1838.
Administrative / Biographical history
The origins of the Remembrancers of the Exchequer is unclear, although from the 12th century both the Crown and the Treasurer had senior clerks to assist in the functions of audit and receipt. Essentially, they were officers charged with recording and pursuing debts and other matters outstanding from the process of audit in the Upper Exchequer. The two roles were well established in the course of the 13th century, and from the end of Henry III's reign (1216-1272) onwards, their functions diverged increasingly. When the Exchequer ordinances of 1323 laid down firm distinctions between the work of the King's Remembrancer and the work of the Treasurer's Remembrancer, it reflected and consolidated an existing division of duties. The King's Remembrancer became responsible for collecting and recording Crown revenue from various and occasional sources, rather than the ancient and fixed revenues, such as feudal reliefs.
The King's Remembrancer was, accordingly, the recipient and custodian of great numbers of writs addressed to the barons of the Exchequer ("brevia baronibus") authorising expenditures over the entire range of routine and current Crown business, and for issuing Exchequer writs authorising consequential expenditures or allowances to sheriffs, escheators, and other accountants. He was also the custodian of a wide variety of documents sent into the Exchequer for action or record. Thus deeds, recognisances, and other valid or negotiable instruments rendered in support of debts to the Crown — or, indeed, rendered as part of the documentation of complex financial relationships of which a Crown debt might only be one part — were deposited with, and often enrolled by, him and his clerks.
He was also responsible for the receipt of two main categories of accounts: the particulars of accounts (that is, the expense accounts) rendered by persons incurring expenses on behalf of the Crown and claiming allowance or reimbursement, and the accounts of both the assessment and the collection of lay and clerical taxation. Among sundry duties, the King's Remembrancer was also, specifically under the ordinances of 1323, the Keeper of the Red Book of the Exchequer (a compendium of Exchequer practice, including the Dialogus de Scaccario) and of various other books of record and practice.
The work of audit and recording went hand in hand with the duty to pursue defaulters. The King's Remembrancer issued writs against Crown debtors, extracted bonds and recognisances and issued process for their realisation or discharge, authorised commissions to establish the resources of non-paying accountants, and initiated inquiries into otherwise untraced or desperate debts. In effect, he was the administrative legal official responsible for the investigation and prosecution of Crown debtors.
By extension from these duties concerning Crown debtors and accountants, the King's Remembrancer acquired a similar legal and administrative jurisdiction in equitable suits in the Exchequer. The Exchequer's equity business (unlike Chancery's, which was widely based on plaints to the Crown as the fount of justice) arose strictly from its financial dealings. Officials of the Exchequer, royal accountants, and debtors to the Crown had, since 1311 by statute and in practice long before, the right to have litigation heard in the Exchequer, on the grounds that the outcome had a bearing on their ability to administer or pay debts to the Crown. At first, the practice was sporadic, but by the end of Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603), the King's Remembrancer was dealing with hundreds of cases a year, and the numbers of suits continued to grow until the end of the 17th century. Until 1649 the flow of cases was regulated by the Exchequer's insistence on the formal requirements of a genuine royal financial interest in each case, but thereafter it was sufficient for a plaintiff to make a generalised claim to be a "debtor and accountant to the commonwealth [from 1660, 'to his majesty']", a claim which the court refused to investigate or overrule. Thus, from about 1650 onwards, the Exchequer became a general court of equitable jurisdiction, with the King's Remembrancer — most commonly by deputy — acting both as Clerk of the Crown and as a "master" conducting enquiries and drafting opinions for the advice of the court. This work was transferred, in 1820, to two masters in the Exchequer. However, in 1841, the Exchequer's equity jurisdiction was transferred to the court of Chancery. The revenue work of the King's Remembrancer was also substantially reorganised in the 19th century.
The offices of the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer and of the Pipe were abolished in 1833, and their duties transferred to the King's Remembrancer, but under the Queen's Remembrancer's Act 1859, the main record-keeping functions of all these Exchequer offices were abolished. Under provisions of the Statute Law Revision 1875, the Queen's Remembrancer was transferred to the Supreme Court of Judicature, and attached to the Central Office of that court in 1879. In 1881, under an order in council, the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court was abolished, and its business passed to the Queen's Bench Division, where the senior master, acting as Queen's Remembrancer, continued to administer Crown revenue cases until reallocations of responsibilities within the Supreme Court in 1950 and 1963. A few formal duties, mainly of record-keeping and issuing process in traditional ceremonies, remain associated with the post.
The King's Remembrancer was, accordingly, the recipient and custodian of great numbers of writs addressed to the barons of the Exchequer ("brevia baronibus") authorising expenditures over the entire range of routine and current Crown business, and for issuing Exchequer writs authorising consequential expenditures or allowances to sheriffs, escheators, and other accountants. He was also the custodian of a wide variety of documents sent into the Exchequer for action or record. Thus deeds, recognisances, and other valid or negotiable instruments rendered in support of debts to the Crown — or, indeed, rendered as part of the documentation of complex financial relationships of which a Crown debt might only be one part — were deposited with, and often enrolled by, him and his clerks.
He was also responsible for the receipt of two main categories of accounts: the particulars of accounts (that is, the expense accounts) rendered by persons incurring expenses on behalf of the Crown and claiming allowance or reimbursement, and the accounts of both the assessment and the collection of lay and clerical taxation. Among sundry duties, the King's Remembrancer was also, specifically under the ordinances of 1323, the Keeper of the Red Book of the Exchequer (a compendium of Exchequer practice, including the Dialogus de Scaccario) and of various other books of record and practice.
The work of audit and recording went hand in hand with the duty to pursue defaulters. The King's Remembrancer issued writs against Crown debtors, extracted bonds and recognisances and issued process for their realisation or discharge, authorised commissions to establish the resources of non-paying accountants, and initiated inquiries into otherwise untraced or desperate debts. In effect, he was the administrative legal official responsible for the investigation and prosecution of Crown debtors.
By extension from these duties concerning Crown debtors and accountants, the King's Remembrancer acquired a similar legal and administrative jurisdiction in equitable suits in the Exchequer. The Exchequer's equity business (unlike Chancery's, which was widely based on plaints to the Crown as the fount of justice) arose strictly from its financial dealings. Officials of the Exchequer, royal accountants, and debtors to the Crown had, since 1311 by statute and in practice long before, the right to have litigation heard in the Exchequer, on the grounds that the outcome had a bearing on their ability to administer or pay debts to the Crown. At first, the practice was sporadic, but by the end of Elizabeth I's reign (1558-1603), the King's Remembrancer was dealing with hundreds of cases a year, and the numbers of suits continued to grow until the end of the 17th century. Until 1649 the flow of cases was regulated by the Exchequer's insistence on the formal requirements of a genuine royal financial interest in each case, but thereafter it was sufficient for a plaintiff to make a generalised claim to be a "debtor and accountant to the commonwealth [from 1660, 'to his majesty']", a claim which the court refused to investigate or overrule. Thus, from about 1650 onwards, the Exchequer became a general court of equitable jurisdiction, with the King's Remembrancer — most commonly by deputy — acting both as Clerk of the Crown and as a "master" conducting enquiries and drafting opinions for the advice of the court. This work was transferred, in 1820, to two masters in the Exchequer. However, in 1841, the Exchequer's equity jurisdiction was transferred to the court of Chancery. The revenue work of the King's Remembrancer was also substantially reorganised in the 19th century.
The offices of the Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer and of the Pipe were abolished in 1833, and their duties transferred to the King's Remembrancer, but under the Queen's Remembrancer's Act 1859, the main record-keeping functions of all these Exchequer offices were abolished. Under provisions of the Statute Law Revision 1875, the Queen's Remembrancer was transferred to the Supreme Court of Judicature, and attached to the Central Office of that court in 1879. In 1881, under an order in council, the Exchequer Division of the Supreme Court was abolished, and its business passed to the Queen's Bench Division, where the senior master, acting as Queen's Remembrancer, continued to administer Crown revenue cases until reallocations of responsibilities within the Supreme Court in 1950 and 1963. A few formal duties, mainly of record-keeping and issuing process in traditional ceremonies, remain associated with the post.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
Finding aids
E 501 contains some original finding aids.
Other unpublished finding aids specifically for some series of this division are available for consultation in the archive.
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Published primary sources
Linked resources
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