Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Port Books
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
Contact information: phone number
0044 020 8876 3444
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
E 190
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Port Books
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
King's Remembrancer
Date(s)
1565/1798
Language(s)
eng
lat
Extent
1,553 bundles
Type of material
Textual Material
Scope and content
The Port books are part of the King's Remembrancer division of the Exchequer fonds. They resulted from an Exchequer Order of November 1564 requiring all customs officials in the various ports of England and Wales thenceforth to make their entries in blank books issued by the Exchequer. The series is composed of three kinds of books: 1) Entry books of the collectors and other officials, recording the details of cockets issued as receipts for the payment of the various duties on imports and exports; 2) Entry books of searchers, waiters and other officials who were concerned with shipping movements and the inspection of cargoes, not with the collection of duties; and 3) Coasting books, which record the issue and return of certificates for the transit of goods by coast from one English port to another.
Each entry in a Port Book generally contains the name of the ship and its master; the names of the merchants and whether they were aliens; the date on which duty was paid; a description of their goods; the amount of duties paid (in the entry books of the collectors); and the ship's destination or port to which it was sailing next. After 1600, few books omit details of the places to and from which shipments were made. Before 1600, many entries are in Latin but, by 1660, most are in English.
London Port Books are a rich source of information for the Jewish mercantile group settled in this city. Even before the resettlement, some entries contain information regarding Portuguese conversos operating from London, such as Jerónimo Lopes (cousin of Dr Rodrigo Lopez, physician to Queen Elizabeth), Gabriel Fernandez, Fernando Mercado, Gomez d'Avila, Jorge Rodrigues and António Fernandes, Diogo da Silva, Simão Lopez and Fernando Lopez da Costa, Francisco Lopes Franco, António Fernandes Carvajal, António da Costa and Francisco Lopes Pinto, and the latter's wife, Anne Lopes Pinto, who continued trading after his death). The Port Books of the 1660s and 1670s contain several entries related to Manuel Martinez Dormido, António Rodrigues Robles, and the brothers Jorge and Domingos Rodrigues Francia. The London Port Books of these decades also uncover the activity of Fernando Mendes da Costa and Álvaro da Costa, two Jewish merchants that dominated the importation of brazilwood into London. In addition to the Costas, Gomes Rodrigues, Anthony Gomes Serra and his partner Moses Baruh Lousada (trading as Serra & Lousada) have a particular predominance among Jewish importers. In the 1670s, the most dominant Jewish merchants in the Port Books are Álvaro da Costa, Anthony Gomes Serra, Domingos and Simão Francia, Francisco de Pavia, Álvaro da Fonseca, Gomes Rodrigues and Peter and Piers Henriques. See Maurice Woolf (1970) for further information regarding the entries of the London Port Books with references to these merchants. Nuala Zahedieh (1999), by analysing the London Port Books of 1686, identified seven leading Jewish merchants involved in the colonial trade, namely Moses Barrow (otherwise Anthony Louzado), Joseph Bueno, Anthony Gomezsera (Anthony Gomes Serra), Peter and Pierre Henriques, Manuel Mendez, and Emanuel Perara (Pereira?).
Each entry in a Port Book generally contains the name of the ship and its master; the names of the merchants and whether they were aliens; the date on which duty was paid; a description of their goods; the amount of duties paid (in the entry books of the collectors); and the ship's destination or port to which it was sailing next. After 1600, few books omit details of the places to and from which shipments were made. Before 1600, many entries are in Latin but, by 1660, most are in English.
London Port Books are a rich source of information for the Jewish mercantile group settled in this city. Even before the resettlement, some entries contain information regarding Portuguese conversos operating from London, such as Jerónimo Lopes (cousin of Dr Rodrigo Lopez, physician to Queen Elizabeth), Gabriel Fernandez, Fernando Mercado, Gomez d'Avila, Jorge Rodrigues and António Fernandes, Diogo da Silva, Simão Lopez and Fernando Lopez da Costa, Francisco Lopes Franco, António Fernandes Carvajal, António da Costa and Francisco Lopes Pinto, and the latter's wife, Anne Lopes Pinto, who continued trading after his death). The Port Books of the 1660s and 1670s contain several entries related to Manuel Martinez Dormido, António Rodrigues Robles, and the brothers Jorge and Domingos Rodrigues Francia. The London Port Books of these decades also uncover the activity of Fernando Mendes da Costa and Álvaro da Costa, two Jewish merchants that dominated the importation of brazilwood into London. In addition to the Costas, Gomes Rodrigues, Anthony Gomes Serra and his partner Moses Baruh Lousada (trading as Serra & Lousada) have a particular predominance among Jewish importers. In the 1670s, the most dominant Jewish merchants in the Port Books are Álvaro da Costa, Anthony Gomes Serra, Domingos and Simão Francia, Francisco de Pavia, Álvaro da Fonseca, Gomes Rodrigues and Peter and Piers Henriques. See Maurice Woolf (1970) for further information regarding the entries of the London Port Books with references to these merchants. Nuala Zahedieh (1999), by analysing the London Port Books of 1686, identified seven leading Jewish merchants involved in the colonial trade, namely Moses Barrow (otherwise Anthony Louzado), Joseph Bueno, Anthony Gomezsera (Anthony Gomes Serra), Peter and Pierre Henriques, Manuel Mendez, and Emanuel Perara (Pereira?).
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 4,136 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 are 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 processes 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 processes 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
System of arrangement
Lesser ports, sometimes known as "creeks" or "havens", were grouped together under "head ports". Therefore Liverpool, Beaumaris and Conway, for instance, came under the head port of Chester. The arrangement of the series largely reflects this grouping into head ports. The individual catalogue descriptions include the name of the relevant head port as well as the name of the member port where the goods actually arrived or departed. For example, if the description states: "THE PORT OF CHESTER. Port: Beaumaris", the returns will relate to Beaumaris only, not to Chester itself.
Links to finding aids
Author of the description
Kevin Soares and Carla Vieira, 2022
Bibliography
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