Chancery and Supreme Court of Judicature: Patent Rolls

Country

GB

Name of institution (official language of the state)

The National Archives

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

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Contact information: email

Contact form

Reference number

C 66

Type of reference number

Archival reference number

Title (official language of the state)

Chancery and Supreme Court of Judicature: Patent Rolls

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

Chancery and Supreme Court of Judicature

Date(s)

1201/2012

Language(s)

eng

lat

Extent

5790 rolls and volumes

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

This series of the Records of the Enrollment Office division of the Chancery (C) collection comprises letters patent, i.e. letters issued open or "patent" expressing the sovereign's will on a variety of matters of public interest, sealed with the sovereign's great seal pendent. Their nature is very diverse, referring to the royal prerogative, revenue, the different branches of the judicature, treaties, truces, correspondence and negotiations with foreign princes and states, letters of protection, of credence and of safe-conduct, and the appointments and powers of ambassadors. The patent rolls also include grants and confirmations of liberties, offices, privileges, lands and wardships, both to public bodies and to private individuals; charters of incorporation; licences for the election of bishops and other ecclesiastics; restitutions of temporalities; presentations to livings; creations of nobility and baronetcy; special and general pardons; special liveries; licences and pardons for alienation; Crown leases; and licences in mortmain. From 1702, the contents of the rolls are mostly grants of offices and pensions, creations of nobility, and letters patent of inventions and denization.
Letters of denization were entered on the patent rolls until 1844, when responsibility passed to the Home Office although a few appear subsequently. These letters are of particular interest for the study of the Jewish community of London. For instance, Samuel, Barnett and Diamond (1968-9) listed the Portuguese New Christians and Jews who were endenized from 1609 to 1799, including references to patent rolls that are part of this collection.

(source: The National Archives online catalogue)

Archival history

Up to the end of the reign of Edward IV, the patent rolls were kept in the Tower of London, the principal repository for the records of Chancery. However, a second repository gradually came into use in the chapel of the house in Chancery Lane, which formed the residence of the Master of the Rolls. By the late 17th century, there was a rule that patent rolls should be delivered to the Rolls Chapel three years after they were made up, although deliveries were frequently late. The patent rolls from the reigns of John to Edward IV were delivered to the Public Record Office under a warrant of June 1856. Since then, transmissions have been made irregularly.
There are gaps in the series where some rolls have been lost. For example, the rolls for 23 and 24 Henry III are known already to have been lost by 1381.

(source: The National Archives online catalogue)

Administrative / Biographical history

Enrolment, in the Chancery sense, meant the recording on parchment rolls, normally in a standardised, abbreviated form, of the details of formal letters issued under the great seal. The purpose was twofold: firstly, to provide a record of Chancery transactions for the information of the Exchequer if fees or other dues were involved; and secondly, to provide an authentic office copy of all the Crown's most serious business.
The origins of this practice are uncertain. Enrolments of formal accounts were known in the Exchequer from the time of Henry I at the latest, and Chancery enrolments (mainly in financial connections) are known from the 1170s onwards. From 1199, however, with the appointment of John and, perhaps more importantly, with the accession of Hubert Walter to the office of chancellor, the practice of enrolment in Chancery for the provision of a permanent and official record of business under the great seal began, and in some series continues to the present day.
Although Chancery enrolment was, it seems, originally the task of the senior clerk who later became the master of the rolls, it soon devolved upon subordinates in a specialised branch of three clerks, increased to six, under pressure of work, in 1389. One of the six clerks, known as the "riding clerk", discharged the business of enrolment, although, by the 16th century, the function had devolved to deputy clerks, recognised by statute in 1573, who themselves used under-clerks for the practicalities of entering enrolments. There was also a minor clerk known as the "portjoy", who was in origin the officer responsible for transporting the Chancery rolls when occasion required; this post seems to have transmuted into that of usher from the 16th century, and it lapsed in 1725. These clerkships under the old system were abolished in 1842, and the duties were transferred to a single clerk of the enrolments.

(source: The National Archives online catalogue)

Access points: locations

Barbados

Ireland

London (UK)

Access points: subject terms

Sephardim in Great Britain

Sephardim in the Caribbean

Naturalisation and denisation

17th century

18th century

Access points: document types