Page 16 - BOOK OF B B AND FONS

The Blaker Society

Pre-1600

Number of references ordered: 5

Item number 5

Source: Public Record Office Lists & Indexes xii

Title: List of Early Chancery Proceedings preserved in the Public Record Office.

Vol. II., 1901, London, 390

[4 March 1465-11 April 1471]

The Early Chancery Proceedings preserved in the Public Record Office form a collection of over 100,000 documents
extending from about the tenth year of Richard II to the end of the reign of Philip and Mary . The early history of this
4
5
collection is obscure, but it appears to have been brought together from no less than four overlapping series. It has now
been arranged roughly in chronological order, according to the title of the Chancellor addressed in each bill, which in most
cases is the only evidence of date immediately available; but as the office of Chancellor was sometimes held by the same
person at intervals, or by different persons of the same title at dates not widely different, the arrangement thus effected is
only approximately chronological, while the number of the documents has rendered it impracticable to devote to each the
time necessary for a minute examination. The documents consist of bills of complaint, answers, replications, rejoinders,
&c. writs, interrogatories, depositions and exhibits. Any decrees or orders recorded will be found endorsed upon the bills,
the series of Entry-Books of decrees and orders not beginning until a later date. In some cases copies of the pleadings
occur, made for the assistance of commissioners appointed to take evidence or sworn statements of the parties. The suits
may be divided into two main classes: (1) Those in which application is made for a writ of ‘sub poena’ to be directed to the
other party, and (2) those in the nature of appeals from local jurisdictions, in which the petitioner prays for a writ of
‘certiorari’ or ‘habeas corpus cum causâ’ to be directed to the court from which appeal is made. When the nature of the
writ applied for is not specified in the text, it may be assumed to have been a writ of ‘sub poena.’ Most of the suits relating
to landed property belong to the first class, while information upon questions of social and economic importance and of
legal history other than that of the law of real property, will be found more abundantly in the second class.

BUNDLE 37.
6

[Reference within the bundle:] 13

4 22 June 1386-21 June 1387
5 17 November 1558
6 Addressed to the archbishop of York: 5 Edward IV-49 Henry VI; or perhaps 20-23 Edward IV.