Court of King's Bench: Plea Side: Secondaries Remembrances

KB 167

1552-1598

A series of memoranda, termed 'remembrancia' in their headings, which reflect the work undertaken by the secondaries in the Court of King's Bench term by term.

They relate to the work of two secondaries, Francis Sandbache (d. 1582) and George Kemp (1530-1606), immediate subordinates of the chief prothonotary. From the 1570s onwards they are overwhelmingly concerned with final process following judgment. The remembrances give details of the work performed in the terms to which they relate. Each entry gives the county in the margin, then the task performed (eg enter a paper, enter a satisfaction), the names of the party for whom the work was done and of his opponent, and the reference to the plea roll and rotulus where the appropriate entry was made. There are extensive gaps in the series which may be filled in the future by further discoveries among unsorted material.

Public Record(s)

Latin

3 bundle(s)

Topics

Litigation

The secondary was a clerk immediately subordinate to the chief prothonotary or chief clerk on the Plea Side of the court, and like the chief clerk seems to have been appointed from among the ordinary clerks or filazers. The earliest known holder of the office was John Lucas (died 1525), who had been filazer for Cornwall, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire from 1503 to 1515 before being promoted to the more senior filazership of Yorkshire and the northern counties. Among his known successors were Francis Sandbache, who died between 11 February and 12 March 1582, and George Kemp, who succeeded him, probably immediately upon his death.