Palatinate of Chester: Ancient Deeds, Series F

WALE 29

1265-1602

Chiefly made up of conveyancing deeds (ranging in date from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries), though including a number of bonds and wills. Most of the deeds are likely to have been lodged as evidence of title with the exchequer of Chester (otherwise in CHES), the Chester Circuit court of the Great Sessions in Wales, or with other courts of the palatinate, either for enrolment or as evidence in legal processes and at exchequer audits. The bulk of the material relates to properties in Cheshire, although it does include a handful of deeds concerning Flint and as well as a few records dealing with places in Lancashire, Derbyshire and Dublin. In addition there are thirty-five deeds from Carmarthenshire and Cardiganshire which appear to have been lodged with the Carmarthen Circuit Court of the Great Sessions of Wales.

It seems probable that the Cheshire material was lodged with the Exchequer of Chester or with the other courts of the Palatinate - either for enrolment or as evidence in legal proceedings and at exchequer audits. The same is no doubt true of the Flint and Denbigh material; the former had been subordinated to the earldom, later palatinate of Chester since 1284 and both Flintshire and Denbighshire were part of the Chester Circuit of the Great Sessions in Wales from 1543. That there should be these few evidences of title from northern Wales does, however, want an explanation.

The series is unindexed.

Large deeds were extracted and placed in

WALE 30

Public Record(s)

English, French and Latin

516 file(s)

This series is almost entirely made up of evidences of title which had formerly been part of private archives. Few seem likely to have been acquired following the forfeiture or purchase of private estates or in connexion with the administration of crown lands. The records of Flintshire and the palatinate are supposed to have been maintained separately, although both archives were kept at Chester: if the separation still applied in 1854 there ought to be no Flint records in this series; if it did not apply there ought then to be a significant number of Flint records present.