Alienation Office: Entry Books of Writs of Covenant

Alienation Office entry books containing notes of writs of covenant purchased with the intention of conveying property by final concord in the Court of Common Pleas, drawn up principally to record the pre-fines payable for the writs (one tenth of the annual value of the property).

The series begins in 1576, at the point at which the farm of the fines was leased to the earl of Leicester (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1575-1578, no 399), and ends in 1661 about a year after the Restoration, although the collection of pre-fines continued.

The entries are arranged in term sequences under the precise dates on which they were made, and there are shorter sequences for vacation entries between those for the terms. In addition to the amount of the pre-fine, each entry gives the name of the county and the parties to the transaction, brief details of the property being conveyed, the date of the issue of the writ and the approximate value of the property. The value of the pre-fines on each page is usually totalled at the bottom, and there are sum totals at the ends of the volumes.

Material from broken writs of covenant are in CP 50

Topics

Farming