Eyre file, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire. Broken file of precepts resulting from...

Eyre file, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire.

Broken file of precepts resulting from the presentation of bills of complaint in the Northamptonshire eyre of 1329-30 and the Bedfordshire eyre of 1330-31.

When this file was examined and numbered in April 1980, mm 1-1512 were still on the thong, and mm 1513-1785 had seemingly only recently slipped off and were still in order. The remaining membranes (mm 1786-2082) were completely loose and were numbered at random, although obvious bunches of documents were numbered in sequence. The final membrane, m 2082, had been stamped in modern times, and had the end of the thong and a parchment end-stop with it; it was therefore numbered last, as it had clearly been on the outside of the file.

The list of the records of these two eyres handed in to the treasury on 8 March 1332 ('Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Exchequer', III, p.160) refers to separate files of precepts for the two counties. The thong on which mm 1-1512 were found is clearly not medieval, indicating that the two files must have come apart at some stage, and were restrung together in a random order. Precepts relating to the two counties are intermingled, and it would appear that the current order of the membranes is of no archival significance.

Contrary to the usual practice, these precepts have been numbered from the top of the file, as it was this section which was discovered intact.

(2082 mm)

For bills relating to the Bedfordshire eyre see JUST 4/4/5

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