Chancery: Petty Bag Office: Warrants for Bishops' Patents

Warrants requesting the lord chancellor to make out letters patent confirming the election of bishops and archbishops of the Church of England.

The process of election demanded the making out of writs by the clerks of the Petty Bag Office, called congés d'élire, followed by the subsequent royal assent to the choice of bishop (made by the diocesan dean and chapter to whom the congé had been addressed), and the grant and restitution of the temporalities of the see, that is the episcopal estate and income, which had escheated to the Crown during the vacancy.

All three types of document are represented in this series. The poorest bishoprics, such as the four Welsh ones, figure most frequently, because elections more often resulted from translation than from death or deprivation.

The arrangement of the records is broadly chronological.

In many cases, the three documents relating to each episcopal election are conveniently joined together. A descriptive tab at the bottom left corner of the warrants serves as a ready identification of the diocese and nature of the document, whether congé d'élire, royal assent, or restitution.

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