Chancery Files, Tower and Rolls Chapel Series, Stool Bundle

C 264

1377-1621

This series contains counterwrits of the many writs supersedeas which issued out of Chancery addressed to sheriffs, justices of the peace, justices of assize and others, countermanding writs of error, exigi facias, capias, de excommunicato capiendo, and attachias.

The bulk of the series is made up of writs supersedeas concerning sureties of the peace produced upon the writ supplicavit or similar authority. The series also includes a few counterwrits of warrants for the release of prisoners, particularly those imprisoned on suspicion of theft.

The series takes its name from the press mark used on the file covers from the mid-fifteenth century onwards, the rough drawing of a stool. Most of the records were formerly included in C 47 and C 202

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

133 file(s)

Topics

Crime

The supersedeasin such cases issued when sufficient surety had been found in Chancery, often by professional mainpernors. The importance attached to the process was marked by the rank of the attestors; in all cases these were senior Chancery clerks and, from time to time, the protonotories.

Since the writ could be subsequently pleaded, copies had to be retained in Chancery. From the middle of the fifteenth century, the counterwrits were supplemented by memoranda of the date on which the subject of the surety himself stood bail for his own good behaviour in £50, thus releasing his mainpernors.