Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer of Chester and Court of Great Sessions of Chester:...

CHES 9

[1327]-1830

This series consists of fifteen bundles of miscellaneous papers much of which relates to proceedings in equity in the Exchequer of Chester from the reign of Elizabeth I to 1830. However, there is also a substantial amount of material from the Chester Court of Great Sessions, later often described as the Assizes, dating from at least the reign of Edward III until the early years of the nineteenth century, as well as records of the sheriff's office from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Types of Chester Exchequer records contained are: pleadings; interrogatories; depositions; orders and decrees; reports and objections to reports. There are also a number of reports of inquiries held to determine the level of damage suffered by complainants in suits, as well as financial accounts probably presented to the court as evidence in suits e.g., re execution of wills, lists of sales at auctions, particulars of estates to be sold under decrees and orders; sureties on behalf of complainants; file of rules and election of guardians (rules were procedural orders made during the progress of suits, 1736-1750); and accounts of Exchequer officers (chamberlain, baron and others).

Types of Court of Great Sessions records contained are: proceedings (pleadings, writs); miscellaneous records (lists of prisoners in Chester Castle, coroner's inquest, mainprise roll for Flint, files of lawyer's papers including oaths to practice, estreats of fines and amercements, inquisitions, declarations concerning the births of bastards and orders for their maintenance); jury lists; and bonds (of bailiffs and other officers for execution of office, bail bonds, replevin bonds).

Also includes: Chancery papers (papers from the Chester Consistory Court including wills, indentures, leases); and Sheriffs' papers (these include files of letters and accounts arranged annually, orders and contracts for transportation of convicted felons, orders to bailiffs, process against outstanding crown debtors, copies of printed proclamations sent to sheriff for display in the palatinate).

The language of the Exchequer records is usually English, although many records are annotated in Latin with the date or various court directives or comments. Main records from the Court of Great Sessions are generally in Latin until 1733 when English became the language of all law courts. However, secondary administrative records, letters and memoranda, which are frequently found, are often in English. From the eighteenth century pre-printed forms become more common and their are a number of examples of cardboard files, similar to a modern clip-board, with printed decorations.

Many of the Palatinate of Chester's records appear to have been organised by type from the days of the operation of the courts and they form more or less naturally into categories. However CHES 9 is not one of these. Rather, it is very much a grouping of miscellaneous and often unrelated records. It is apparent that the lack of coherent arrangement already pertained when the records arrived at the Public Record Office.

Labels record the source of the documents in CHES 9 as being "from miscellanea and fragments Bags 1.2.3.4". In May 1857, some three years after they arrived, an attempt was made to put the series into some order. Since then no further work has been carried out on CHES 9. Until such time as the series is sorted and adequately listed effective use of the records it contains will be almost impossible.

The current catalogue arranges the pieces by date order. Towards the latter end of the series the dates appear to be reasonably accurate. However, the first seven pieces may contain records from periods other than those indicated.

As was noted above, it is obvious that some attempt was made in 1857 to organise the series. In general this has been more successful for the pieces containing records after 1700. These pieces often contain small bundles of uniform records labelled by type and date range.

At the other extreme some pieces are simply large heaps of documents in no recognisable order, either by type or date. Many individual documents have a small sewn label bearing a pencilled date which has been added by an editor where this could be determined from the text. Other labels contain an alpha numeric code but these are no longer in any order, nor is there a key to their meaning. Other documents have been prepared with labels which remain blank. Some documents are directly annotated with the date in pencil.

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

• Palatinate of Chester, Chester County Court, 1297-1540
• Palatinate of Chester, Courts of Great Sessions of Chester and Flint, 1540-1830
• Palatinate of Chester, Exchequer of Chester, 1297-1830

15 bundle(s)

Many of the records are in a very poor state of preservation and extreme care is required when handling them. The great majority are of paper, although some parchment may be found.

Topics

Litigation

Democracy