Court of Common Pleas: Enrolments of Writs etc for Fines and Recoveries

CP 28

1581-1711

Annual rolls in which, for the payment of a fee, the main instruments, mostly writs and their returns, involved in the conveyance of land by final concord or common recovery could be enrolled, as a means of protecting title from mistakes or negligence by officers of the Court of Common Pleas.

At no time do the rolls contain more than a small proportion of the fines and recoveries levied, since enrolment was not compulsory. Each roll is divided into separate sections for fines and recoveries, the former always containing the greater number of entries. Each entry was signed by a justice of the court, so the rolls contain large numbers of clear signatures of the puisne justices of Common Pleas.

Enrolments of final concords and common recoveries of the Court of Great Sessions of Chester are in CHES 32

Public Record(s)

Latin

53 roll(s)

Topics

Conveyancing

The rolls were established by an act of 1580 'for the reformation of errors in fines and recoveries' (23 Eliz I c 3), and were kept until 1711, although there is a gap in the series from 1632 to 1667, after which there are fewer entries. It is possible that after Michaelmas 1711 the rolls were simply discontinued, although the statutory requirement to keep them was not removed until 1881.