Court of Common Pleas: King's Silver Books, Series I

CP 34

1560-1834

Books compiled by the Clerk of the King's Silver to record the amount, known as the king's silver or post-fine, paid by the plaintiff in a collusive suit to levy a final concord, for the licence to agree and terminate the suit in the Court of Common Pleas. The series probably started either in the reign of Henry VIII or Edward VI, from which the earliest surviving examples, badly damaged, come. There are many minor gaps, and two long ones from 1657 to 1669, and from 1676 to 1702, many of which must be accounted for by the damaged books. The amount of detail given in the individual entries varies somewhat over the period. The same information was entered in special sections of the plea rolls until 1583, and thereafter in the recovery rolls. The entries in the king's silver books may simply be drafts for those entered on the plea or recovery roll.

Rolls of post-fines are in E 374

The books damaged in the 1838 fire are in CP 35

Recovery rolls are in CP 43

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

349 volume(s)

Topics

Conveyancing

Litigation

The office of Clerk of the King's Silver existed by 1519 at latest. Until the early eighteenth century each entry, or at least each page, was noted as having been examined, presumably by the clerk of the king's silver himself. In the early eighteenth century the surname of the chief prothonotary was sometimes given at the head of the page. Feet of fines were abolished in 1833, and the office of clerk of the king's silver itself was abolished in 1835, by 5 & 6 William IV, c 82.