Court of Common Pleas: Recorda Files

The Recorda files include the records of cases in inferior courts subject to supervision by Common Pleas, returned with their accompanying writs and filed.

The writs, issued in the monarch’s name by the court to the treasurer and chamberlains of the Exchequer, mostly requested certifications of evidence found in feet of fines and on plea rolls of the court, which were old enough to have already been transferred there for safe custody.

The writs are endorsed with answers from the Exchequer officials and the attached transcripts are endorsed with notes of enrolment.

The writs are filed by the term of the enrolment and each file covers various terms and regnal years.

Common Pleas seems never to have had the regular series of annual Recorda files which the King's Bench maintained (KB 145). That is not surprising, because it did not have the range of supervisory powers which the King's Bench developed in the early 14th century.

It is not certain when Recorda files began to be kept by the court, but it was during the early 14th century, since recorda material is found on the Brevia files (CP 52) in the 1290s, and the earliest example of a Recorda file yet identified relates to the regnal years 3-20 Edward III. The latest file identified to date covers 20-32 Hen VI.

The files have been arranged in chronological order.

The referencing system adopted for this series includes two sets of number, one for the monarch, starting from Edward III as number 1, followed by the range of regnal years covered in each bundle.

This is a flexible system that will enable the insertion of further material found at a later stage.

Therefore the first identified file is referenced as CP 54/1/3-20, and it includes writs and returns enrolled between 3 and 20 Edw III.

See also: CP 52 KB 145

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Litigation