Court of Common Pleas: Concordia Pedum Finium Files

CP 61

1562-1678

This series consists of original files of writs of dedimus potestatem issued by the Court of Common Pleas in the name of English and British monarchs.

These writs, essentially orders, were addressed to the justices and other officials of the English courts, commissioning them to collect the acknowledgements of the defendants (or deforciants) unable to travel to Westminster, one of the parties in collusive suits pending before the court which were intended to end in a final concord settling the supposed dispute. The writs were then returned by the justices endorsed with their answer and the term in which a proclamation was made.

The proclamation was a public announcement made in court to declare the end of the case and to detail the terms of the final concord. These proclamations provided validity to the final concord. Although there might be multiple terms in which a proclamation could be made, the writs were filed by the first term of proclamation.

The formulae of the dedimus potestatem writs are well known and easily ascertained from formularies and accounts of court practice.

These documents give the names of the parties involved in the suits (plaintiffs or buyers and defendants or sellers) and also detail the properties in question. In many cases, the dorses of the writs are blank and the acknowledgements are on other pieces of parchment attached to the writ. The endorsed or attached acknowledgements were to be used as part of the text of the final concords. These also often include the signatures of the officials or of the deforciants, and the proclamation term by which the writs were collected by the filazers.

The files were wrapped in a parchment cover labelled with the legal term and the regnal year.

Until the reign of Elizabeth I these writs were part of the Brevia files in CP 52, filed at the beginning of the first return day for each legal term and described as ‘letters to the justices’.

The earliest original file identified in this series is from Hilary term, 4 Elizabeth I (1562) and the latest, CP 61/57, from Hilary term, 29/30 Charles II (1678).

In the 19th century some of the files were dismantled and accessioned by monarch. These are now in series CP 24/1 to CP 24/13 . Links and gaps between these series are noted at piece level.

The files included in CP 61 were identified at a later stage.

The records are in Latin, except between Trinity 1651 and Trinity 1660 when they are in English.

The references use a simple running number scheme, from CP 61/1 to CP 61/65.

The files are arranged chronologically within the series until piece 57. Pieces 58 to 65 include material from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I that has been found since the completion of the preliminary sorting process.

The series is still accruing, as more material is likely to be identified in future sorts and will be added at the end of the piece sequence

Final concords or feet of fines files can be found in CP 25/1

Notes of feet of fines files can be found in CP 26/1

and CP 25/2

Portions of broken writs of covenant can be found in CP 50

to CP 26/14

Dedimus potestatem writs for suit initiated before 1558 can be found in CP 52

Writs of covenant initiating the suits can be found in CP 55

Files accessioned by monarch are in the range between the two references below:

CP 24/1

CP 24/13

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

Open

Topics

Conveyancing

Litigation