Records of the Chancery as a legal registry and repository

Division within C

c 1100-1857

Miscellaneous records deposited in, or acquired by, Chancery:

• Chancery miscellanea of very varied kinds, in C 47
• Official copies of the Book of Common Prayer, in C 95
• Records of forest eyres, Charles I, in C 99
• Ancient and modern deeds of various provenances, in C 146, C 147, C 148 and C 149
• A cartulary and deeds of the abbey of St Peter, Gloucester, in C 150
• A deed of gift to the nation of a collection of pictures, in C 151
• Some Windsor Forest court rolls, in C 154
• Various records from central and local courts and officers returned into Chancery for subsequent use or action, in C 260
• Legal miscellanea left in Chancery, in C 263
• Returns following the proclamation in 1561 about prohibited food and drink, in C 265
• Cancelled and surrendered writs, in C 268
• Account books of Keepers of Records and the Tower and Rolls Chapels, in C 272
• Chancery original finding aids, in C 273

Public Record(s)

English

16 series

Topics

Art, architecture and design

Food and drink

Forestry

Throughout its history, Chancery's function as a central legal office and as a place where official records might be consulted led to its use as a residual place of deposit for documents which, for one reason or another, were thought to be worthy of permanent preservation in a public office, and which had no other obvious departmental home. Some items, such as the Book of Common Prayer, were deposited in Chancery as a matter of policy; others, such as the Windsor Forest court rolls, seem to have found their way into Chancery by accident.

Many documents inherited by Chancery have no obvious legal or administrative connection with the court, and it is unclear whether they were deposited in Chancery for safe-keeping, or deposited temporarily by litigants in the course of legal proceedings and never reclaimed. Their precise provenance is therefore uncertain or unknown, and they may owe their survival simply to the conservative instincts of the court and its staff rather than to any policy of preservation.