Record revealed
Charter issued by the Anglo-Saxon King Edgar
The oldest complete document at The National Archives, this charter recording a grant of land dates back over 1,000 years.
Series
Duchy of Lancaster: Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Pleadings and Special Commissions
Catalogue reference: DL 7
What's it about?
DL 7
This series consists largely of inquisitions post mortem taken either before the Escheator of the County Palatine of Lancaster or before special commissioners. Most of them relate to Lancashire.Some of the inquisitions were returned into the...
Full description and record details
-
Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- DL 7
-
Title (The name of the record)
- Duchy of Lancaster: Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Pleadings and Special Commissions
-
Date (When the record was created)
- 1271-1973
-
Description (What the record is about)
-
This series consists largely of inquisitions post mortem taken either before the Escheator of the County Palatine of Lancaster or before special commissioners. Most of them relate to Lancashire.
Some of the inquisitions were returned into the chancery at Lancaster in the form of a traverse, where the heir disputed the facts as set out in the inquisition.
The series also includes records which reflect the attempts made by Henry VII and Henry VIII to revive the payment of various feudal aids throughout the Duchy, resulting in inquisitions, informations, common law proceedings, and proceedings before the Duchy Council. These documents come from all parts of the Duchy, though mostly from outside Lancashire.
-
Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
-
Arrangement
Between 1800 and 1823 the documents in this series were cleaned, repaired and bound into their current arrangement.
-
Separated material (A cross-reference between records that are related by provenance but now kept separately)
-
Some inquisitions post mortem of the Duchy of Lancaster, dating from the late fourteenth century to the early sixteenth century, can be found in
-
Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
-
Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Not Public Record(s)
-
Language (The language of the record)
- English, French and Latin
-
Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
-
- Duchy of Lancaster, 1399-1399
- Duchy of Lancaster, Chancery, 1351-1351
-
Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 43 volume(s)
-
Physical condition (Aspects of the physical condition of the record that may affect or limit its use)
- Some documents survive with seals attached.
-
Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
-
Custodial history (Describes where and how the record has been held from creation to transfer to The National Archives)
- In 1800 the Duchy of Lancaster reported to a Select Committee of the House of Commons that the Duchy had 2,400 inquisitions post mortem, dating from 1413 to 1642. In 1823 a calendar of these documents was published by the Record Commission. The preface to this reported that, upon further investigation, the number of inquisitions had increased to 3,569. Between 1800 and 1823 the documents were cleaned, repaired and bound into their current arrangement. These volumes then came into the Public Record Office with the main transfer of Duchy records in 1868.
-
Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
-
Inquisitions post mortem were held on the death of any tenant who held, or was believed to hold, land of the Duke of Lancaster or, from 1399, of the king as holder of the Duchy. If a local jury returned that the land was so held, then the duke/king was entitled to any feudal revenues due.
-
Publication note(s) (A note of publications related to the record)
- A calendar of the inquisitions post mortem dating from 1413 to 1642 was published as Ducatus Lancastriae, i (Record Commission, 1823), pp 1-107. The inquisitions post mortem for the reign of James I have been printed in brief translation in Lancashire Inquisitions returned into the Chancery of the Duchy of Lancaster: Stuart Period, ed J P Rylands (3 vols, Lancashire and Cheshire Record Society, iii, xvi-xvii, 1879-1888).
-
Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C5965/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
47,548 records
Within the department: DL
Records of the Duchy of Lancaster
You are currently looking at the series: DL 7
Duchy of Lancaster: Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Pleadings and Special Commissions
You may be interested in
-
-
The story of
Maud Allan
Maud Allan (1873–1956) was a celebrated West End dancer in the early 20th century until she became entangled in one of the most sensational trials of the 1920s. -
The story of
Radclyffe Hall
Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) lived relatively openly as a lesbian in an era that condemned such relationships. Today she is an icon of LGBTQ+ literature.
Related records
Records that share similar topics with this record.