Piece
c 246-255
Catalogue reference: C 65/6064
Date: 62 & 63 Vict
c 246-255
Sub-series
PRISONERS AND BAIL
Catalogue reference: Sub-series within C 255
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Sub-series within C 255
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- Sub-series within C 255
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Title (The name of the record)
- PRISONERS AND BAIL
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Note (Additional information about the record)
- File 1 is a collection of writs instructing sheriffs either to receive prisoners into their custody or to transfer them to another's. Those which survive among the Chancery records are probably exceptional, issued when a sheriff had ignored previous instructions or because of the importance of the case in which the prisoner was involved and for these reasons made returnable into Chancery. Few are concerned with the receipt of prisoners. The first, dated 18 Edward I, required the sheriff to receive a woman outlawed in her absence, (C255/10/1 no. 2.) probably as a preliminary to her being pardoned. Another, dated 2 Henry V, required the sheriffs of London to receive by indenture from the earl of Norfolk convicted prisoners in his keeping. (C255/10/1 no. 20.) A third required the sheriff of Hampshire to receive from the sheriff of Oxford men captured within Oxfordshire but indicted before the keepers of the peace in Hampshire. (C255/10/1 no. 21.) The remaining writs in this file authorized the transfer of prisoners from one prison to another: a man from Bristol was to be sent to face an approver at Newgate, (C255/10/1 no. 1.) men were transferred to face trial elsewhere, (E.g. C255/10/1 nos. 4, 14.) returned to a prison from which they had escaped (E.g. C255/10/1 no. 10.) or transferred to assist inquiries in another part of the country. (E.g. C255/10/1 no. 15.) Two writs order the surrender of a prisoner to a temporary keeper; one was delivered to the earl of Northumberland, another to the master of the king's barge at Greenwich, and both were required to be produced before the council. (C255/10/1 nos. 18, 19.) File 2 is a miscellaneous collection, each requiring the addressee, usually the sheriff, to release the prisoner either on condition that he found mainpernors to fulfil the stated condition or after such mainpernors had been found for him in Chancery. The reasons given for imprisonment are diverse: on indictment for homicide, (C255/10/2 nos. 1-5, 10, 11.) debt, (C255/10/2 no. 13.) arrears of account, (C255/10/2 nos. 7-8, 12, 22, 43.) smuggling wool from the country, (C255/10/2 no. 24.) suspicion of counterfeighting the Great Seal (C255/10/2 no. 25.) or of heresy. (C255/10/2 no. 34.) The conditions of release were likewise varied: to appear before the king, the king and council, or in Chancery, before the Justices or in the Exchequer on a specified or unspecified day. In one case, involving goods taken from the ships of the duke of Guelders' men, the prisoner was released on condition that he would go abroad in the king's service at the earliest opportunity and at his own expense. (C255/10/2 no. 21.) File 3 contains warrants for the unconditional release of prisoners, for example clerks imprisoned for debts under statute merchant despite their clerical privilege, (C255/10/3 nos. 1, 6.) of a man taken by the Steward and Marshal of the Household in a matter outside their competence, (C255/10/3 no. 17; cf. 27 Edward III cc. 5, 6.) of a man cleared of the charge of Scottish birth and sympathies (C255/10/3 no. 15.) and of another imprisoned for debt while attending the earl of Warwick at parliament, whereby parliamentary privilege had been infringed. (C255/10/3 no. 19.) Also included are a group concerned with the release of excommunicates imprisoned by the sheriff who alleged undue delay by their bishop's refusal to accept sureties for their submission to ecclesiastical discipline; in such cases the sheriff was instructed to take the prisoner to the bishop and witness the renewed ofer of sureties; thereafter, if the bishop again refused, the sheriff must release the prisoner. (C255/10/3 nos. 3, 4, 7-9, see also C245.) Finally, there is a writ to the keeper of Barnard Castle, within the liberty of the bishop of Durham, requesting the release of men who have neither been indicted or convicted but have, nevertheless, been given into his custody by a royal forester. (C255/10/3 no. 5.) File 4 contains warrants to take sureties for various purposes, including the release on bail of a prisoner held elsewhere, (C255/10/4 nos. 2, 4-8.) to arrest a man unless he finds sureties to be of good behaviour towards a royal clerk, (C255/10/4 no. 3.) to take sureties from a man being prosecuted before the council (C255/10/4 no. 19.) and from the old and infirm to submit to justice in their own county while their fellows, arrested under a general commission, were taken to London. (C255/10/4 no. 9.) There is also a group which concerns the restoration of seized alien religious houses (E.g. C255/10/4 nos. 10-18.) and two which are concerned with sureties to be found by resident aliens to be of good behaviour. (C255/10/4 nos. 26, 27.) File 5 contains writs which state that the king has information that a person, almost invariably a clerk or other ecclesiastic, proposes to go abroad to prosecute business prejudicial to the king and his people, and instructs the sheriff to take sureties that the man will not go abroad without the king's special licence nor prosecute or cause to be prosecuted anything which will prejudice the king. Similar undertakings given in Chancery are to be found in Recognizances (C259) and on the Corpus cum causa files (C244), all enforcing the legislation against Papal provisions and appeals to the Roman court in matters within the jurisdiction of the royal courts. From 51 Edward III some, but not all, of these writs are endorsed with the name of the man who sued out the writ for the king. (E.g. C255/10/5 no. 11.) Files 6 and 7 contain writs addressed to the keepers of the peace and the sheriff, or their equivalents, instructing them to take sureties from a named person for his future good behaviour towards the king and his people. The earliest of these writs, dated 14 Elizabeth I, (C255/10/6 no. 1.) mentions no statutory authority, but the remaining writs refer to the Statute of Westminster 34 Edward III c.1. The writ almost invariably specifies that four sureties are to be found and, with two exceptions, (C255/10/6 nos. 8, 9, where specified persons will be protected.) requires good behaviour towards the king and all his people. As in the case of supplicavit, there are examples of writs including a non obstante clause, (E.g. C255/10/6 no. 7.) allowing the addressees to ignore a previous writ of supersedeas.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C64827/
Series information
C 255
Chancery Files, Tower and Rolls Chapel Series, Miscellaneous Files and Writs
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Within the department: C
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Within the series: C 255
Chancery Files, Tower and Rolls Chapel Series, Miscellaneous Files and Writs
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PRISONERS AND BAIL
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