Exchequer: Pipe Office: Enrolments of Crown Leases

E 309

1560-1601

This series consists of enrolments of Crown leases by letters patent under the Exchequer Seal, which were deposited in the Augmentation Office by the Pipe Office.

Includes records otherwise in Division in E: Records of the Pipe Office

Public Record(s)

Latin

496 box(es)

Topics

Government finances

The leasing of Crown land created documents at each stage of a complex bureaucratic process. The enrolments in this series represent a stage towards the end of that process.

At the annexation of the Court of Augmentations to the Exchequer in 1554 the responsibility for leasing of Crown land was split between the Exchequer and the Chancery, the criteria being the amount of yearly rent a lease involved. Leases for lands worth over forty shillings in rent were to pass through Chancery and be authenticated by the great seal. Leases for lands of forty shillings or less were to pass under the Exchequer seal and were to be prepared by the Clerk of the Pipe on the warrant of the Treasurer. The leases were also to be enrolled within the office of the Clerk of the Pipe and the documents in this series represent these enrolments.