Auditors' Papers, numbered

These 10 boxes contain the working papers of a large number of auditors. Whilst some documents survive for most circuits there is a great preponderence of material from Circuit 3 during the auditorship of Alexander King and his successor Francis Phelips, covering the period from the middle of the reign of Elizabeth I to 1652.

Types of document to be found include:

• Warrants and correspondence from the Lord Treasurer and other crown and public officers and committees giving the auditors general directions or specific instructions
• Correspondence and petitions addressed or referred to the auditors by their subordinates (receivers, bailiffs, and collectors) or by persons excusing themselves from payments
• Copies and exemplifications of deeds, letters patent and other instruments on which claims to rents, or to exemption from payment were founded; and instruments informing the auditors of crown appointments etc.
• Vouchers, receipts and correspondence concerning all matters touched on at the audit: allowance for repair of properties, payment of pensions; grants of offices; proclamations and instructions for running the audit

Each individual paper bears a number corresponding with a descriptive slip pasted into the Index (IND 7657). In a well-meaning attempt to aid local historians the indexer grouped the slips by county alphabetically and within counties chronologically. But since each auditor covered a number of counties there are many documents which defy this simple classification and follow on later in the index. In addition there are many individual documents for which no county was ascertainable. Slips for these come at the end of the index. The original documents are not in any particular order in the boxes, and the present arrangement of the index obscures the archival provenance, by audit circuit.