Records of the Courts of Common Law (Common Pleas and Assizes)DURH 111660-1834Palatinate of Durham: Court of Pleas: Concords of Fines Files
This series consists of files of concords of fines from the Court of Pleas at Durham, spanning the years 1660 to 1834 when feet of fines were abolished. Concords of fines were the preliminary agreements between the parties, styled the demandant and the tenant, in a legal fiction devised to register the conveyance of property as a court record. These concords were produced for the court's consideration, and provide a fuller record of the transaction than the feet of fine (or the notes), omitting only the payment involved in the conveyance. The concords themselves were usually initiated by a writ of covenant to secure a license to concord.
The earliest records in the series often contain two documents for the same transaction, though the two may not be next to each other in a file. The first is a writ of precipe which initiated the collusive case on which the concord was grounded; after the date is written the amount of the fine paid to the bishop. The second is the concord.