Catalogue description Lord Steward's Department: Accounts, Pedes Parcellarum

These contain monthly, half yearly and yearly analyses of the expenses of each department, both ordinary and extraordinary. They take their name meaning 'feet of parcels' from the 'parcels', or details, of consumptions brought into the Board of Green Cloth from the various offices of the Lord Steward's Department. These were then digested into the ledgers of accounts in this series.

The pieces begin with a monthly summary of the ordinary expenses of each office, and then these are totalled, usually by the half year (but this can vary, depending on the period covered by the piece), and then for the whole year, or total period of the piece. They are noted as examined. Within each office they are sub-divided into types of expenditure, eg for meats, herbs, wines, eggs, lamps, writing services, blacksmith's services etc.

Summaries of wages, necessaries, pensions and various ordinary and extraordinary expenditures follow, from the different offices. Also the expenses of writing the account; the auditor's fee; a view of the expenses of the household; the total received from the Exchequer; and a monthly summary of the creditors.