Catalogue description Committee for Compounding with Delinquents: Books and Papers

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Details of SP 23
Reference: SP 23
Title: Committee for Compounding with Delinquents: Books and Papers
Description:

The records of the Committee for Compounding with Delinquents including Parliamentary orders to the committee, general proceedings, warrants for payment of money, order books, entry books of out-letters, minute books, returns, receipts and reports of compositions and sequestrations, and lists of delinquents and surveys of their estates. The committees's report on an individual delinquent's case is usually accompanied by petitions, a particular of the estate (sometimes of debts) with the delinquent's signature and certificates of political correctness.

There are two series of specific royalist composition papers, the second covering particular estates and fines. There are also letters and depositions returned by county committees on the orders of the committee, and an order book of the Committee for Scottish Affairs. Also contains some of the records of the Committee for Plundered Ministers: SP 22

The estates of royalists not permitted to compound or who refused to do so were in the hands of the treason trustees meeting at Drury House, London. Their papers have virtually disappeared, but they informed the Committee for Compounding of releases of sequestrated property to new owners: such information survives in this series, but should be treated with caution.

The series was formerly known as 'Interregnum G'.

Date: 1643-1664
Related material:

additional finding aid ZBOX 1/79/3

additional finding aid ZBOX 1/79/2

Separated material:

Some composition papers destroyed by damp are referred to in the key list in the main calendar.

Uncalendared composition material relating to Yorkshire is in SP 28/7

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Committee for Compounding with Delinquents, 1643-1656

Committee for Scottish Affairs, 1643-1656

Physical description: 269 volume(s)
Publication note:

Nearly all the records are calendared in Calendar of the Proceedings of the Committee for Compounding etc 1643-1660 ed. M A E Green 5 parts (London 1889-1892). Selections are printed in vols 21 and 2 of the Calendar of State Papers Domestic Series of the Reign of Charles I ed. J Bruce W Douglas Hamilton and S Crawford Lomas 23 vols (London 1858-1897). Please speak to staff at the Map and Large Document Room enquiry desk for the precise location. A publication which covers A-F only and is also incomplete being based on obsolete Public Record Office indexes listed below is Index Nominum to the Royalist Composition Papers first and second series (W P W Phillimore ed. London 1889). For some counties composition papers from this series have been extracted and published usually in conjunction with County Committee papers. For some examples see the list in G E Aylmer and J S Morrill The Civil War and Interregnum Sou

Unpublished finding aids:

The Public Record Office has obsolete indexes which may contain references not in the main calendar: Surname, OBS 1/626-628 and 631 Location indexes to the two series of composition papers, OBS 1/629 and 632-636 Unidentified index of the year 1652, OBS 1/637 See also Committee for Compounding with Delinquents: Books and Papers (formerly introductory note to SP 23)

Administrative / biographical background:

The Committee for Compounding for the Estates of Royalists and Delinquents, established by Parliament to raise money for their fight with Charles I, first met at Goldsmiths Hall in London on 8 November 1643. It sought loans of money until July 1644, and then turned to delinquents. The object was to receive from the delinquents themselves, both from those against whom no information had been made and from those who were already under sequestration, a confession of their delinquency; a pledge of adherence to the present government; and a full account on oath of their possessions, real and personal. A legal report was then made and they were admitted to compound in proportion to the degree of their guilt. One half his estate was extracted from any delinquent member of parliament, one sixth from those who had taken part in the former or latter war, and one third from those who had been active in both wars.

The committee overtook and eventually absorbed the Committee for Advance of Money and the Sequestration Committee (by 1650), as the system of fining delinquents was the most expeditious one tried. It was in place by 1645, and lingered on, the terms varying, until 1656, with a temporary and ineffective revival in 1659 after Booth's rising.

Money was distributed to the allied Scots army by the Committee for Scottish Affairs, also sitting at Goldsmiths Hall, but this committee in effect ceased to operate distinctly after October 1646.

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