Catalogue description Chancery: Recognizance Rolls

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Details of C 68
Reference: C 68
Title: Chancery: Recognizance Rolls
Description:

Enrolments of recognizances and bonds (acknowledgements of debts or other obligations, with sureties and penalties attached) entered into in the Chancery Division of the High Court.

They were made before a master in Chancery, and signed by him, before being copied and enrolled. A clerk of the Enrolment Office was also in attendance, and signed the recognizance. Any actions on recognizances acknowledged in Chancery were drawn up by the clerks of the Petty Bag Office as part of the common law side of Chancery proceedings.

The records note the persons due to enter into the bond, together with the surety payment. The document also details the court action of which the recognizance usually formed part.

Notwithstanding the destruction of the majority of the pieces in this series, indexes of names survive in: IND 1/2257 - IND 1/2266 and IND 1/15344 - IND 1/15360.

Date: 1903-1906
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 6 roll(s)
Custodial history: The Enrolment Office of the Royal Courts of Justice is noted as transferring 165 rolls, dated 1883-1887, to the Public Record Office in 1896. A further 92 rolls and three volumes of index, covering the period 1890 to 1892, were transferred in 1903. The last transmission was in 1933, from the Central Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and comprised the 509 rolls and 17 volumes of index from 1893 to 1909.
Selection and destruction information: Originally this series consisted of 832 rolls, covering the period 1883 to 1909. Under a schedule of 11 May 1942 most of the series was destroyed, leaving only six pieces, covering the period 1903 to 1906, which appeared to include the enrolment of securities still in force at that time. Under the same destruction schedule, recognizance rolls in C 54 were also destroyed from 1863 to 1882. Again, the indexes were preserved.

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