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Catalogue description Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer Court: Records of Proceedings in the Pentice and Portmote Courts of the City of Chester
| Reference: | CHES 8 |
|---|---|
| Title: | Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer Court: Records of Proceedings in the Pentice and Portmote Courts of the City of Chester |
| Description: |
This series contains records of proceedings in cases before the two Chester city courts brought into the superior Exchequer of Chester for consideration, usually following the issue of a writ of certiorari. The great majority of the records relating to both courts date from the latter end of the seventeenth century. Most are substantial records of individual cases, but items covering a range of years include a number of smaller records, with their accompanying writs, filed together. The writs which transferred the cases from the inferior courts to the Exchequer Court were usually writs of certiorari, but occasionally of error, issued in the name of the monarch or the Prince of Wales at Chester as appropriate. |
| Date: | c1551-c1762 |
| Separated material: |
Records of the courts themselves are in the Chester City Record Office. |
| Held by: | The National Archives, Kew |
| Legal status: | Public Record(s) |
| Language: | English |
| Creator: |
Palatinate of Chester, Pentice Court, 1300-1830 Palatinate of Chester, Portmote Court, 1300-1830 |
| Physical description: | 40 roll(s) |
| Publication note: |
See Selected Rolls of the Chester City Courts... ed A Hopkins, Chetham Society, 1905, for transcripts and a useful discussion of the early rolls of the Courts preserved in the Chester Record Office; and Historical Manuscripts Commission, 8th Report, App, pp 355-403. |
| Administrative / biographical background: |
Even before it achieved county status in 1506, the city of Chester received considerable judicial privileges from the crown. In 1300 it was the first city to be given the right to try pleas of the crown before the mayor and bailiffs. The Portmote Court met several times a month, presided over by the mayor, and dealt with breaches of the peace and registered land transactions. The Pentice Court was held by the sheriffs, and met several times a week. It served as a market court, and also dealt with pleas of covenant, debt, trespass and detinue. On petition a case could be transferred to the Portmote Court, or even to the Chester County Court. |
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