Catalogue description Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer of Chester: Exhibits

This series consists of exhibits brought into the Exchequer Court of the Palatinate of Chester in a suit between Mrs Brown and Mrs Cartwright, plaintiffs, and Mr John Legh, defendant, in 1727.

In the Chester Exchequer Court, as in other equity courts, exhibits were documents of various types presented or 'exhibited' before the court by one or both parties in a suit in support of their respective positions. They were supplementary evidence in a suit and often presented in support of depositions. As the majority of equity disputes were concerned with land, inheritance, money and debt most exhibits are documents which show title or possession or some other financial advantage.

Usually, after the court had finished with the exhibits they were returned to the parties. However, occasionally they were not collected and so remained with the records of the court. In other equity courts large numbers of exhibits have accumulated over the life of the jurisdiction. This series contains the only exhibits from the Chester Exchequer to have survived.

It is common for exhibits to be considerably earlier in date than the time of the dispute in which they were presented. This was a result of the land conveyancing convention by which all the documents associated with a particular piece of land were transferred with the land when it passed to new ownership, resulting in an ever growing portfolio of deeds and other documents known as 'evidences'. Parties to a dispute would attempt to prove an unbroken line of succession to their own possession by producing a mass of such documentation. The records in this series date possibly from as early as the twelfth century and certainly from 1240, continuing until 1673.

As examples of legal records from a wide period of time these exhibits now have an intrinsic value which is quite separate from the use to which they were originally put in the court. Because in the main they relate to the same lands and succeeding generations of particular families these exhibits may be of interest to historians of medieval and early modern Chester as well as genealogists and social historians.

Most of the exhibits in this series are evidence for the possession of land including: grants of various types, quitclaims, indentures or agreements with associated obligations to enforce performance, family settlements such as marriage agreements, fines, receipts for payment and lists of evidences relating to lands. The lands described are mainly in Chester itself or a number of small villages which straddled the city boundaries, becoming part of the city as the centuries passed. These include: Claverton, Handbridge and Newbold. Lands are also mentioned in a number of other places such as Upton, near Chester, Rotherham, Yorks, Bromborough, Ches and Kinnersley, Salop.

Most of the remaining documents are also associated with establishing legal title to land although they are not primary deeds. Thus there are copies of wills, inquisitions and grants of wardship as well as bills of complaint, court orders and arbitration awards. Perhaps the most interesting of these is a small note book of Roger Hurleston from the years 1606-1607 containing both personal matters and information regarding Chester affairs. Many family names appear only once or twice. Included among those which occur more often are: de Praers, Penket, Hurel, Hurlston, Gerard and Perry.

Just over half of the records are in Latin with English becoming more common towards the end of the period covered by the records as well as during the Commonwealth. One is in French.