Catalogue description Court of Common Pleas: Rex Rolls

When they were examined at Carlton Ride in the 1840s, the rolls were said to be 'transcripts of parts' of the appropriate De Banco or plea roll, and they subsequently came to be described as 'extract rolls'. During the later nineteenth century there was also a separate series of King's Bench 'extract rolls', which were in fact some of the Common Pleas series of 'Rex' rolls. Their true nature was only discovered by L O Pike in 1900 when working on the year books of Edward III's reign for the Rolls Series. As a result of his discovery the present arrangement of the series was made, but the pre-1327 rolls were left in KB 26 and CP 40, where they still remain, as do two Edward III rolls (CP 40/268, 289). Portions of some plea rolls are misplaced here; they are identified either by the appearance of the name of a justice at the head of the rotuli instead of 'Rex', or alternatively by bearing the much larger rotulus numbers characteristic of plea rolls.

Until 1992 the dates of CP 23/137-162 were not known, and they were listed as 'undated'. A few have now been precisely dated following further examination. The dates and where possible the terms of the others have been worked out by the use of internal evidence, especially the dates of the alleged incidents which provided the occasion for the issue of a writ of trespass. These give a fairly close terminus post quem; the exact dates could be ascertained by laborious checking of the cross-references to the rotuli of the plea rolls for the same terms.