Catalogue description Court of Common Pleas: Brevia de Proclamatione Files

Files of writs requiring the sheriff of a county to make proclamation of the intent to proceed to outlawry of a defaulting defendant in a case brought before the court.

This would be done in the appropriate county court and quarter sessions, and in the parish church or chapel nearest to the home of the defendant.

The writs were issued on the same date as the writ of exigi facias, was issued to outlaw the defendant. A return was made as to the times and places where this was done, and the writs and returns were filed by an official called the exigenter.

The exigenters collected the writs by the legal term during which the proclamations were due, in some cases, for instance Michaelmas and Easter term, by the specific return days within the term. The writs were filed on a leather thong with stops at the bottom of the files and were later rolled up in bundles. The original covers were labelled with the relevant regnal years and legal terms, and when necessary, the return days.

Nearly all the surviving original covers are also endorsed with a sun.

There is almost an interrupted run of files for James I, starting from the 11th year of his reign, 1614, and for Charles I. There are fewer surviving examples of files from the interregnum period, and the reign of Charles II, with some sporadic samples up to the 7th year in the reign of Anne, 1709.

The writs are mostly in Latin except for the period from 1651 to 1661, during which are in English.

The writs of exigi facias are in CP 59