Catalogue description Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Escheators' Files, Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series II, and other Inquisitions, Henry VII to Elizabeth I

This series contains various types of inquisition held before the escheators within their separate escheatries. One copy of the resulting indented inquisition was returned to Chancery; the other was sent to the Exchequer in support of the escheator's accounts.

Most of the records in this series are inquisitions post mortem into whether the deceased had held land direct of the Crown. These duplicate the inquisitions in C 142, but also include unique inquisitions taken on the escheators' own authority.

The escheators also handled inquisitions into idiocy or lunacy, inquisitions ad quod damnum, inquisitions as to the landholdings of the church during vacancies of office, inquisitions as to the goods and property of aliens, traitors and felons, and a variety of miscellaneous inquisitions concerning land or goods in which the Crown had an interest, particularly relating to unauthorised alienation of land, often in mortmain. The series also includes a substantial number of inquisitions into the lands amassed by Cardinal Wolsey for the foundation of his colleges.

Inquisitions post mortem may also be found in

C 142

WARD 7

Catalogued, with E 136, in the Deputy Keeper of Public Records, Tenth Report, App II (London, 1849) Calendared for the reign of Henry VII only in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII (London, 1898-1956)