Catalogue description Particulars for the Amendment of Defective Titles.

Details of Subseries within E 315
Reference: Subseries within E 315
Title: Particulars for the Amendment of Defective Titles.
Note: These six volumes contain particulars for new grants or leases, taken by virtue of warrants issued by the Commissioners appointed from time to time, for the compounding of defective titles. Commissions of this nature were of frequent occurrence during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I and Charles I, and generally set forth that it having come to the knowledge of the sovereign that many of his liege subjects were in possession, by purchase, descent, or otherwise, of lands and hereditaments formerly belonging to the Crown, of which they had either imperfect grants or no grants at all, he, out of consideration of their welfare and in order to prevent costly lawsuits and probable total loss of such lands and hereditaments, empowered certain Commissioners to compound with such persons for a certain sum of ready money to be by them paid into the Exchequer and thereupon to issue to them, in the King's name, new grants or leases, of the premises, thus putting them in secure possession of their estates, at a comparatively small cost. This apparent generosity on the part of the sovereign was extensively applied for the purpose of raising money, both by himself and by unscrupulous informers, who obtained from the Commissioners what have been termed "Fishing" grants, that is to say, grants of lands already held by other persons whose title they alleged to be defective, and from whom they extorted large sums for a re-transfer of their estates. Several grants of this description were made in the 33rd and 34th years of Elizabeth to two persons named William Tipper and Edward Dawe, who were particularly active in the discovery of so-called "Concealed Lands". Besides the Particulars in these six volumes, E315/87a-90 see also E315/159
Date: 1600-1638.

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