Special Collections: Rentals and Surveys, Rolls

SC 11

Various manorial survey documents for crown lands, property which had passed into crown hands from, for example, the Marcher lordships, or property which had been the subject of an official enquiry. The principal types of documents are custumals, extents, rentals, surveys, terriers and valors. They were drawn up periodically by a number of different estate officials. Few documents date from later than 1685.

The series was formerly known as Rentals and Surveys (General Series), Rolls. It was created artificially from records taken from three key Exchequer sources during the late nineteenth century, namely, Miscellanea from the Queen's Remembrancer's Office, the Treasury of the Receipt of the Exchequer and the Augmentation Office (LR 2 and LR 13). Some records were also taken from those of the Palatinate of Chester (CHES).

Henry III-William IV

The National Archives, Kew

Public Record

English and Latin

Exchequer, Augmentation Office, 1554-1833
Exchequer, Kings Remembrancer, 1150-1875
Exchequer, Treasury of the Receipt, 1109-1833

1027 roll(s)

In the late 18th century most of the records of the Queen's Remembrancer's Office were in the Palace of Westminster. Most were transferred to the Public Record Office in 1858. The records of the Augmentation Office were housed in St Margaret's Lane, near New Palace Yard at Westminster, at the end of the 18th century. In 1800 they were moved to rooms over the King's Bench Treasury at Westminster until sent to Carlton Ride in 1843. By 1858 the records had been transferred to the Public Record Office. By the beginning of the 19th century all the records of the Treasury of the Receipt were in the Chapter House repository at Westminster Abbey. Most of the records were removed to the Public Record Office by 1859.

Listed and indexed in: Lists of Rentals and Surveys and Other Analogous Documents, Public Record Office Lists and Indexes, XXV (HMSO, London, 1908) List of Rentals and Surveys: Addenda Lists and Indexes to No. XXV and Index, Public Record Office List and Indexes, Supplementary Series, XIV (New York, Kraus Reprint Corporation, 1968) The descriptions of the type of documents that appear in these publications are sometimes wrong, and often disguise the true content of the material. A survey of the surviving records is given in R R Davies, Lordship and Society in the March of Wales 1282-1400 (Oxford 1978).

See also Special Collections: Rentals and Surveys, Portfolios (formerly introductory note to SC 12)