Catalogue description Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series I, Henry IV

Search within or browse this series to find specific records of interest.

Date range

Details of C 137
Reference: C 137
Title: Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series I, Henry IV
Description:

The sixth series of inquisitions post mortem in Series I, dating to the reign of Henry IV.

Date: c1399-c1413
Arrangement:

Each file is usually made up of the documentation of inquisitions post mortem following the deaths of about twenty persons. The actual number of inquisitions in each file is likely to be rather greater than twenty, given that a tenant might well have held lands in more than one county, in which case separate inquisitions were required to be conducted in each shire concerned. The series is arranged, as far as possible, in chronological order.

Inquisitions made upon the lands of particularly wealthy magnates may take up several files on their own.

Related material:

Accounts submitted to the Exchequer by the escheators are in E 136

Separated material:

Copies of inquisitions post mortem sent to the Exchequer are in E 149

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: Latin
Physical description: 90 file(s)
Custodial history: The records in this series were formerly housed in the Tower of London.
Publication note:

Calendared and indexed in Calendar of inquisitions post mortem and other analogous documents preserved in the Public Record Office, xviii-xix (HMSO, 1987-1992). The calendar omits the names of escheators and jurors, and extents, though mentioned, are not given in any detail.

Administrative / biographical background:

The writ of melius sciri - 'to be known better' - an alternative to plenius certiorari and similar writs used to obtain further details, seems to make its first appearance in the reign of Henry IV.

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?