Catalogue description Palatinate of Chester: Chester County Court, Flint Justice's Sessions, and Macclesfield Hundred Court: Calendar Rolls

This series contains three separate series of calendar rolls. One, for the county court of Chester, runs from 1365 to 1546; that for the Flintshire sessions held by the justice of Chester runs from 1346/47 to 1539; and that for the Macclesfield hundred court covers the period from 1358 to 1394/95. None of the series is complete within the date range it covers. The rolls themselves are made up of rotuli much narrower than those found in the various series of plea rolls.

The calendar rolls consists of lists of all those indicted during a given regnal year, or sometimes at particular court sessions, under headings for those years or sessions and the appropriate hundreds. The entries give only the name, place of residence and (after 1413) occupation or status of each person indicted, sometimes with an indication as to whether the indictment was for trespass or felony. Occasionally there are notes recording the outcome of the case.

The contents of the calendar rolls are largely copied from the corresponding indictment rolls, although there may be some occasional entries copied from filings in the files for the appropriate sessions. Their main purpose was probably to enable the clerks to issue writs and write up records of exaction and outlawry on the plea rolls without the need to read through the detailed entries on the indictments rolls.

Palatinate of Chester, Chester County Court, 1297-1540

Palatinate of Chester, Courts of Great Sessions of Chester and Flint, 1540-1830

Palatinate of Chester, Macclesfield Hundred Court, 1297-1830