Catalogue description SHERIFFS' RETURNS OF THE NOMINA VILLARUM

Nomina villarum rolls (E 370/2/1-9): these are rolls containing the few surviving returns to writs issued in 9 Edward II to all sheriffs, directing them to certify to the Exchequer the number of hundreds and wapentakes within their bailiwicks, what cities, boroughs and townships there were within each such hundred or wapentake and who were their lords. The information was required for the purpose of the military levies granted in parliament in 9 Edward II, when it was directed that one man-at-arms should be raised from each township.

There is a later nomina villarum roll from the seventeenth century in:

E 369/123

A transcript of these rolls was made in 1 Henry VII; a copy of it in the handwriting of Sir Henry Ellis is preserved among the transcripts made for the Record Commission (PRO 31/7/65), and other copies more or less imperfect, exist among the Harleian manuscripts in the British Library and elsewhere.