Catalogue description Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Warrants, Nolle Prosequi

This series consists of the Attorney-General's warrants (nolle prosequi) to stay prosecution on revenue actions in the Exchequer. In its developed form the nolle prosequi was a stamped parchment, citing at its head the memoranda roll reference of the entry of the pleadings, and, in the text, discharging the debt and prosecution using a standard form of words. The names of the defendants, and the nature of the evidence giving grounds for the warrant, were concisely recited: and the warrant itself was signed by the Attorney-General. A paper copy of the record on the memoranda roll, and the originals of any coast bond, certificate from customs officials, affidavits, or certified copies of proceedings in other courts, which were the evidence grounding the stay of prosecution, were attached.

The series consists of warrants and subsidiary documents kept in office files by senior clerks in the Exchequer Office. The files are incomplete. The prosecutions all relate to non-payment of customs and excise duties.

Earlier warrants, including proceedings on penal statutes, from the mid-16th to the mid-18th centuries, were filed on bille files, which are in E 207