Catalogue description Exchequer: Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer: Writs of Enclosure

During 1517 and 1518 commissioners to enquire into depopulation and enclosures were active in many English counties; their returns give details not only of the enclosure but also of the person or institution to whom seisin belonged. Under the terms of a series of Tillage Acts, the lord of whom it was held was entitled to half the profits of the land on which enclosure and destruction of inhabited buildings had occurred until such time as the buildings had been restored. The Crown thus held a financial interest in those cases in which the land was held in chief or in wardship.

The writs of enclosure were intended to secure the appearance in the Exchequer of the holder of those lands to account for the King's share of the profits. The writs, derived from transcripts which have not survived, rehearse the substance of the original inquisitions, including details of the nature and circumstances of the alleged enclosure and depopulation. They thus supplement the original returns for those instances in which the originals have not survived.

Writs of enclosure issued into Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire, although very few writs concern lands in the last two counties. Until and unless the offender appeared at the Exchequer to plead his cause, writs were issued against him term after term.

The commissions of inquiry issued out of Chancery and the returns survive in incomplete series in C 47

Subsequent proceedings are recorded on the memoranda rolls in E 368