Catalogue description Chancery: Petty Bag Office and Cursitors' Office: Administrative Books, Papers, etc

Records of the Petty Bag Office and the neighbouring Cursitors' Office which were amalgamated by statute in 1835. The series includes

• inquisitions post mortem, relating to the responsibility of the Petty Bag Office to administer the escheat of lands to the Crown;
• abstracts of patent rolls, fine rolls and statute staple cases of the seventeenth century, providing evidence of the fee-earning capacity of the clerks of the Petty Bag;
• day books, a daily record of orders and fees received in the Petty Bag Office, 1779-1870, for filing, copying or enrolment;
• clerks' account books, 1729-1849, covering all office expenses;
• oath books, listing the names of office holders under the Crown obliged to swear loyalty according to various statutes;
• an alphabetical index to solicitors who had obtained licences to practise in the Court of Chancery, 1785-1843;
• precedent books, for conveyances, replevins and debts;
• and cursitors' account books, admission rolls, seal books, fine books, and miscellanea.