Catalogue description Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer of Chester: Pleadings

According to a nineteenth century Chester Exchequer practice manual, pleadings relating to debts and personal property were to be submitted on paper while those relating to land and other real property were supposed to be on parchment. For the later centuries of the court's operation this was by and large the case, although not invariably. However, in the early centuries of the court this rule does not seem to have applied, paper and parchment being used equally for pleadings relating to all types of actions. This has meant that the attempted division of the pleadings into two separate series, CHES 15 for parchment and CHES 16 for paper, undertaken when they arrived at the Public Record Office, is largely anomalous.

Thus CHES 15/1, which should be composed of parchment pleadings concerning real property, is made up entirely of paper pleadings relating to disputes concerning both real and personal property from the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Philip and Mary. The paper pleadings relating to personal property rightly belong in CHES 16, which at the moment contains no pleadings before the reign of Elizabeth I. Similarly, both paper and parchment pleadings for the reign of George III are in one sequence, CHES 15/156-178. In other words pleadings on either paper or parchment relating to either real or personal property are likely to be found in both series. Readers should look in both series for the years in which they are interested.

This series is now arranged largely chronologically. The records of each year are for the most part in separate boxes. On a number of occasions the records of two or more consecutive regnal years are contained in the same box. The last two pieces in the series are made up of undated items. Some of these are probably pleadings which have become separated from suit files throughout the series.

Until the middle of the seventeenth century the various records relating to each suit (bill, answer, depositions etc.) were joined together to form discreet suit files. William Black who surveyed the records in 1840 reported that "the filings in each cause are rolled up together, and these rolls are made up into yearly bundles as the suits were determined; but the oldest records of this kind seem to be in a confused state". These files are no longer rolled but are arranged in flat bundles. corresponding to the periods outlined in catalogue.

From the reign of Charles I interrogatories and depositions often form a separate file which may not be adjacent to their related pleadings. By the middle of the eighteenth century even related pleadings may not be attached to each other, instead being scattered throughout the particular box. It should be noted that not all files contain a full range of possible documents due to loss or destruction, or the fact that many suits did not progress beyond the bill stage.

Since their arrival at the Public Record Office the files and individual items have had a small label attached which records the date of the suit, where it can be determined, and sometimes the names of the parties or simply the first letter of the plaintiff's surname. Apart from two exceptions which will be explained below, the various files within each box are not numbered or in any regular order. For this reason when the plaintiff's name is known the lettered labels will make searching a whole box a little quicker. It should also be noted that documents may have been incorrectly filed.