Catalogue description Court of Common Pleas: Notes of Fines Files, Henry III - Elizabeth I

These early notes are arranged by county in modern covers or in bundles with paper wrappers; they do not reflect the original filing arrangement, which was by term, although the original filing holes remain. CP 26/1/4/8 includes old file covers, the earliest being from the reign of Edward II, which confirm that they were in fact filed by term. The earliest file titles seem to indicate that there was more than one file per term by that date, but no research to elucidate the nature and significance of the filing system indicated by these covers has yet been undertaken.

The early Edward III file covers, mostly survive with their contents in the order in which they were sorted into them in the mid nineteenth century. The few still in their original state on their original thong, are labelled 'Note ingrossate...', a perhaps significant modification of 'Note ingrossande...', as are later examples, or occasionally simply 'Note...', so the other series may have ceased in the early fourteenth century. No evidence has been found to suggest that there was ever subsequently more than one series of files.

From other file covers found in CP 26/1, it seems that the notes of the reign of Edward II were rearranged into county files, with some 'divers counties' files for notes covering more than one county, covering the whole of that reign, at some time during the fifteenth century. From 1509 onwards the series of notes is fairly complete, although the files are not in their original format. When they were repaired in the mid nineteenth century the earlier ones were usually restrung, whether in their original order or not is unclear. The notes from the later seventeenth century onwards were arranged in small county files joined with pink tape, and are consequently easier to search. From 1509 to 1551 each piece consists of the notes for a regnal year; thereafter each piece includes the notes for a single term, for all counties, although for the reign of Elizabeth there are some Monmouthshire files, each covering a number of years.

The notes were kept in term files, but most of the original files broke and the surviving material was rearranged in the present 14 separate series in the nineteenth century.