Catalogue description Duchy of Lancaster and Palatinate of Lancaster: Chanceries: Enrolments

This series consists of several distinct collections of rolls on which are enrolled copies of instruments passed under the seals of the Palatinate (otherwise in PL, Chancery Administrative Records division) or Duchy of Lancaster.

The main run of rolls in this series contains enrolments of the Duchy chancery (1440-1478), including letters patent and leases of offices and lands, warrants and writs of an executive and administrative nature addressed to the officers of the Duchy, and presentations to livings in the right of the Duchy.

There are also Chancery rolls of Duke Henry 1354-1361; some enrolments from the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509); and some close rolls of the Palatinate of Lancaster.

The chancery rolls of Duke Henry (1354-1361) include grants of land and offices (such as sherriff and escheator); leases of land in Lancashire; recognizances of debt; pardons of debt and trespass; and releases and letters of protection while with the duke in France. Because the King's writ did not run in the Palatinate there are notes of fines paid for writs needed to commence proceedings in the Palatinate court and enrolments of writs. Mandates from the king for action in the country are also enrolled, such as a commission to levy aid for the king's son. There are also commissions to appoint justices to hear and determine all pleas and justices in eyre for the forests in the county.

The remaining material in the series dates from the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509) and consists of a large roll of enrolments of letters patent, commissions and warrants, and a number of other rolls containing abstracts of leases of lands and grants of offices and annuities organised by counties.

Duchy of Lancaster, Chancery, 1351-

From 2021 Duchy of Lancaster