Catalogue description Exchequer of Pleas: Order Books

Books recording orders made by the court, the earliest such series for any common law court.

The orders included are of various kinds, the most common being rules to plead, rules to reply, and notices of trial. These were not enrolled on the Plea Rolls (E 13). The order books thus provide a useful means of following the progress of a case through the court.

Some of the earlier volumes include memoranda as well as orders. Later volumes include entries annotated with costs or the date that judgement was signed.

There are separate series of entries at the backs of the volumes listing notices of trial, including those cases sent for trial at assizes. The order books continued to include side-bar rules and orders to sign judgement down to 1830.

Appearances were also recorded in E 2

In 1811 the order books were effectively superseded by the rule books, which are in E 15