Catalogue description Exchequer: Treasury of the Receipt: Council and Privy Seal Records

This series includes petitions to the king and council, with notes of process and other documents serving as warrants for the Privy Seal Office, with drafts and memoranda of letters and other instruments prepared there.

Many of them contain notes of attendance at sessions of the council, and some are bills signed by the councillors. There are also memoranda and agenda of the council; a record of proceedings compiled by the council's clerk in the reign of Richard II; and some pleadings and proofs in suits heard before the council in the last quarter of the fifteenth century (otherwise in STAC 1)

Many related records were acquired by the antiquary Sir Robert Cotton and are now in the British Library.

See also the records of the Privy Seal Office: PSO

Significant records are printed in English Medieval Diplomatic Practice, i, ed P Chaplais (2 vols, London, 1982). English documents from this series are given in Anthology of Chancery English, ed J H Fisher, M Richardson and J L Fisher (Knoxville, 1984). Items of Scottish interest are included in Calendar of Documents Relating to Scotland, AD 1108-1516, v (supplementary), ed G G Simpson and J D Galbraith (Edinburgh, 1986). The significant related records held in the British Library are published in N H Nicolas, Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England (7 vols, London, 1834-1837).