Catalogue description Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Alienation Office Receivers' Entry Books of Fines and Accounts of Fines

This series consists mainly of entry books of fines compiled by the Alienation Office (A) clerks. The name of the person paying the fine was recorded, along with the name of the county in which the property lay, and the amount of the fine.

Following a statute of 1327, any land held of the Crown transferred by a tenant-in-chief to another tenant became liable for a fine. The Alienation Office was set up in 1576 to manage the revenue from such business. The accounts of the Alienation Office were audited yearly, and it is the supporting accounts of fines which were used to draw up the audited accounts and were kept by the King's Remembrancer's Office which are now in this series.

In addition, the series also contains accounts of pre-fines, which were levied on writs of covenant for the settlement of freehold property, and post-fines, also known as the King's Silver, which were levied after a licence to agree on the settlement of land was granted.

The series proper ends in 1660 with the abolition of alienation fines, but it contains some strays from the post-fines rolls in E 374