Catalogue description Exchequer: King's Remembrancer: Entry Books of Orders, Series II

This series continues the series of entry books of orders in equity and revenue causes heard on the King's Remembrancer's side of the Exchequer. They also include copies of reports made by the barons pursuant to orders of the court.

The books were maintained in two parallel series, but without obvious differentiation in the type of order entered. The division between the books appears to have been one of practical bureaucracy, arising from the amount of business. For some periods, three rather than two books were maintained in parallel.

Orders were often procedural, but not necessarily so. Indeed, some special orders in effect resolved a suit, and may give a great deal of information about a particular case. Awards of arbitrators could, by agreement between the parties, be made an order of court; once the order had been obtained, the award became binding on all parties, and enforceable by process of the court.

Some orders were of general reference to the conduct of the court or the collection of the revenue, and might be adopted as a rule of the court. One required the clerk examiners to take an oath, obliging them to keep depositions secret until publication was ordered by the court.

Digital images of some of the records in this series are available through the Anglo-American Legal Tradition website. Please note that The National Archives is not responsible for this website or its content.

The records are continued in E 125

The main detailed finding aids to the contents of individual volumes are several manuscript calendars and indexes of causes. They follow the order of the entry books so are in neither chronological nor case order. The brevity of the entries in the indexes make them easier to use than the calendars when tracing entries for a particular suit. Probably neither series is fully comprehensive. The more detailed calendars continue only to 1610. Please speak to staff at the Map and Large Document Room enquiry desk for the precise location.