Catalogue description Exchequer: Seal Office: Records

The 35 books in this series survive from the Seal Office of the Court of Exchequer, abolished in 1849, 26 years before the Court itself.

The Sealer, who was Under Secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, attended to the sealing of writs and other processes issuing out of the Court of Exchequer. The Exchequer seal dates back to c.1320, but these records begin in 1721 with a book of sealers' fees which stops in 1780; another series of such books covers the years 1801-1849. There are entry books of warrants, travel and necessary bills for 1727-1782 (with some gaps), and copyhold warrants relating to Duchy of Cornwall tenancies. The claims for expenses submitted yearly by sheriffs, called their 'cravings', survive for 1722-1733 and 1800-1806. The distribution of fees between the Chancellor and the Chief Usher and Secretary can be ascertained for 1762-1783.

The survival of records is best for the last half century of the Seal Office's existence: warrants, precedents and lists, receipts for legal instruments sealed, letter books, in which sheriffs' cravings recur, the day book of duties carried out and fees received, and the messengers' and ushers' bills, which in the 18th century were included with the warrants. Among the warrants, often haphazardly, are the appointments to the stewardships of Old Shoreham, the Chiltern Hundreds and the manor of East Hendred, whereby Members of the House of Commons vacated their seats, for the period 1760-1849. Otherwise most warrants are for Crown leases to property and mines royal; manorial and Exchequer or Customs appointments; Exchequer commissions of investigation; notices of outlawry; and notices of the trial of the pyx.

Sheriffs' bills of craving may also be found in T 207

Exchequer, Seal Office, 1320-1849

Some of the books in this series include an index.