Catalogue description Exchequer: Augmentation Office: Original Letters Patent

A miscellaneous collection of original letters patent under the great seal, as well as the seals of the Exchequer, the Common Pleas and the Court of Augmentations, found amongst the records of the Augmentation Office.

Many of the letters patent may have come with the records of estates, particularly of religious houses, confiscated by the Crown in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, while others were surrendered into the Court of Augmentations and the Exchequer during the normal course of business.

A majority of the deeds relate to grants of lands, offices and pensions, confirmations of earlier grants, licences, and Crown leases. Some good examples of the great seal survive in this series.

Most of the letters patent in this series can be found enrolled on the Patent Rolls: C 66

There are comprehensive indexes of persons, places and subjects for this series.