Description of the offices of the English Exchequer

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0096 MS 9
Held at	: Senate House Library, University of London   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/our-collections ›
Full title	: Description of the offices of the English Exchequer
Date(s)	: [1522-1536]
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 volume containing 36 leaves
Name of creator(s)	: Unknown
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Exchequer was responsible for receiving and dispersing the public revenue. The lower Exchequer, or receipt, closely connected with the permanent Treasury, was an office for the receipt and payment of money. The upper Exchequer was a court sitting twice a year to regulate accounts. The business of the ancient Exchequer was mainly financial, though some judicial business connected with accounts was also conducted. In time the upper Exchequer developed into the judicial system, while the lower Exchequer became the Treasury.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Manuscript volume, [1522-1566], containing a description of the offices of the King's Remembrancer's and Lord Chamberlain's Departments of the Upper Exchequer, and an account of their duties, with an enumeration of grudges and complaints and a suggestion of remedies for them. A second memorandum, possibly written between 1531 and 1533, discusses the problems of financial administration.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

Single item.

Conditions governing access:

Access to the items in the collection is unrestricted for the purpose of private study and personal research within the controlled environment and restrictions of the Library's Palaeography Room. Access to archive collections may be restricted under the Freedom of Information Act. Please contact the University Archivist for details.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies may be made, subject to the condition of the original. Copying must be undertaken by the Palaeography Room staff, who will need a minimum of 24 hours to process requests.

Finding aids:

Collection level description.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The manuscript is inscribed by Bryan Holme, whose library was sold at Sotheby's on 28 June 1865, and contains a nineteenth century title page inscribed 'Incorporated Law Society'. It was bought by Herbert Somerton Foxwell from Mawson, Swan and Morgan, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in March 1912.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Bought by Foxwell as an addition to the Goldsmith's Library of Economic Literature.

Allied Materials

Related material:

University of London MS 57 also relates to Exchequer offices.

National Register of Archives: Click here to view NRA record

Publication note:

W A Bryson 'Exchequer equity bibliography' in American Journal of Legal History, Vol XIV (1970). Jack and Schofield 'Four Early Tudor financial memoranda', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Vol XXXVI (1963).

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Sarah Smith as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project.

Rules or conventions:
ISAD(G) 2nd edition, and NCA rules for the construction of personal, place and corporate names (1997).

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jun 2000