is obscure; an account of it is in the Record Office Index to the
class (No. I.); but see also the Introduction to F. W. Maitland’s
Memoranda de Parliamento (Rolls Series, vol. 98), in which
volume a number of these petitions are printed in full.
Diplomatic Documents.—In the Chapter House at Westminster was a collection of treaties and other documents connected with foreign affairs, and to these have been added other similar documents found there. Of these there is a descriptive list in the 45th and 49th Reports. A collection of so-called Diplomatic Documents from the chancery forms part of the Chancery Miscellanea.
Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII.—This great collection of materials for the reign of Henry VIII. (Calendar of 20 volumes in 30) at present extends to the year 1547, and is intended to contain abstracts of all documents bearing upon that reign in the Record Office, the British Museum and other collections. Record Office documents dealt with in this Calendar have sometimes been left in their original place of custody and sometimes transferred to a series of bound volumes known as Letters and Papers, Henry VIII. References will be found in the Calendar to a previous series of State Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., printed by a Royal Commission for printing State Papers.
Miscellaneous Books.—The many books and registers preserved in the Record Office will be found described in the Handbook. The following have been printed:-
Exchequer King’s Remembrancer
Vol. 2. The Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series, No. 99).
Vol. 3. Book of Aids. (See Feudal Aids, published by Record Office.)
Vol. 4. Book of Knight’s Fees. (See Feudal Aids.)
Vols. 5 & 6. Testa de Nevill; printed by the Record Commission.
Vol. 12. Liber Niger Parvus, printed by Thomas Hearne.
Vols. 13 & 14. Taxatio Ecclesiastica; printed by the Record Commission.
Vol. 17. A 16th-century transcript of an abstract of Kirkby’s Quest for certain counties; used in Feudal Aids.
Vol. 24. Chartulary of Malmesbury Abbey (Rolls Series, No. 72).
Vol. 28. Chartulary of Ramsey Abbey (Rolls Series, No. 79).
Vol. 32. The Book of Common Prayer deposited under the Act of
Uniformity.
Vols. 35 & 36. Accounts of the voyages of Martin Frobisher (Hakluyt’s Voyages).
Exchequer Treasury of Receipt
Domesday Book.-Indexes and supplementary matter were printed by the Record Commission. Since then facsimiles of the text for each county have been issued.
Miscellaneous Books.
Vols. 16–55. Certificates of Musters. (See Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.)
Vol. 69. Extents of Knights' Fees in the Honour of Richmond; printed in Gale's Registrum Honoris de Richemond.
Vol. 87. Abstracts of Placita Coram Rege, &c.; printed in Abbreviatio Placitorum (Record Commission).
Volt 92. Statutes of the Order of the Garter. Cf. I. Anstis, Register of the Order of the Garter.
Exchequer Augmentation Office
Vol. 57. Rentals and Custumals of Battle Abbey (Camden Society, Series 2, vol. 41).
Vols. 179–184. Copies of Leases. Indexed in 49th Report.
Vols. 495–515. Inventories of Church Goods. For details of those printed, see Mély et Bishop, Bibliographie Générale des Inventaires Imprimés.
The following accounts of other collections of records are necessarily less detailed:-
Privy Council Office.—The registers of the Privy Council are still preserved in that office, with the exception of a few volumes which have strayed into other places. J. R. Dasent has edited for the Master of the Rolls a series of volumes containing The Acts of the Privy Council, from 1542 to 1604. The Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council, 10 Rich. II.–33 Henry VIII., edited for the Record Commission by Sir N. Harris Nicolas, are from documents in the Cotton MSS. and from transcripts made by Rymer from documents then at the Pells Office.
India Office.—The records of the India Office are preserved there. Complete printed lists exist for the whole collection, and the following documents have been published: The First Letter Book of the East India Company, edited by Sir G. Birdwood and W. Foster; Letters received by the East India Company from its Servants in the East, edited by F. C. Danvers and W. Foster (6 vols.). The records in India may be mentioned here. Each presidency and each province' keeps its own; and this is the case also with the smaller subdivisions. No printed lists appear to exist for any of the collections. The following volumes have been published: Letters, Despatches and other Papers of the Foreign Department of the Government of India, 1772–85, edited by G. W. Forrest (3 vols., Calcutta); Bengal 1756–1757, edited by S. C. Hill (3 vols. 1905); and Old Fort William, edited by C. R. Wilson (3 vols., 1906–7).
Ireland.
The Public Record Office of Ireland was established in 1867 by the Act 30 & 31 Vict. c. 70, when the records of the various courts of law, all wills proved in Ireland, and certain financial records, were collected into one building. The State Paper Office remains a separate, though subordinate, department in one of the towers of Dublin Castle, whence the papers are only transferred to the Record Office by special order. The Deputy Keeper of the Irish Record Office publishes yearly reports with appendices. The most important calendar published in these is that of Fiants or warrants for the issue of letters under the Great Seal, Henry VIII. to Elizabeth, contained in Reports 7–9, 11–13, 15–18, with indices for each reign. A calendar of the Deeds of Christ Church, Dublin, is contained in the 20th, 23rd, 24th and 27th Reports. The Wills of the diocese of Dublin, down to the year 1800, are indexed under the names of the testators in the 26th and 30th Reports. The series of Proclamations by the lord lieutenant and council, and by the crown, which is among the records in the Record Tower of Dublin Castle, is catalogued in the 23rd and 24th Reports. Of the financial records very little has been published. In the 33rd Report there is a good account of the Books of the Treasury and Accounting Departments from the reign of Henry VIII. Scattered entries from the Pipe Rolls (13 Henry III.–33 Edward I.) are printed in the 33rd and 35th–38th Reports. Before the establishment of the Record Office the Irish Record Commission published a Latin calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls from Henry II. to Henry VII., and an incomplete calendar in English for the years 5–35 Henry VIII. Under the authority of the Master of the Rolls a calendar was published for the period Henry VIII. to Elizabeth, upon which some severe comments will be found in J. T. Gilbert’s The History . . . of the Public Records of Ireland.
An English calendar for the reign of James I. was published by the Record Commission; and a calendar for the years 1–8 Charles I., under the authority of the Master of the Rolls. Two large folio volumes entitled Liber Hibernie should here be mentioned. The history and contents of this astounding work can be gathered from its introduction, and from an index to it in the 9th Report. Inquisitions post mortem and on attainder, for the provinces of Leinster and Ulster only, are dealt with in the Record Commission's Inquisitionum in officio Rotulorum Cancellarie Hibernie asservatarum Repertorium. Of strictly judicial records the Record Office has published one volume of an admirable calendar of the Justiciary Rolls (1295–1303).
Scotland.
The records of the kingdom are deposited in several places in Edinburgh. The principal repository is the General Register House, at present governed by the Act 42 & 43 Vict. c. 44. But certain records of the chancery and all the records of the court of teinds are in separate repositories. A general account of these records is given in M. Livingstone's Guide to the Public Records of Scotland deposited in H .M General Register House, Edinburgh, with appendices describing those contained in other repositories.
Parliamentary.—The Record Commission of Great Britain published The Acts of the Parliament of Scotland (1124–1707), a text derived from many sources described in the introductory volume; The Acts of the Lords Auditors of Causes and Complaints (1466–1494), being the proceedings of the parliamentary committee for hearing petitions; and The Acts of the Lords of Council (1478–1495), being proceedings of a similar body.
Privy Council.-The register of the Privy Council of Scotland from 1545 is in course of publication at the General Register House. Exchequer.-The Exchequer Rolls, corresponding to the Great Roll of the English Exchequer, are being printed in full from 1264 at the General Register House; and the accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland from 1473 are being published at the same office.
Chancery.—The enrolments of letters issued under the Great Seal of Scotland are contained in twelve rolls and a series of volumes. The Record Commission printed these registers in full for the period 1306–1424; and the General Register House is continuing the publication in an abridged form.
Court of Chancery.—Only the enrolments of letters under the Great Seal are transferred to the General Register House; the remainder are preserved in the court of chancery. The most important of these are the Retours to Chancery. To these the onlay printed means of reference is the Inquisitionum ad capellam Domini Regis retornatarum abbreviatio (16th and 17th centuries), published by the Record Commission.
Local Records.
To deal with the municipal and local records of Great Britain in any detail is quite impossible in this article. Fortunately the admirable work of C. Gross, entitled The Bibliography of Municipal History (Harvard Historical Studies), contains a comp ete account of the work done on municipal records up to 1897; while the Report of the Committee appointed to inquire as to the existing arrangements for the collection and custody of local records (1902) affords a complete view of the questions dealt with by it.
