Further Practice

Try your hand at these documents

Document: Exchequer memoranda rolls | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This extract contains the account of the county of Devon, listing people who were in debt to Henry III.  The content of the roll is heavily abbreviated with several abbreviated notes in the margin.
Catalogue reference: E 159/25
Date: 1249

 

Document: Pipe roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: Exchequer pipe rolls are the written record of the audit process of the king's accounts for one financial year.  Although this extract is entitled Warwickshire, it in fact refers to Yorkshire.  The passage is notable for a reference to Robert de Werreby (Wetherby), who some people have associated with the legend of Robin Hood.  This extract mentions that money was assigned to William the vintner and his associates in order to ambush and capture the said Robert, who is described as a wrong-doer.
Catalogue reference: E 372/70

Date: 1225

 

Document : Plea roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This entry recites most of a charter containing a grant by Robert Burnel to William de Vaylaund, Nicholas de Valaund, William’s son, and Juliana, Nicholas’ wife, for the manor of Oxborough and lands in Shypedene and Hemstead, Norfolk.  The lands are to be held by William, Nicholas, Juliana and Nicholas’ heirs, with remainder to William and Juliana’s heirs.
Catalogue reference: KB 27/50

Date: 1278-1280

 

Document : Fine roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: Fine rolls recorded offerings made to the king or his Justiciar for royal favour in such matters as the disposal of lands and offices and succession to fiefs and liberties.  This extract is the first page from the first fine roll for the reign of Henry III and contains entries from Kent, Tewkesbury, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Rutland and Bedfordshire.
Further images of fine rolls from the reign of Henry III, along with translations, can be found at the Henry III Fine Rolls website.
Catalogue reference: C 60/8

Date: 1216

 

Document : Close roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This extract contains writs on various matters, including one concerning a lawsuit against certain men accused of causing the death of Adam le Scut, and other disputes concerning lands in Ireland and in Dartmoor, Devon.
Catalogue reference: C 54/22

Date: 1219-20

 

Document : Roll of provisions and stores for the Welsh war | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This document lists military weapons and provisions such as quarrels, arrows, shields, sacks and lances to fight Edward I’s Welsh campaign, for which he gathered one of the largest armies ever assembled by an English king. The 15,000 strong army was a formidable combination of heavy Anglo-Norman cavalry and Welsh archers, whose longbow skills laid the foundations of later military victories in France, such as that at Agincourt.
Catalogue reference: E 101/4/6

Date: 1282-84

 

Document : Charter roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This extract contains three entries. The first is a charter to Thomas de Brotherton, earl of Norfolk, brother of Edward II, granting permission to hold a market at his manor of Saham in Suffolk. The second is a grant of a free warren to Robert de Bures covering lands in Wickhambrook, Acton, Great Waldingfield, Mildam, Higham, Bures and Newton in Suffolk. The third entry is a grant to Humphrey de Bohun, earl of Hereford and Essex, of the forfeitures, fines and ransoms of his men and tenants in the valleys of Annandale and Moffat in Dumfriesshire.
Catalogue reference: C 53/100
Date: 1314

 

Document : Account | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This document is taken from the account of Thrustan de Anderton, Henry de Pemberton, Henry Blundell and Adam Whittingham, esquires, concerning their wages and expenses for participating in the voyage to France and in the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 between Henry V and Charles VI of France.
Catalogue reference: E 358/6
Date: circa 1415

 

Document : Charter | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This charter is a deed of gift by Hamo le Fisschere of Chepe and his wife, Maud, to John atte Ree of Lambourne, Essex. This gift, of a house with shops, had been originally given to them by Richard de Dorset in East Smithfield in the parish of St Botulph.
Catalogue reference: E 40/1586
Date: 1320

 

Document : Cartulary | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This is an extract taken from the cartulary of the Carmelite Friary of King’s Lynn, Norfolk. The first entry concerns Mark of Galloway, Bishop of Sodor and the Isle of Man from 1275 to 1303. The second passage contains a letter from Pope John XXII to the Abbot of the Monastery of St Bennet commanding him to excommunicate certain men who had broken down the walls of the convent of the Carmelite Friars of King’s Lynn.
Catalogue reference: E 135/2/50
Date: Late 14th century

 

Document : Plea roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This extract is taken from the roll of Roger Moeles of inquiry into vagabonds in southern and western counties, Buckinghamshire, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire. It focuses on the hundred of Evingar in Hampshire and mentions several offenders and their crimes. These include a certain Robert Robehod, born at Sutton Scotney, who was prosecuted for stealing four sheep.
Catalogue reference: JUST 1/1301
Date: 1294

 

Document : Plea roll | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: The court of Common Pleas was a central royal court, sitting at Westminster for four terms in the year and enrolling its proceedings. The extract is interesting for its inclusion of a certain William Robynhod, providing evidence that the name Robinhood may have been in use as a surname during the late 13th century.
Catalogue reference: CP 40/109
Date: 1294-95

 

Document : Bench plea and Essoin roll| Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: These are the earliest court rolls among the public records, recording step-by-step the progress of cases being undertaken in those courts. Many of the cases in this extract concern disputes about land rights.
Catalogue reference: KB 26/50
Date: 1209

 

Document : Parliament election writ and return | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This document is a parliamentary writ to secure the election of members of Parliament and the returns made on them. The dorse of the document contains the names of the four citizens requested by King Edward III to hold conference with the prelates, magnates and nobles of the kingdom.
Catalogue reference: C 219/6
Date: 1337

 

Document : Charter | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: In this charter Gilbert de Monmouth gives lands to William de Marisco (literally ‘William of the Marsh’) at the rent of one sore hawk a year, in return for William’s service and a dapple-grey horse.
Catalogue reference: DL 36/3 folio 183
Date: late 12th century

 

Document : Papal document | Transcription | Translation
Content Summary: This document appears to be a confirmation by Pope Gregory IX of the lands and possessions of the hospital of St Leonard of ‘Kirkebi’. This could possibly relate to the hospital of St Leonard in Kendal, Westmorland, as Kendal was formerly known as Kirkby Kendal.
Catalogue reference: DL 36/3 folio 32
Date: c1230