C - List of pleaders c. 1518

Summary

CHANCERY WARRANTS 10 HENRY VIII (MONTHS UNCERTAIN): C82/474/36

This list, now in a class to which it clearly does not belong, is written in a single column on a narrow piece of paper which once (as marks of sewing show) formed part of a book. There is no indication of provenance but since it is signed by Wolsey and Skewys, a member of his staff, the list was clearly prepared for the cardinal.

The document cannot be precisely dated. John Erneley surrendered as A.G. on 26 Jan. 1519, early in Hilary term. It is probable, therefore, that the document is not later than Michaelmas term 1518. The terminus a quo is, prima facie, the creation of Wolsey as cardinal in the autumn and, probably, his appointment as chancellor, 24 Dec. 1515. Since all those named are known to have been alive in Hilary 1519 and obvious names are missing, e.g. William Ayloffe of Lincoln's Inn (d. Jul./Sept. 1517) and Sir Robert Sheffield (in the Tower from Feb., died autumn 1518), the P.R.O. dating seems probable.

The purpose of the list has yet to be established, so too the significance of the crosses and marginal comment on Richard Covert (in a different hand). One possible association is with Wolsey's order to the judges and Serjeants on 14 Oct. 1518 to report obstructors of justice; the chancellor might well have exacted an oath of good behaviour from the profession below the coif (whose members were already sworn): Guy, Cardinal's Court, 30–3, 76–8; Hastings, Common Pleas, 60, 73 n. 80.