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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 January 2009
The origins of the Office of Master of the Rolls are to be sought in the history of the development of the Chancery. The Chancery was at first a branch of the royal household closely connected with the king's chapel. The Chancellor was simply the king's chaplain who in the intervals of his proper duties acted as the king's secretary. As such he became the custodian of the king's seal,—later to be called the great seal to distinguish it from other and smaller seals,—and at length his secretarial duties increased so far that he became the head of a great administrative department.
2 Pipe Roll, 109.Google Scholar
3 Ed. Hughes, Crump & Johnson (1902), 77.Google Scholar
4 Rot. Parl. passim.
5 Acts of the Privy Council, IV, 158 (a.d. 1433).
6 Ibid. V, 106 (a.d. 1438).
7 Ibid. V, 126 (a.d. 1440).
8 Chancery Warrants, file 1662, No. 19.
9 E.g. Chronicles of Reigns of Edward I and Edward II (Rolls Series), vol. i p. 287; and Flores Historiarum (Rolls Series), vol. iii, pp. 189, 190.Google Scholar
10 Sanders, Orders in Chancery, 280.Google Scholar
11 Calendar of Close Bolls, 1288–1296, p. 454.Google Scholar
12 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1323–1327, p. 386.Google Scholar
13 Renovacio ordinum Cancellarie (temp. Henry V)…. Imprimis quod sint duodecim magistri cancellarie … item quod Custos Rotulorum sit unus et primus eorundem duodecim. Hargrave MSS., No. 219, p. 277Google Scholar; quoted by Sanders, Orders in Chancery, 7b.
14 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1327–1330, p. 371.Google Scholar
15 Calendar of Miscellaneous Inquisitions, Vol. I, p. 455 [No. 1621].Google Scholar
16 Close Roll, 50 Henry III, m. 10 d.
17 Calendar of Patent Bolls, 1345–1348, pp. 13, 26, 57.Google Scholar
18 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1374–1377, p. 451.Google Scholar
19 I myself can remember the house of the Master of the Bolls, which stood, at any rate when I was a boy, where the northern wing of the present Record Office stands, and certainly my predecessor. Lord Romilly, lived there. He lived there and occupied and used the Chapel of the Rolls which is now (not being a consecrated building) the museum of the Record Office, and he worshipped there; but his successor, Sir George Jessel, was a Jew and he did not use it. The Chapel remained until 1893, and I now have the Bible and the Prayer Book which were used in the Chapel, in my own room. It is not a very handy book, for if I did want to look up a text I suppose its size is about 2'6″ by 18″ and a depth of about 12″. I have deposited the communion plate which existed still in my day at the original home of Sir Thomas Plumer, who gave it just about 100 years before. It is now. at Sheriff Hutton, in the custody of the vicar and churchwardens of Sheriff Hutton, the home in Yorkshire of the Plumer family.
20 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1288–1296, p. 245.Google Scholar
21 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1337–1339, p. 130.Google Scholar
22 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1339–1341, p. 657.Google Scholar
23 Exchequer K.R., Accounts Various, 212/14. I was interested in a country house one day last year to find a red book of 1770, which was a compilation combining some of the merits of Whitaker's Almanack with those of the Red Book, full of addresses. I found a statement in there that the records down to 1483 were kept in the Tower and those since that time were kept in the Rolls Chapel.
24 Dom, S. P.. Docquets, vol. i.Google Scholar
25 See too the decree of Darius in Ezra, chap, vi, 1 and 2.
26 Commission on Public Records, First Report, Vol. I, Part III, p. 23b (1912) Cmd. 6396. I am afraid that many of the collections we are calendaring under the Historical Manuscripts Commission have percolated into private hands by the failure of the immediate owners to return them to the State when leaving office.
27 Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1358–1361, p. 501.Google Scholar
28 A. O. Declared Accounts, bundle 1430, No. 380.
29 Lansdowne MSS. 163, f. 346.
30 Sanders, Orders in Chancery, p. 267.Google Scholar
31 S. 1 of the Act of 1838 gives the M.R. custody of all ‘records’ as defined by s. 20.
32 The Public Record Office has a Bull of Julius VII with a Golden Bull or Seal to it, under which the King holds the title of Defender of the Faith.
33 Herts County Muniment Boom, Gorhambury Documents, VIII, B. 157. Prynne's appointment to his office appears in the following letter (VIII, B. 159):
Charles R.
Trusty and Welbeloved, Wee Greet you well, and do hereby signify Our Royall will and pleasure unto you, that (as much as in you is) you give and grant unto Our Trusty and Welbeloved William Prynne of Lincolnes Inne in Our County of Middlesex Esqr the office of Clerk or Keeper of Our Rolles and Records within Our Tower of London, and also the custody of Our Tower Chamber house and place where the said Rolls and Records used to lye, together with all wages, fees, profits, priviledges and advantages to the said Office belonging, during the terme of his naturall life, in as ample manner as the same was formerly granted by Sir Edward Philipps [M.R. 1610–1614; his name is also spelled Phelipps] late Master of Our Rolls unto John Burroughs and Nicholas Parker Esqrs. And wee do hereby declare, that wee will approve of, ratify and confirme the same under our great seale of England. And so wee bid you farewell. Given at Our Court at Whitehall the sixt day of May, 1665 in the seventeenth year of our Beigne.
By his Maties Co
and
Will Morice
To Our Trusty and Welbeloved
Sir Harbottle Grimston Bart.
Master of the Rolles of Our
Court of Chancery.
34 There was also a Great Seal in gold, but the silver seal was used for the dispatch of ordinary business [Cal. Close Rolls, 1429–1435, p. 181].
35 Calendar of Close Rolls, 1429–1435, p. 241.Google Scholar
36 Select Cases in the Exchequer Chamber, 1933, p. 140.Google Scholar
37 Ibid. p. xvi.
38 Coke in fact refers to four Courts which held their sittings in the Exchequer Chamber, but the Proceedings reported in the Year Books refer only to the Court so described by him (Fourth Institute, c. xiii, p. 119).
39 Spence, Equitable Jurisdiction, i, 363, note.Google Scholar
40 Holdsworth, Hist, of Eng. Law, i, 419.Google Scholar
41 4 Inst. 97.
42 Sanders, , op. cit. 7d.Google Scholar
43 Ibid. 17, 18.
44 Under this Act rules have been issued by the M.R. providing in fuller detail for custody of such documents: Stat. Rules and Orders, 1925, No. 1310/L.49.