Hundred Rolls in United Kingdom

The Rolls Series, which while not an exclusively legal source, contains much legal material (Source: the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) These rolls were records of the inquests held by commissioned justices sent by the king throughout the hundreds to inquire, not only into the value and state of the demesne lands of the crown, and the knights’ fees held in capite, but also into the illegal exercise of territorial franchises. Based on these findings, a series of Quo_warranto proceedings were held thoughout the counties.

English, Barbara, ed. Yorkshire Hundred and Quo Warranto Rolls. Yorkshire Archaeological Society Record series, 151. Leeds: Yorkshire Archaeological Society, 1996.

Abstract: Covers the years 1154-1399.

Farr, Brenda, ed. The Rolls of Highworth Hundred, 1275-1287. 2 Vols. Wiltshire Record Society Series, 22. Devizes: Wiltshire Record Society, 1966-1968.

Illingworth, William, ed. Rotuli Hundredorum, Temporibus Henrici III Et Edwardi I in Turr. Lond. Et in Curia Receptae Scaccarii Westm. Asservati. 2 Vols. London: Eyre & Strahan, 1812.

Abstract: Text in Latin. These rolls include information gathered by the Edward I’s commissioners from juries representing hundreds, boroughs, and liberties throughout the country in answer to forty questions, or “articles of inquiry.” Some questions concerned the king’s rights in the county, others invited jurors to tell of oppressions, abuses and acts of injustice done by royal officers. Each jury wrote out its collective answer to all the questions and these were sealed and returned by the commisioners to Westminster for the king’s action. They became know as the “ragman rolls” because of their heavy use and ragged appearance. Vol. 1, Bedfordshire-Norfolk, with Yorkshire. Vol. 2, Northamptonshire-Worcestershire, with Hampshire and additions for the counties of Bedford, Buckingham, Cambridge, Derby, Huntingdon, Oxford, and Nottingham.

John, Trevor, ed. Warwickshire Hundred Rolls of 1279-80: Stoneleigh and Kineton Hundreds. Records of Social & Economic History, n.s., 19. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Hundred Rolls and Medieval Law

Hundred Rolls and Legal History

Legal Materials

(Compiled by the University of South Caroline Gould School of Law) Raban, Sandra, ed. A Second Domesday? the Hundred Rolls of 1279-80 . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Roffe, David, ed. Stamford in the Thirteenth Century: Two Inquisitions From the Reign of Edward I. Sheffield Studies in the Hundred Rolls ed. Stamford : Paul Watkins, 1994.

Abstract: Text in English

Stone, Eric, and Patricia Hyde, eds. Oxfordshire Hundred Rolls of 1279. The Oxfordshire Record Society, 46. Oxford: Oxfordshire Record Society, 1968.

Abstract: Contents: The Hundred of Bampton, by E. Stone; The Borough of Witney, by P. Hyde.

Wrottesley, George, and William Salt Archaeological Society, ed. Collections for a History of Staffordshire. William Salt Archaeological Society, 3, 4, 5 pt.1, 6 pt.1, 7, 9 – 17; n.s., 3, 4, 6. London: Harrison and Sons, 1882-1996.

Notes: Vol. 5 also available online at https://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.asp?pubid=461 (accessed June 5, 2007)Abstract: Published as part of the Victoria History of the Counties of England Project, founded in 1889 and available online in British History Online: . Among other original documents, the following legal works are included:

Vol. 5, pt.1, Staffordshire hundred rolls from Henry III and Edward I, and pleas of the forest.

Bibliographies of English Law History

• Maxwell, William H. A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Volume 1: English Law to 1800. London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1955-
• Beale, Joseph H. A Bibliography of Early English Law Books. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1926.
• Winfield, Percy H. The Chief Sources of English Legal History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1925.

Resources

See Also

• Pleading (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Medieval Lawyer (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Treason (in this legal Encyclopedia)
• Pleas of the Crown (in this legal Encyclopedia)