Prynn's Collections writs are mentioned which were; issued to the sheriffs of the different counties concerning the jurisdiction and settling of the Court of Common Pleas in the sixth of Edward the Third, according to the great Charter and the Court of Common Fleas in England. In the reign of Elizabeth a third Judge was added in each court, and with very few exceptions continued by her successors. A fourth was appointed in 1784.
The Chronological Table gives the promotions, deaths and resignations from the time of Queen Elizabeth, with the dates of those changes; (a similar Table of the Law Officers of England was published some years since;) also lists of those in office on the accession of each Sovereign; the dates of the promotions are those in the patents. In some few instances where the patent was not finished, or where from some other cause the exact date of the patent could not be ascertained, that of the Royal Letter or Privy Seal is substituted.
In the Chronological Table and Index the computation has been adopted from the first year of the reigning King or Queen, and not from the first of January in each year; thus the reign of Queen Elizabeth began November 17, 1558, consequently every promotion or death which might have taken place before November 17, 1559, will be found under the first year, 1558; the same rule has been observed throughout.
