222 THE ESCHEATRIES* 1327-41 April Derbyshire, 1 the parts of these last two counties north of Trent being delivered by the northern escheator. 2 The records of the surrenders in December 1335 and January 1 336, when the two great escheatries were again revived, very definitely indicate a complete division by Trent. On 6 December in the former year, the southern esc heat ry was reconstituted by the surrenders of Gilbert of Leatherhead, Walter of Cirencester, and Adam of Willoughby, escheators respectively in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and Staffordshire. 3 They did not surrender in the northern parts of these counties until 20 January 1336. 4 This explicit statement of the nature of the division by Trent is vitiated by the inadequacy of the record of the changes in 1 340. Trussel is then stated to have surrendered the whole of the counties concerned and Lancashire as well. 5 Metham, the retiring northern escheator, is recorded as only being appointed to Yorkshire, Cumberland, Northumberland, and Westmorland, 6 which he had held as part of his surrendered office. This, however, is obviously a restrictive order, as, had he not acted over a greater area, no new appointment to these counties need have been given him. I have noted above, for 1327-32, how far practice differed from intention in the division by Trent. A similar examination of the acts of the escheators between 1335 and 1340 would show the diver- gence during the latter period. In the former case, the appoint- ments of 1327 show an intention to divide by Trent ; practice shows that Staffordshire could not be so divided, and the sur- renders of 1 332 indicate a recognition of this . In 1 335 the appoint- ments again show a definite intention to divide by Trent ; the surrenders of 1 340 record a very imperfect division ; the question awaits answer, whether practice in these five years would prove, as in the former period, the clumsiness of the boundary. Previously to 1323 appointments were simply to one or the other of the offices, no exact limits being indicated ; after 1341 the escheatries were coincident with the shrievalties. It is only from these eighteen years of experiment and change that we may define what precisely was meant by the phrase citra et ultra Trentam. A list of escheators for England and the March for these years is appended, but I have not included the city of London, where throughout the period the mayor acted as the escheator, nor Holderness, which was made a separate escheatry on 11th June 1334. 7 S. T. Gibson. 1 Cal. of Fine Molls, p. 318. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. pp. 465, 466. 4 Ibid. pp. 469-70. • Ibid. 1337-47, pp. 181, 182, 185. 6 Ibid. p. 185. ' The officers in this period were : (a) Simon of Grimsby, appointed 11 June 1334 [ibid. 1327-37, p. 405), surrendered 20 February 1338 {ibid. 1337-47, p. 67). (b) Wm. Lenlys, appointed 20 February 1338 (ibid.), died before 1 October 1344 {ibid. p. 390).
