494 'ADVENTUS VICEC0M1TUM 1258-72 October The Sheriffs' Payments into the Exchequer of Receipt. First Period. Second Period. Third Period. Year. Total. Year. Total. Year. Total. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. 1254 5,531 9 4 1259 2,474 13 3J 1264 139 1 8 1255 4,259 3 1260 1,940 o" 1265 1,003 19 8 1256 2,310 1261 2,329 18 3 126$" 687 11 1257 3,184 16 8 1262 2,762 10 1267 353 1258 2,159 6 8 1263 1,883 10 6| 1268 571 13 4 Total 17,444 15 8 Total 11,390 12 1 Total 2,755 5 8 Fourth Period. Fifth Period. Year. Total. Year. Total. £ 5. d. £ s. d. 1269 1,339 8 8 1274 3,223 13 4 1270 2,106 10 4 1275 4,529 2 7J 1271 1,264 18 4 1276 3,405 6 8J 1272 934 6 8 1277 2,567 8 9 1273 2,419 1278 3,449 19 6| Total 8,064 4 Total 17,175 10 11* Thus the highest sum paid in any one year was £5,531 9s. 4d. in 1254, the lowest £139 Is. Sd. in 1264. The yearly average for the first period is £3,488 9s. 2d., in the third it has dropped to £551 Is. d., or roughly a sixth of what it was at the earlier date. After 1256 the yearly payment does not again reach £3,000 (a normal figure before that date) until 1274; during the five years of the worst period it only once reached even £1,000. The total for this third period is, moreover, less than the average yearly sum paid in during the first period. The actual difference between the payments in the years 1263 and 1264 is £1,744. The difference between the revenue received in the first and fifth periods and that received in the third is so great as to raise the question whether the sheriffs were not being compelled to pay the money into the wardrobe, or to discharge the king's debts locally by means of assignments. In the latter case the sheriffs would receive the king's writ authorizing the payment, and on presenting the same at the exchequer would receive due allowance in their accounts. These payments would in this case be entered on the Pipe Rolls. 1 An examination of the entries under the sheriff's ferm for each of the counties answering in 51 Henry III, a particularly good year, 2 shows that the allowances made under this heading were not abnormally large, and were 1 See Cal. of Liberate Rolls, 1226-40, pp. x-xii. 2 This roll contains a number of accounts for the worst years of the third period, and was chosen for this reason.
