1921 'ADVENTUS VICEC0M1TUM 1258-72 495 perfectly normal in other respects. It is, therefore, reasonable to assume that the sheriffs were not making payments locally by means of a system of assignments. Between 1258 and 1261 . payments were undoubtedly being made direct into the ward- robe ; * further evidence of such payments may be found on Memoranda Roll (King's Remembrancer) 50 & 51 Henry III, where instructions are issued to four sheriffs to pay part of their profers direct into the wardrobe. 2 The Pipe Roll for the fifty- first year shows that five sheriffs claimed allowance on their ferms for amounts paid into the wardrobe, the total amount of such payments being £340 15<s. 3Jd., a sum which, if added to the payments into the receipt, would still leave the total for that year well under £1,000. Moreover, we have at present ho evidence that these payments into the wardrobe were a new departure. Again, this is the year in which the sheriffs were being brought up to account for a number of years for which they had hitherto failed to answer. Taking this point into consideration, £340 is not a large sum. Moreover, if this were the real explanation of the abnormally small payments in the third period, the evidence would again appear on the Pipe Rolls in the same way as it did in the case of the assignments. But on the contrary, not only is this not the case, but the sheriffs continue to be charged with the unpaid ferms year by year. Some of the debts contracted at this period are not finally wiped out until some years after Edward II's accession. Neither of the above explanations is, therefore, sufficient to account for the very serious decline in the sheriffs' payments into the receipt, nor do they in fact seriously affect the figures. It would be natural to expect that, after peace was restored, the sums paid in by the sheriffs would actually increase, for there were a number of outstanding debts, due from other people besides the sheriff. If the recovery at the exchequer were real and complete, this would certainly be the case. No such increase is, however, recorded, and in fact the total for the fifth period is less than for the first. The subsequent history of these debts forms a separate and interesting chapter of exchequer history, one of great importance in the development of the Pipe Rolls in the late thirteenth and in the fourteenth centuries. It is enough for our purpose to note that recovery was not really complete by 7 Edward I. The payment for that year, the highest since the new king's accession, was nearly £400 below the average for the years 1253-7, while the Pipe Rolls are still heavily burdened with desperate debts, in spite of the drastic measures taken to relieve them. These efforts began as early as 1268, and aimed at establishing a more complete control over Crown debtors. They are first clearly apparent on Pipe Roll 52 Henry III, though 1 Tout, Chapters, i. 301-2. a Two of these writs are entered on m. 2.
