244 THE ANCESTOR a calendar of which for the years 1307-13 this great series opened. It was the wise determination of the Deputy Keeper that the abstracts, in the Calendar, of the documents on the Rolls should be ' made so full that in ordinary cases no further information can be obtained from the Rolls themselves.' More- over it was resolved to provide each volume with an index in which all the place-names on the Rolls should be identified and their modern equivalents supplied. It is obvious that this luxurious method of consulting our national records wiU impart, when it is better known, an immense impetus to their study, especially among those who are not able to consult the originals for themselves. It is not too much to say that the study of local and family history will be almost revolutionized by these invaluable volumes. As is well observed by the Deputy Keeper in his Preface to the opening volume, these Rolls, in addition to the light they throw on public adminis- tration, ' contain copies of a vast number of deeds, agreements and awards concerning private persons, which were exhibited in chancery for enrolment ; the biographer, the genealogist, the topographer, the philologist and the student of the manners, arts and commerce of the Middle Ages may alike obtain from them information of great interest which is not to be found elsewhere.' The expert in genealogical or topographical study may be well aware of the value and importance of these Calendars for his purpose, but I am writing for the members of that wider public who have hardly realized as yet the boon which has been thus conferred on those who are seeking to learn something of the history of a family or a parish. It is hoped that The Ancestor may be able to render assistance to these, especially to those engaged on working out a pedigree, by collecting the genealogical information scattered up and down throughout these volumes and by explaining entries which the official editors are compelled, of course, by the nature of the scheme to leave in a somewhat arid and unattractive form. Restricting ourselves to this first volume, we find, for example, the final disposition of the manors of Nuneham Courtney and Heyford Warren (Upper Heyford), Oxon, Pishiobury, Herts, and Harewood and Kirby Overblow, Yorks (pp. 273-4). They had had a curious history. Warine Fitz Ceroid, chamberlain to John — from whom Heyford
