II. The Nature and Qualities of the several Records and Manuscripts from whence all the Statutes, as well those of an earlier as of a later Period, have been taken for Insertion or Collation in this Work, and the Place where each original Record and Manuscript is kept, will more fully appear from the following Detail.
1. Statute Rolls.—These are Records of Chancery, of the highest Authority, on which were entered the several Statutes when drawn up in Form; for the Purpose of being proclaimed and published; these Statutes being framed upon such Original Petitions and Answers, or Entries thereof on the Parliament Rolls, as related to Public Concerns.[3] The earliest Statute Roll now known to exist, is that which commences with The Statute of Gloucester 6 Edw. I. A.D. 1278. From that Period to 8 Edw. IV. inclusive, A.D. 1468, with an Interruption, after 8 Hen. VI. until 23 Hen. VI. inclusive, the Statutes are preserved in the Tower of London in a regular Series, on Six separate Rolls, each Roll consisting of several Membranes tacked together. The Contents of each Roll are as follows, viz.
Of the Great Roll; Statutes from 6 Edw. I. to 50 Edw. III. But this Roll does not contain all the Statutes which have been printed as of that Period.[4]
Second Roll; Statutes Temp. Ric. II. There is also a separate Roll, of one Membrane, containing a Duplicate of the Statutes 21 Ric. II.
Third Roll; Statutes Temp. Hen. IV. and V.
Fourth Roll; Statutes 1 Hen. VI. to 8 Hen. VI.
Fifth Roll; Statutes 25 Hen. VI. to 39 Hen. VI.
Sixth Roll; Statutes 1 Edw. IV. to 8 Edw. IV. This is the last Statute Roll now known to exist, none of a later Date having been found.
- ↑ With respect to the depositing the Records of Chancery in the Tower, see Rot. Pat. 9 Eliz. Part 6, on which is recorded a Precept from the Queen dated 1 May, which passed under the Great Seal, to Francis Spilman Esq. Clerk of the Parliaments requiring him to remove all Rolls of Parliament, Petitions, Judgements, Attainders, and other Records of Parliament in his Custody from 22 Edw. IV. to 1 Mary, into the Tower, to be delivered to William Bowyer the Keeper of the Records there: On Part 9 of the Patent Roll of the same Year is recorded a Precept under the Sign Manual, dated 18 June, to Sir William Cordell, Master of the Rolls, for the like Removal of the Parliament Rolls, Patent Rolls, Charter Rolls, Close Rolls, Fine Rolls, and all other Rolls and Records of Chancery for the same Period. In Leland’s Collectanea (Edit. 1770.) Vol. 2. p. 656, is the Copy of a Warrant of Q. Elizabeth, without Date, requiring a like Removal of the Records of the Chancery; Which Warrant is introduced by the following Recital: “Forasmuch, as it is not meet that the Records of our Chancery being accompted as a principall Membre of the Threasure belonging to ourself, to our Corone and Realme, should remain in private Places and Houses, for doute of such Danger or Spoile as heretofore hath happened to the like Recordes in the Time of King Richard the Second, and King Henry the Sixth our Progenitours; but rather to remain in our Towre of London, under the Custody of the Keeper of our Recordes there for the Time being, as not only by due Custome of our Progenitors from Time to Time used may appeare, for that (as wee are informed) all the Records of our said Chancery from the Time of our Progenitour William the Conqueror until the last Year of the Reign of King Edward the Fourth our Progenitour, have been from Time to Time thereunto brought, and now there at this Time doe remain; But also (as wee are informed) the same is by Recorde manifeste and apparante.” The Parliament Rolls, however, as also the Close, Patent, Fine, and Charter Rolls, from the Time of Ric. III. still remain in the Chapel of the Rolls; but many Bundles of Bills, Answers, Depositions, and other Proceedings in Chancery have, at the Instance of the Six Clerks, been from time to time removed from their Record Room to the Tower; and Examinations taken by the Examiners of the said Court have, at their Instance, been also removed to the Tower.
- ↑ For Letters Patents, of Edw. III, annexing the Domus Conversorum, now the Chapel of the Rolls, to the Office of the Master of the Rolls, and the Confirmation thereof, by Ric. II, see Rot. Pat. 51 Edw. III. m. 20: 6 Ric. II. Part 3, m. 12.
- ↑ See page xxxv note 5.
- ↑ Lord Hale, H. C. L. ch. 1. says this Roll “begins with Magna Carta and ends with Edw. III.” This is erroneous: for though part of the Roll antecedent to 6 Edw. I. may have been lost since the time of Lord Hale, there is no reason to conclude that it ever began with Magna Carta: Magna Carta and Carta de Foresta are not entered on this Roll prior to 25 Edw. I. and they are accordingly printed as Statutes of that Year in this Collection. There are not wanting Authorities which seem to consider the Great Charter, as possessing the Validity of a Statute from the 1st or the 9th of Henry III.; before the Confirmation of it by the Statute of Marlborough, 52 Henry III. It is so considered by Coke in 2 Inst. 65, 1 Inst. 43 a, 81 a; in the Prince’s Case, 8 Rep. 19; and elsewhere: by Hale H. C. L. ch. 1; and by Blackstone in his Introduction to the Charters, 4to. pa. xl. 8vo. pa. lxi.: It is also expressly called a Statute by Littleton, sect. 108; but this may be referable to its subsequent Confirmation by Parliament. Hale’s Idea may probably have arisen from supposing it to be on the Statute Roll before 6 Edw. I. And Coke and Blackstone founded their Opinions chiefly upon two judicial decisions cited from Fitzherbert’s Abridgement; (Part 2, fo. 120 b. tit. Mordaunc. pl. 23, and Part 1, fo. 188 a. tit. Briefe pl. 881;) the one as of 5 Hen. III. the other as of 21 Hen. III; to which may be added another of 23 Hen. III. Fitz. Abr. Part 1, fo. 90 a. tit. Assise. pl. 436. These, if of those Years respectively, certainly prove that the Great Charter was then considered as the Law of the Land, but not, absolutely, that it was previously of Parliamentary Enactment. In the Instances of 5 Hen. III. and 23 Hen. III, the Phrase “lestatut de Magna Carta” is merely used incidentally by Fitzherbert in stating the Points adjudged; and there is some ground to think also that the former decision was possibly of a much later Period; See the Year Books 38 Hen. VI. 18. and 39 Hen. VI. 19: In the Instance of 21 Hen. III. the Great Charter is referred to, not as a Parliamentary Act, but as a Grant, ‘concessum’ being the Word used to denote its Authority: which Construction, the Preamble of the Articuli super Cartas, Stat. 28 Edw. I, and the Beginning of Chapter 1. of that Statute, confirm; though in the Confirmatio Cartarum, Stat. 25 Edw. I. c. 1. which passed during the Absence of the King from the Realm, it is recited of the two Charters “les queles furent faites ꝑ cōmun assent de tut le Roiaume.”—In an Admiralty Record, quoted by Prynne (Animad. 120,) as of 23 Hen. VI, the Laws of Oleron are recognised by the Term “Statutum.”
- ↑
“Vacat̃ quia nō fuerū cōsignate; set alit͛ in rotulo de Statutis.” Rot. Claus. 27 Edw. I. m. 17 d; D’ qibꝫdam articl̵is Magne Carte & Carte de Foresta. See Stat. 27 Edw. I. pa. 126. of this Volume. “Le quel Estatut est enroulle en le roulle destatutz.” Rot. Pat. 15 Edw. II. P. 1. m. 17. See Stat. 15 Edw. II. pa. 187. of the Statutes in this Volume, and Note b. there. - ↑ Lord Hale speaks of Statutes extant of Record either “in the proper and natural Roll, viz. the Statute Roll; or entered in some other Roll, especially the Close Rolls or Patent Rolls, or in both.”—Hale H. C. L. ch. 1.
