*

At the Chapter House there is an Index to Domesday, which nevertheless it may be proper to enlarge; and as the original volumes were published without any Title or Glossary, it would be very desirable that this opportunity should be taken of supplying those defects. A proper Title and Table of Contents were in fact prepared several years ago, by the President and Council of the Society of Antiquaries, at the instance of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury; which should now be printed. And the Committee very much approve of the plan for a Glossary which the present Keeper of the Records at the Chapter House has judiciously pointed out in his very elaborate and satisfactory return; by which it also appears, that the Judges of England, so long ago as the reign of Edward III, stated their own inability to interpret some parts of this record.t

*The Title Page here referred to is in the following words.

DOMESDAY BOok,

seu

Liber Censualis

Willelmi Primi

Regis Angliæ,

Inter Archivos Regni

In Domo Capitulari Westmonasteri

Asservatus

Jubente Rege Augustissime

Georgio Tertio

Prælo Mandatus

Typis.

Excudebat Londini J. Nicholls.‡

MDCCLXXXIIL

† Extract of a return to a writ directed to the Treasurer and Barons of the Exchequer, commanding them to make a search in Domesday

This line has been since altered.

Calendars to the earliest records of the Curia Regis and Court of King's Bench, which are preserved at the Chapter House; viz. the former beginning with the reign of Richard I, and the latter from 1st Edward I, to 18th of Edward I, should be printed, together with an Index to the Placita Exercitus, in the 24th year of the reign of Edward I.

At the Tower, the Indexes to the Patent,* Close, and Charter Rolls should be printed. And also the Chronological Indexes to the Inquisitions Post Mortem, to which might be added in continuation of the same subject, those which are at the Rolls, and in the Duchy Office of Lan

caster.

At the Rolls the following Indexes should be printed; namely, the Office Index to the Charter, Patent and Confirmation Rolls, together with the Fine Rolls; the Index to private selections from the Close Rolls, and the Officer's private Index to the Liveries, and the Office

Book: "Et super hoc convocatis ad nos Justiciariis vestris de Banco, et Servientibus vestris ad Placita, et aliis de concilio vestro, visoque Brevi vestro predicto et singulis aliis premissis, habitaque inde inter nos matura et diligenti Deliberatione, Nescimus super dictus verbis in dicto Libro de Domesday contentis Declarationem seu interpretationem facere, nisi quatenus verba inde sonant." Mich. Communia 12 Edw. III. Rot. 9. a.

* The nature and value of the Patent Rolls may be collected from the following account of them in the Tower Return. These Rolls, beginning the Sd of King John, 1201, and ending with the reign of Edward IV, 1483, contain Grants of Offices, Lands, and Restitutions of Temporalties to Bishops, Abbots, and other ecclesiastical persons; Confirmations of Grants made to bodies corporate, as well ecclesiastical as civil, Grants in Fee Farm, Special Liveries, Grants of Offices, Special and General Patents of Creations of Pecrs, and Licences of all kinds which pass the Great Seal. On the backs of these rolls are Commissions to Justices of the Peace, Commissions of Sewers, and all Commissions which pass the Great Scal.

Index to the Escheat Bundles, the Cardinal's Bundles, and the Parliament Returns.

At the Augmentation Office, the Indexes deserving publication are those to the Conventual Leases, to the Leases made by the Crown, and to the Deeds of Purchase and Exchange.

All these for the sake of uniformity and convenience, it might be proper to print of the same size as the Rolls and Journals of Parliament, and in a type like the Sessional Index to the Journals of this House. The Committee have directed estimates to be made upon this principle, in order to ascertain the magnitude and extent of such a publication, and it appears by them, that the number of volumes need not exceed sixteen or seventeen upon that calculation.

Besides these, it is represented to the Committee, that it will be highly proper, that the Catalogue of the Cottonian Manuscripts in the British Museum, recently compiled by the principal Librarian, under the order of the Trustees, should be printed; as it points out a very considerable number of important documents unnoticed in the former Catalogue, and may contribute greatly to illustrate many circumstances essentially connected with the History, Laws, and Constitution of this Country.

In recommending a selection of ORIGINAL RECORDS AND PAPERS to be printed, the Committee have also proceeded with the same advice and deliberation. And the following sorts of documents appear to be most deserving publication, namely, Political Surveys, Ecclesiastical Surveys, Judicial Proceedings, Unedited Statutes, Parliamentary Proceedings, and State Papers.

Of Political Surveys unpublished, there are several extant of great antiquity. The Hundred Rolls of the reign of Edward the First containing a full and minute Survey, in the nature of Domesday; the Extenta Manerii in the

same reign, (both of which are already described by the Committee), and the Testa de Nevil, which was a Survey of Knights' Fees, Escheats, and Services, in the reigns of Henry the Third and Edward the First. With respect to these three, the Committee are of opinion, that lists of the two former, and a Table of the Contents of the latter should be printed, with a specimen from each original, selecting from each (as nearly as may be) the same Hundreds, Manors, or Places, in order to show more clearly the peculiar nature of these several Records, and the degree in which they may serve conjointly to illustrate the state of Property and Manors at that period of our History. The Nomina Villarum, of which a copy is extant in the Museum containing the Sheriffs' Names of the Hundreds and Vills, and their Possessors, in each county, beginning from 1 Edward II, 1395, and continued downwards for a considerable period, may be a proper subject of publication in its entire form; together with another record in the Pipe Office, bearing the same title, which commences soon after the Restoration, and contains a list of the Claims of Liberties and Privileges by the Lords of Hundreds, Manors, and Franchises to the present time, such as they bave been claimed upon oath in the Exchequer. The Committee cannot forbear to observe upon this head that even in modern times some county magistrates at their sessions have actually recorded the names of every parish, township, and district within their jurisdiction; and the practical advantages of such a proceeding, if more generally carried into effect, are obvious.

The ECCLESIASTICAL SURVEYS, which have been preserved from the ravages of time, are principally Pope Nicholas's Taxation, executed about the 20th year of the reign of Edward I, 1291; the Nonæ Rolls of 15th Edward III, Anno 1341; the Surveys of King Henry VIII, and the Parliamentary Surveys, during the Usurpation.

The Taxation of Pope Nicholas is a most important Record, because all the Taxes, as well to our Kings as to the Pope were regulated by it, till the Survey made in the 26th of Henry VIII, and because the Statutes of Colleges which were founded before the Reformation are also interpreted by this criterion, according to which their Benefices under a certain value are exempted from the restriction in the Statute 21 Henry VIII, concerning Pluralities. The Committee beg leave to refer very particularly to the account which they have received of the most perfect copies of this record; and they recommend it to be printed from the books in the Exchequer, collated with such of the original rolls as remain there, and with the ancient Manuscript in the Cottonian Library, at the British Museum, besides which it may be proper to compare these Books with Sir Henry Spelman's Copy, now in the possession of Thomas Astle, Esq. Keeper of the Records in the Tower, and collated by him with the ancient transcripts lodged in that Repository. The Nonæ Rolls are also very valuable, as they show the alterations which had taken place in the value of each Benefice, after an interval of 50 years from the prior valuation; a Calendar to these should be printed, together with an explanatory account of them, and specimens of some one of the most complete in each Diocese. The Surveys of Henry VIII, and the Parliamentary Surveys, are extremely curious and interesting; but they are so voluminous, and at the same time so accessible to the public, that it would not be advisable to print them.

THE JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS of the earliest dates are those of the Curia Regis, commencing in the reign of Richard I.; the Placita Forestæ, and the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, beginning from the reign of Edward I.

Some of the most curious and instructive Records of the