List of proceedings in the Court of Requests :preserved in the Public Record Office

1963·36.3 MB·English

by  New York :Kraus Reprint Corp.

UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES
Digitized by the Internet Archive
2015
in
https://archive.org/details/listofproceeding00newy_1

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
LISTS AND INDEXES,
No. XXI.
LIST
OF
PEOCEEDINGS
IN THE
COURT OF REQUESTS,
PRESERVED IN THE
PUBLIC EECORD OFFICE.
VOL.
I.
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH
HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE, LONDON
NEW
YORK:
KRAUS REPRINT CORPORATION
1963
Calligraphic amendments
incorporated from the master copy
in the Search Room of the
Public Record Office
This series was first published on behalf of the Public
Record Office by Her Britannic Majesty’s Stationery
Office as follows: Vols 1-38 between 1892 and 1912;
Vol 39: 1913; Vols 40-43: 1914; Vol 44: 1915; Vol 45:
1917; Vols 46-48: 1922; Vol 49: 1923; Vol 50: 1927;
Vols 51-52: 1929; Vol 53: 1931; Vol 54: 1933; Vol 55:
1936. Reprinted by permission and with the authority
ofthe Controller ofHer BritannicMajesty’sStationery
Office.
Kraus Reprint Corporation
16 East 46th Street, New York, 17, N.Y.
The manuscript amendments in this edition are
@ British Crown Copyright 1963.
Printed in the United States of America
—
FOR AN INTRODUCTION TO THIS REPRINTED SERIES, SEE VOLUME
I.
P K E F A C E
.
Tiii.s list iuchuli's the existing Proceedings of the Court of Requests from
th(' reigu of Henry VII to that of Philip and Mary, with part of those of the
reign of Elizabeth, as follows ;
Bundles 1-13 Henry VII and Vlll.
Bundles 14-H) ... Edward VI.
Bundles 20-25 - Philip and Mary.
Bundles 26-136 . - - - Elizabeth.
The records (T this court, like those of the Star Chamber, belonged to the
Treasury of the E.xchequer, and were therefore preserved in the Chapter
House at Westminster before their transfer to the Public Record Office.**
The bills are addressed to the Sovereign, and habitually refer to the court
as his council. Thus the earlier suits are almost indistinguishable from those
of tlic‘ Star Chamber, except that the form of process sought is generally
described as a wult of privy seal, and not as a w’rit of subpoena. A somewhat
later designation is “the Court of Whitehall," or “your Majesty’s Council
in the White Hall." This was, of course, not the palace of Whitehall, but
the hall in the Palace of Westminster which at the time of the fire in the
last century was the meeting-place of the tloiise of liOrds, The phrase
“Court of Requests,” though known earlier, does not become common until
near the end of the reign of Edward VI, and, like the title of the Star
Chamber, is generally joined with the w'ord “Council."
These phrases imply that the Court of Requests, like the Star Chamber,
was simply one form of the activity of the Council and we find in the
;
printed volume of Acts of the Council for 1547-50 an entry dated 14 November
—
1549; “The Hordes agreyed to heare Mr. Hare, Master of the Requests,
ordynarely uppon the Wedynsdayes in thc> afternone, if mattier for the King
of greater importaunce did not lett.” No trace of these special Wednesday
sittings appears in the Council books and those of the Court of
;
Requests are unfortunately lacking at this date. Two years later, the
business was placed in the hands of a committee. In the ninth voluume of
orders of the Court, immefiiately preceding the entries for Hilary term
6 Edw. VI, is a list headed “ Commissioners apf)oytid {sic) to sytt in the
Courte of Requestes anno regni regis E. vj“ sexto.” Of the eight names
following, none are PriNy Councillors, except Thomas [Thirleby], bishop of
Norwich. It is thus clear that before the end of the reign of Edward VI
the work of the court was done by a body not consisting wholly of Privy
Councillors. Nevertheless, it was still the Council in theory, the appearances
of suitors being constantly entered as “ coram consilio domini regis."
Seventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, p. 13.
——
IV
I he proceedings show that the court dealt with civil business of every
kind. But it seems to have been intended for particular classes of
suitors. In a small volume ascribed to Sir Julius Caesar, himself a Master
of Requests, printed in 1597, and entitled “ The Ancient State, Authoritie,
and Proceedings of the Court of Requests,” is the following paragraph ;
“The persons plaintifs, and Defendants, betwene w^hom they judged, were
alwayes either priviledged as officers of the Court, or as their servants, or as
the Kings servants, or necessarie attendants on them or els where the plaintifs
;
povertie, or mean estate was not matchable with the wealth, or greatnes of
the Defendant or where the cause meerely contained matter of equity, and
:
had no proper remedy at the Common law or where the cause was specially
:
recommended from the King, to the examination of his Councell or causes
:
concerning Universities, Colledges, Schooles, Hospitalls, and the like.” It is
not an unusual form of demurrer to state that the matter is determinable at
common law and sometimes this is the only plea.
;
A copy of the above named book, with manuscript additions partly by
Sir Julius Caesar, is preserved in the British Museum under the reference
Lansdowne MS. J25. One of these additions, printed in the Selden Society’s
volume of Select Cases in the Court of Requests, is a set of rules for its
conduct dated 35 Henry VIII, of which the third paragraph runs as follows
:
“3. That all gentlemen which bringe complaintes to the Kinges Grace or
his Counsell, not being his Graces howsehold servants attendant upon his
person, having landes to the yearlie value of or all such other
,
persons that have goodes and chattells to the somme of be remytted
,
to the common lawe, and in default of remedie there, to the Kinges high
Court of Chauncerie, considering their suites to be greatlie to the hinderaunce
of poore mens causes admitted to sue to the Kinges Grace, and that all such
persons be triedby their oathes, touching their landes and goodes.” Accordingly
in an undated but early answer iti this collection (Bundle VIII, No. 180),
the defendant demurs “wheir hyt ys establyshed, ordenyd, determyned and
:
decreed by thys honorable court that noo person nor persons haveyng of
hys or their owne proper goodes above the valeu of xx li. shall exibytt or procure
any byll of complaynt from hensforth yn thys honorable court agaynst any
person or persons, and yf any oft'ende or do contrail {sic) to they {sic) ordin-
aunce abovesayd, their sayde byll of corapleynt to abate and to be clearly
voyde and of non effect contrarye to wyche good ordinans and decree the
;
sayde Johane havyng yn londes to the value of v li. by the yere
and goodes yn valeu above the som of xx li. sterlyng hathe, con-
trarii to the sayde holsom and good ordynans, exibyted and procured one byll
of compleynt agaynste the sayde Robert The wyche maters the
sayde Robert ys reddy to aver and prove and prayth to be dysmyssed and
dischargyd owt of thys honorable court with ys reasonable costes and damages
susteynyd yn that behalf acordyng to the good and holsom ordynans aforesaide.”
V
But the frequent appearance of men of rank and wealth as plaintiffs proves
that these limitations were not observed, but that the Court of Requests
imitated all the other courts in a vigorous competition for business.
In the latter years of Elizabeth, the Court of Requests came into repeated
conflict with the Court of Common Pleas; and in Michaelmas term, 40-41 Eliz.,
the latter court decided in the case of Stepney v. Floud that the Court of
Requests had no power to issue warrants for arrest under the Privy Seal.
This blow, however, was not destructive; for the (Jourt of Requests continued
to do abundant business till the outbreak of the Civil War.
Further particulars with regard to this Court will be found in the Selden
Society’s volume mentioned above.
The following List has been prepared by the late Mr. P. S. L. Hunt,
Mr. H. Rodney, M.A., and Mr. J. B. W. Chapman, M.A., of this Department.
Mr. Chapman has put together the preceding notes upon the Court of Requests.
Public Record
Office,
MAXWELL
9 April, 1906. H. C. LYTE.
——
IV
Ihe proceedings show that the court dealt with civil business of every
kind. But it seems to have been intended for particular classes of
suitors. In a small volume ascribed to Sir Julius Caesar, himself a Master
of Requests, printed in 1597, and entitled “ The Ancient State, Authoritie,
and Proceedings of the Court of Reguests,” is the following paragraph :
“ The persons plaintifs, and Defendants, betwene whom they judged, were
alwayes either priviledged as officers of the Court, or as their servants, or as
the Kings servants, or necessarie attendants on them or els where the plaintifs
;
povertie, or mean estate was not matchable with the wealth, or greatnes of
the Defendant or where the cause meerely contained matter of equity, and
:
had no proper remedy at the Common law or where the cause was specially
:
recommended from the King, to the examination of his Councell • or causes
concerning Universities, Colledges, Schooles, Hospitalls, and the like.” It is
not an unusual form of demurrer to state that the matter is determinable at
common law and sometimes this is the only plea.
;
A copy of the above named book, with manuscript additions partly by
Sir Julius Csesar, is preserved in the British Museum under the reference
Lansdowne MS. J25. One of these additions, printed in the Selden Society’s
volume of Select Cases in the Court of Requests, is a set of rules for its
conduct dated 35 Henry VIII, of which the third paragraph runs as follows
;
“3. That all gentlemen which bringe complaintes to the Kinges Grace or
his Counsell, not being his Graces howsehold servants attendant upon his
person, having landes to the yearlie value of or all such other
,
persons that have goodes and chattells to the somme of be remytted
,
to the common lawe, and in default of remedie there, to the Kinges high
Court of Chauncerie, considering their suites to be greatlie to the hinderaunce
of poore mens causes admitted to sue to the Kinges Grace, and that all such
persons be triedby their oathes, touching their landes and goodes.” Accordingly
in an undated but early answer iti this collection (Bundle VIII, No. 180),
the defendant demurs “wheir hyt ys establyshed, ordenyd, determyned and
:
decreed by thys honorable court that noo person nor persons haveyng of
hys or their owne proper goodes above the valeu of xx li. shall exibytt or procure
any byll of complaynt from hensforth yn thys honorable court agaynst any
person or persons, and yf any offende or do contrail [sic) to they (sic) ordin-
aunce abovesayd, their sayde byll of corapleynt to abate and to be clearly
voyde and of non effect contrarye to wyche good ordinans and decree the
;
sayde Johane havyng yn londes to the value of v li. by the yere
and goodes yn valeu above the som of xx li. sterlyng bathe, con-
trarii to the sayde holsom and good ordynans, exibyted and procured one byll
of compleynt agaynste the sayde Robert The wyche maters the
sayde Robert ys reddy to aver and prove and prayth to be dysmyssed and
dischargyd owt of thys honorable court with ys reasonable costes and damages
susteynyd yn that behalf acordyng to the good and holsom ordynans aforesaide.”