Definition of Terms

Charter Rolls: These were the administrative records created by the medieval office of the chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office. In medieval England, King John in 1199 established a fixed rate of fees for the sealing of charters and letters patent. It was to keep track of these fees that the first Charter Roll was started (as a fee book) in 1199, under the Chancellorship of Hubert Walter. The Roll thereby also kept track of all charters that had been issued by the government – the letters patent being swiftly hived off into the patent rolls. Instead of keeping the records in a register or book form, they were written on sheets of parchment stitched together into long rolls to form a roll for each year.

Letters Patent: