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The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
,
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
and
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day.


Description

The patent rolls comprise a register of the
letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, titl ...
issued by the
Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...
, and sealed "open" with the Great Seal
pendent Pendent is an adjective that describes the condition of hanging, either literally, or figuratively, as in undecided or incomplete. The word is to be distinguished from the spelling "pendant", which is the noun. * In botany and anatomy the term ...
, expressing the sovereign's will on a wide range of matters of public interest, including – but not restricted to – grants of official positions, lands, commissions, privileges and pardons, issued both to individuals and to
corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
s. The rolls were started in the reign of King
John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Secon ...
, under the Chancellorship of
Hubert Walter Hubert Walter ( – 13 July 1205) was an influential royal adviser in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries in the positions of Chief Justiciar of England, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor. As chancellor, Walter b ...
. The texts of letters patent were copied onto sheets of
parchment Parchment is a writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals—primarily sheep, calves, and goats. It has been used as a writing medium for over two millennia. Vellum is a finer quality parchment made from the skins of ...
, which were stitched together (head-to-tail) into long rolls to form a roll for each year. As the volume of business grew, it became necessary to compile more than one roll for each year. The most solemn grants of lands and privileges were issued, not as letters patent, but as
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...
s, and were entered on the separate series of
Charter Rolls A charter roll is an administrative record created by a medieval chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office. Origins In medieval England, King John in 1199 established a fixed rate of fees for the sealing of charters and lett ...
. This series was discontinued in 1516, and all charters issued thereafter, mainly for grants of titles, were entered on the patent rolls. The patent rolls run in an almost unbroken series from 1201 to the present day, with a small number of gaps, notably during the
English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
and
Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one monarch and the next (coming from Latin '' ...
(1641–1660). They are written almost exclusively in
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
in the early period. English was used occasionally in the 16th century, but only during the Commonwealth and after 1733 are all the entries in English.


Custodial history

The medieval rolls were originally stored in the
Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
, which was the principal repository for Chancery archives. From the end of the 14th century, it became customary for the
Master of the Rolls The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Court of Appeal (England and Wales)#Civil Division, Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales a ...
to house the more recent rolls, for convenience of access, in the
Rolls Chapel The Maughan Library () is the main university research library of King's College London, forming part of the Strand Campus. A 19th-century neo-Gothic building located on Chancery Lane in the City of London, it was formerly the home to the head ...
, prior to their permanent transfer to the Tower. These transfers ceased at the end of the 15th century, and so the Rolls Chapel became the permanent place of deposit for all rolls from the reign of
Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...
onwards. The rolls from both sites were reunited at the newly built
Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
in the 1850s, and they are now held at the National Archives,
Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is a ...
, London, where their class reference is C 66. As of 2016, there are 5,790 rolls in the series, dating from 1201 to 2012.


Patents of invention

Letters patent were also issued to grant monopolies over particular industries to individuals with new techniques, and these grants were likewise copied onto the patent rolls. The system became subject to abuse in the reigns of
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...
and
James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...
, and was eventually regulated by the
Statute of Monopolies The Statute of Monopolies 162321 Jac 1 c 3 was an Act of the Parliament of England notable as the first statutory expression of English patent law. Patents evolved from letters patent, issued by the monarch to grant monopolies over particular ...
of 1624, the first
statutory A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by le ...
expression of English
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
law. In 1853, responsibility for patents of invention was transferred to the newly established Patent Office, and they ceased to be registered on the patent rolls.


Publication

All the medieval and early modern rolls to 1625 have been published in some form, although editorial policies and formats have varied. *1201–1216. The rolls for these years were published as abbreviated Latin texts by the
Record Commission The Record Commissions were a series of six Royal Commissions of Great Britain and (from 1801) the United Kingdom which sat between 1800 and 1837 to inquire into the custody and public accessibility of the state archives. The Commissioners' work ...
in 1835, in a large
folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
volume entitled ''Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi asservati'' ("Rolls of Letters Patent preserved in the Tower of London"), edited by
Thomas Duffus Hardy Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (22 May 1804 – 15 June 1878) was an English archivist and antiquary, who served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Record Office from 1861 to 1878. Life Hardy was the third son of Major Thomas Bartholomew Price Hardy, from ...
, and later abbreviated as ''Pat. Roll. T.L.'' The publication employed a special "
record type Record type is a family of typefaces designed to allow medieval manuscripts (specifically those from England) to be published as near-facsimiles of the originals. The typefaces include many special characters intended to replicate the various s ...
" font to produce a near-
facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
of the manuscripts. *1216–1232. The rolls for these years were published as full Latin texts (with contractions and abbreviations extended) in two volumes published in 1901 and 1903, simply entitled ''Patent Rolls''. *1232–1509. The post-1232 rolls have not been published as full texts, but in
calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...
form (i.e. as comprehensive English summaries, with all significant details included). Between 1891 and 1916, 53 volumes of calendars were published, under the title ''Calendar of the Patent Rolls'', covering the years 1232 to 1509. These are abbreviated as ''Cal. patent R.'' *1509–1547. The rolls for the reign of
Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
(1509–47) have not been published in a stand-alone form. Their contents were, however, incorporated (in calendar form) into the series ''
Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII ''Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' (full title: ''Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII: preserved in the Public Record Office, the British Museum, and elsewhere in England''; often abbreviated in citat ...
'', published between 1862 and 1932. *1547–1582. The rolls for the years 1547–1582 were published in calendar form in 19 volumes, under the title ''Calendar of the Patent Rolls'', between 1924 and 1986. *1582–1603. In the late 1980s the
Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
suspended its programme of scholarly publication, and the initiative passed to the
List and Index Society The List and Index Society (L&IS) is a learned society that publishes editions and calendars of historical records and occasional monographs. The society was founded in 1965 by Sir Geoffrey Elton and others, with the aim of publishing and distribu ...
. Between 1990 and 1994 the Society published five volumes of "draft" calendars covering the years 1584–1589; and between 2000 and 2014 it published 30 volumes of full calendars with indexes covering the years 1582–1603. *1603–1625. Calendars and indexes of the rolls for the reign of
James VI and I James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
(1603–1625) were published by the List and Index Society in 14 volumes between 1974 and 1989. These are
facsimile A facsimile (from Latin ''fac simile'', "to make alike") is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, Old master print, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from ...
s (reproduced from photocopies) of contemporary 17th-century
finding aid A finding aid, in the context of archival science, is an organization tool, a document containing detailed, indexed, and processed metadata and other information about a specific collection of records within an archive. Finding aids often consist o ...
s. Although of value, they do not meet modern scholarly standards of comprehensiveness or accuracy. Commissions of
gaol delivery The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes ex ...
and
assize The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...
were entered on the backs of the rolls: these entries have generally not been included in the published editions.


Online availability

Hardy's 1835 edition of the rolls for 1201–1216 is available online in a non-searchable form. The published texts and calendars from 1216 to 1452 have been made available online in a fully searchable form by the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...
.


See also

*
Charter Roll A charter roll is an administrative record created by a medieval chancery that recorded all the charters issued by that office. Origins In medieval England, King John in 1199 established a fixed rate of fees for the sealing of charters and letter ...


References


External links

* * * Timeline and Map interface to the scanned full text of the earliest patent rolls the ''Rotuli Litterarum Patentium'' 201–16and the ''Itinerary of King John'', edited by T.D. Hardy in 1835. {{short description, Administrative document recording letters patent issued by the Kingdom of England and its successors Legal manuscripts Medieval documents of England Medieval English law Medieval manuscripts Collection of The National Archives (United Kingdom)