An Inquisition post mortem (abbreviated to Inq.p.m. or i.p.m., and formerly known as an escheat) (Latin, meaning "(inquisition) after death") is an English medieval or early modern record of the death, estate and heir of one of the king's
tenants-in-chief
In medieval and early modern Europe, the term ''tenant-in-chief'' (or ''vassal-in-chief'') denoted a person who held his lands under various forms of feudal land tenure directly from the king or territorial prince to whom he did homage, as oppos ...
, made for royal fiscal purposes. The process of making such inquisition was effected by the royal escheators in each county where the deceased held land. The earliest inq.p.m. was made in 1236, in the reign of
King Henry III (1216–1272), and the practice ceased c.1640, at the start of 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 was finally abolished by the
Tenures Abolition Act 1660
The Tenures Abolition Act 1660 (12 Car 2 c 24), sometimes known as the Statute of Tenures, was an Act of the Parliament of England which changed the nature of several types of feudal land tenure in England. The long title of the Act was ''An act ...
, which ended the feudal system.
Purpose
The escheators were ordered by a writ from the king's
chancery to investigate the deaths of tenants-in-chief in order to assess what monetary value was due to the king from his so-called feudal incidents, comprising for example feudal relief, wardships, and marriages. Such revenues which resulted from the deaths of his tenants-in-chief formed a significant proportion of the
mediaeval royal revenues. The feudal due which was payable to the king on the inheritance of the lands by the tenant's heir is termed a
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
, from Latin ''levo, levare'' (to lift-up), plus ''re'' (again), signifying the process of re-elevating the heir to the honourable position of the deceased, as a
lord of the manor
Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...
and tenant-in-chief. The scale of reliefs payable to the king by his tenants-in-chief who held under the
feudal land tenure
Under the English feudal system several different forms of land tenure existed, each effectively a contract with differing rights and duties attached thereto. Such tenures could be either free-hold, signifying that they were hereditable or perpet ...
of
barony Barony may refer to:
* Barony, the peerage, office of, or territory held by a baron
* Barony, the title and land held in fealty by a feudal baron
* Barony (county division), a type of administrative or geographical division in parts of the British ...
had become a fixed sum under clause two of
Magna Carta
(Medieval Latin for "Great Charter of Freedoms"), commonly called (also ''Magna Charta''; "Great Charter"), is a royal charter of rights agreed to by King John of England at Runnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215. First drafted by the ...
(1215), but the king nevertheless needed to know who the heir was so payment of the relief could be demanded. If the tenant-in-chief was found to have no heir, for example if he was unmarried or childless, the lands held would "escheat" (i.e. revert to the
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
of the king) to be re-granted as a valuable reward to a favoured courtier or official, or sold for cash proceeds. This aspect of the process was the origin of their former appellation by early Victorian antiquarians of "escheats". If the tenant-in-chief left a minor son as heir, that is to say one aged under 21, his wardship escheated likewise to the king, who was able to sell or award his marriage to a third party. Generally the marriages of such wards were purchased by wealthy men as husbands for their own daughters, and a marriage contract was drawn up at the direction of the bride's father which
entail
In English common law, fee tail or entail is a form of trust established by deed or settlement which restricts the sale or inheritance of an estate in real property and prevents the property from being sold, devised by will, or otherwise alien ...
ed the ward's future estate onto the progeny of the marriage. Thus the wealthy purchaser's grandchildren became the inheritors of the ward's estate. If the deceased tenant-in-chief left a minor daughter, that is to say one aged under 14, or one younger who was not contracted in marriage, as sole heiress (or more as joint-heiresses), her wardship and marriage likewise escheated to the king. Such wardships constituted a significant part of the royal revenues in mediaeval times.
Avoidance measures
The practice arose amongst tenants-in-chief of transferring the legal title in their lands to
feoffees to uses, which effectively established trusts enabling the tenant-in-chief to continue to use the land and its revenues, but to avoid being officially recognised in law as the legal holder. This exempted him from the scope of the Inquisition post mortem, as the legal holders were effectively an immortal
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 ...
one or two of whose constituent feoffees could on occasion die, only to be replaced by others. Such avoidance devices were apparently tolerated by the crown for a considerable time, yet on the accession of
King Henry VII
Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor.
Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufo ...
(1485–1509)
the king's ancient right to his feudal incidents was enforced with determination and ruthlessness.
Procedure
For an heir to inherit his paternal lands a formal and lengthy standard procedure had to be completed, only at the end of which he could "sue out his
livery of seisin" (i.e. gain physical possession of his inheritance), so it was in his best interest to get the process started as soon as possible after the death. He himself, or his relatives if a minor, would generally inform the king's chancery that the death had occurred, and this would prompt the production of a writ by the chancery under the king's
great seal addressed to the various escheators of the counties in which the deceased held lands, known as a writ ''diem clausit extremum''. This writ, the earliest identified example of which dates from 1254, informed the escheator that the king had been informed (''quia datum est nobis intelligi'' ("because it has been given to us to know")) that the tenant-in-chief named had "closed his last day", as the Latin phrase by which the writ has become known may be translated, and that he was ordered to hold an inquisition ''post mortem'', and to send the resultant report back to the chancery, with his seal and with the writ ''diem clausit extremum'' sewn onto it. On receipt of the writ the escheator requested the sheriff of the county concerned to empanell a jury made up of local freeholders, that is to say persons of social standing, who could be relied upon to provide the standard information required in accurate form. Such information, termed 'the jurors' "verdict"' comprised:
*Date of death
*Name of heir
*Age of heir
*Name of manors held in chief
*Name of manors held from other persons
*Extent (i.e. area/size) of manors
*Annual value of manors
*Nature of
feudal tenures & services due
The most immediate order in the writ however was that requiring the escheator to take control of all the deceased's
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
lands, i.e. those which had not been
sub-enfeoffed to
mesne tenants but had been managed in-hand directly by the deceased and his household officials. All revenues resulting from such lands whilst in the hands of the escheator had to be audited (i.e. accounted for before the Barons of the Exchequer) periodically at the treasury.
The end result of the inquisition would be one of the three following, depending on what the jury reported:
*If the vassal had died with an heir who was of age, then a fine was paid to the king for the right of the heir to inherit, namely his
relief
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
.
*If the heir was underage, that is to say under 21 for a male and under 14 for a female, then the heir and the lands were placed into royal
wardship
In law, a ward is a minor or incapacitated adult placed under the protection of a legal guardian or government entity, such as a court. Such a person may be referenced as a "ward of the court".
Overview
The wardship jurisdiction is an ancient jur ...
.
*If there was no heir, then the lands
escheat
Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a ...
ed (i.e. reverted) to the king's royal
demesne
A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
.
Form of permanent record
Inquisitions post mortem (or "escheats") were recorded on two duplicate sheets of parchment. The original return was held in the records of the
chancery, to which department the escheator had made his original return, the other by the
treasury
A treasury is either
*A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry.
*A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...
, which had caused a copy to be made for fiscal purposes, in order to verify the escheator's accounts which were presented to the treasury periodically. Unlike some other series of records, they were not historically sewn together as rolls, but in modern times the parchment sheets have been bound in files with covers, and are today held at the
National Archives in Kew. The documents formerly comprising the chancery records are classified under the initial letter "C", whilst those from the exchequer bear the class letter "E". After the establishment of the
Court of Wards
The Court of Wards and Liveries was a court established during the reign of Henry VIII in England. Its purpose was to administer a system of feudal dues; but as well as the revenue collection, the court was also responsible for wardship and liv ...
in 1540 a copy of the Inq.p.m. was also sent to that court, and these records also survive at the National Archives classified as "WARD 7". When an Inq.p.m. had been held not as a result of a writ from chancery but under the escheator's own authority, the verdict was sent to the exchequer only.
Value as historical source documents
Inquisitions post mortem form a valuable source for historians and genealogists, as they not only detail the familial relationships of many of the English nobility and gentry, but also provide information on the history of individual
manors, including their size and forms of tenure by which they were held.
[Lyon ''Constitutional and Legal History'' p. 478] They thus constitute "one of the most important sources for the social and economic history of mediaeval England". They also provide summaries and terms of settlements made during the lifetime of the deceased, for example settlement to feoffees, the original copy of which has rarely survived.
Example
The following example of the abstracted Latin inq.p.m. of William Pagam (d.1422), published in 1995 as no. 932 in vol. 20, 6–10 Henry V, of the ''Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem'', illustrates many common elements:
Writ 24 July 1422. Hampshire. Inquisition. Alton, 26 Aug.
He held of the king in-chief in his demesne as of fee the manor of Drayton, annual value 8 marks, for 6s. 8d. paid to the king by the constable of Porchester Castle at Michaelmas and providing at his own expense for 15 days a hobbler to keep the castle in time of war. By an indenture of 26 Oct. 1418, shown to the jurors, William Tauk, Robert Monkeston and Thomas Welegh, who were seised in their demesne as of fee, granted the manor of Pury, a messuage, carucate and 13 acres meadow, 40 a. pasture and 20 a. wood at "la Bere juxta Southwyke" as lands and tenements in Pury, Badley, "Colvyle", "Holdmede", and "Bere", to William Pagam and his wife Agnes, who survives, for life of Agnes, remainder to William and his heirs in fee simple. The manor of Pury, annual value 6 marks, is held of the king in chief, service unknown. The messuage, carucate, arable, meadow, pasture and wood at "le Bere" annual value 40s. are held of the king in chief for 7s. 4d. paid to the king by the constable of Porchester Castle at Michaelmas. He died on 15 July last. Philip Pagam is his son and next heir, aged 6 years and more. C 138/63, no.26A
Here the manor of Drayton is held by the
feudal military tenure of
castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting ...
; the manor of Pury had been transferred to feoffees to uses, and was re-granted by them in 1418 back to William and his wife for their uses under trust.
Calendars
Printed
calendars
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 ...
(abstracted summaries) of almost all the rolls of Inq.p.m.'s have been published in some form, with the exception of the periods 1447–1485 and 1509–1660. An extensive series of calendars extending from the reign of
Henry III to that 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 ...
, and with an appendix of lists to 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 ...
, was published in four volumes 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 ...
between 1806 and 1828, edited by
John Caley
John Caley (1760–1834) was an English archivist and antiquary.
Life
He was the eldest son of John Caley, a grocer in Bishopsgate Street, London. Acquaintance with Thomas Astle led to a place in the Record Office in the Tower of London. In 1787 ...
and
John Bayley. However, these volumes were later judged by Sir
Henry Maxwell Lyte
Sir Henry Churchill Maxwell Lyte (or Maxwell-Lyte) (29 May 1848 – 28 October 1940) was an English historian and archivist. He served as Deputy Keeper of the Public Records from 1886 to 1926, and was the author of numerous books including a hi ...
to be of "unsatisfactory character", and to contain many omissions. In 1865 two volumes were published, covering the reigns of Henry III and
Edward I
Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...
, in a new series edited by Charles Roberts entitled ''Calendarium Genealogicum'', which concentrated on providing the names of heirs omitted from the previous publications, designed to be of particular use to genealogists. In 1898 the production of three volumes covering the reign of
Henry VII (1485–1509) was started, and was completed in 1955. In 1904 the first volume of a new series of Inq.p.m.'s was published, intended to be more complete and systematic, under Maxwell Lyte's editorship. It covered the reign of Henry III, from 1236, when the practice of producing inq.p.m.'s began. This "first series" continued for 26 volumes, the last volume having been published in 2009, although volumes were not published in chronological order.
Winchester University
, mottoeng = Wisdom and Knowledge
, established = 1840 - Winchester Diocesan Training School1847 - Winchester Training College1928 - King Alfred's College2005 - University of Winchester
, type = Public research university
...
and the
Department of Digital Humanities at
King's College London
King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...
are currently working on a project to publish on-line in searchable format a revised and expanded series of all existing texts covering the years 1236–1447 and 1485–1509.
The project also aims in the long-term to produce calendars for the first time of the periods 1447–1485 and 1509–1542. A number of county
record societies have published calendars of Inq.p.m.'s relating to their own counties, abstracted from the chancery and exchequer rolls.
List of published calendars
See also
*
Proof of age inquisition A proof of age inquisition was required during the feudal era in England to enable a minor to exit wardship. The age of majority to be proved for a male was 21, for a female 14 if married, 16 if unmarried. Witnesses were required to give evidence o ...
Sources
Books
* Brown, William. Preface to Yorkshire Inquisitions of the Reigns of Henry III and Edward I, Vol. I, Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record Series, p.iii, 1892
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*
References
External links
*
*
*{{cite web , url=https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/ , title=Mapping the Medieval Countryside , publisher=Inquisitions Post Mortem Project
Medieval documents of England
Economic history of England
Legal manuscripts
Medieval economics
Collection of The National Archives (United Kingdom)