A statute roll is a manuscript

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 ...

roll Roll or Rolls may refer to: Movement about the longitudinal axis * Roll angle (or roll rotation), one of the 3 angular degrees of freedom of any stiff body (for example a vehicle), describing motion about the longitudinal axis ** Roll (aviation), ...

with the text of statutes passed by the medieval

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...

. The statute rolls are also called Tower rolls since they were kept in the Wakefield Tower of 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 ...

until the 1850s. At the end of a medieval parliament, a collection of Acts of a public character was made in the form of a statute roll and given the title of the king's regnal year; each particular

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

forming a section, or a chapter, of the complete statute, so that, e.g. the Vagabonds Act of 1383 became VII Ric. II, c.5. The first statute roll is the Statute of Gloucester of 1278. Before 1278 there were Coram Rege Rolls (from 1194), Fine Rolls (from 1199),

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 ...

(from 1199),

Patent Rolls The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day. Description The patent rolls comprise a register ...

(from 1202) and

Close Rolls The Close Rolls () are an administrative record created in medieval England, Wales, Ireland and the Channel Islands by the royal chancery, in order to preserve a central record of all letters close issued by the chancery in the name of the Crown. ...

(from 1205). The idea that

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 ...

was the first statute on the first roll is a mistake.{{cite web , url=http://www.textmanuscripts.com/manuscript_description.php?id=2915&+cat=all& , title=The Statute of Gloucester The statute rolls were discontinued in 1469 when Acts of Parliament in their final form began to be enrolled on

parliament rolls The Rolls of Parliament were the official records of the English Parliament and the subsequent Parliament of the United Kingdom. They recorded meetings of Parliament and Acts of Parliament. Until 1483 the rolls recorded parliamentary proceedings ( ...

. Until 1483 parliament rolls recorded parliamentary proceedings (petitions, bills and answers, both public and private) which formed the basis of Acts of Parliament, but seldom the statutes themselves. From 1483 to 1534 both public and private Acts were enrolled in parliament rolls; after 1535 only those private Acts for which an enrolment fee was paid appear, and from 1593 only the titles of private Acts are mentioned in the parliament rolls. By 1629 all proceedings other than the Acts themselves disappeared from the parliament rolls and from 1759 the titles of private Acts disappeared too. The statute rolls were translated and printed in the first two volumes of ''

The Statutes of the Realm ''The Statutes of the Realm'' is an authoritative collection of Acts of the Parliament of England from the earliest times to the Union of the Parliaments in 1707, and Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain passed up to the death of Queen Anne i ...

'' (9 volumes,

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 ...

, 1810-1828).

References

External links

Chancery: Statute RollsChancery: Parliament Rolls
Parliament of England Legal manuscripts Medieval documents of England Medieval English law Medieval manuscripts Collection of The National Archives (United Kingdom)