The Great Rolls of the Pipe and the Kent Pipe Roll Project

Pipe Rolls are an essential tool for historians together with the Domesday Book, the Red Book of the Exchequer and the Calendars of Close, Fine and Patent Rolls. The original rolls are documents held in the Public Record Office at The National Archives, TNA: P RO Series E 372 (complemented by the series E 352, supposedly copies of the Exchequer rolls, but with some variations).

Exchequer Pipe Rolls contain accounts of the royal income, arranged by county, for each financial year. They are the written record of the audit process of the king’s accounts for one financial year, which ran from Michaelmas (29 September) to Michaelmas. They represent the earliest surviving series of public records, and are essentially continuous from 1155 onwards until the 19th century; one roll from 1129-30 also survives.

Rolls from the late 12th and early 13th century have been published with indexes, mainly by the Pipe Roll Society. The Pipe Roll Society editions are of the Latin text, in “record type” to reproduce the highly abbreviated style of the originals until 1175 (21 Henry II), and with abbreviations extended thereafter.

The sheriff’s accounts form the core of the early Pipe Rolls. As the king’s representative in the county, the sheriff was responsible for collecting revenue from the royal estates and other sources. The rolls also record some items of expenditure by the sheriffs, and include lists of lands formerly part of the royal estates, which had been given to or taken from private individuals. In addition, there are payments of feudal dues and taxes, “offerings” to the king in connection with legal disputes, records of penalties (amercements) imposed by the itinerant justices, and miscellaneous items such as enrolled charters.

The annual accounts for Kent include payments associated with communities and religious houses as well as individuals. Sections relating to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s manors and other interests are included in rolls for years when there were vacancies, or when these were appropriated by the crown.

The published Great Rolls of the Pipe have proved a useful resource for research undertaken by KAS members concerning particular estates in Kent.

Various Pipe Rolls enabled Mary Berg to trace members of the Patrick family at Patrikbourne throughout the twelfth century and to build up a picture of how the family developed its holdings elsewhere. This formed the basis of her study of the patronage of Patrikbourne church. (See “Patrikbourne church: Medieval Patronage, Fabric and History,” in Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 122 for 2002, pages 113-142).

In researching the early manorial history of RundaIe and Cobham, Roger Cockett found the Pipe Rolls and the Red Book of the Exchequer to be invaluable sources on land holdings and holders in the difficult period between Domesday and the advent of other series of Chancery and Exchequer rolls in the second and third decades of the thirteenth century.

Apart from providing evidence regarding land tenure and inheritance in the county, the Pipe Rolls cover a surprising diversity of subjects, encompassing as they do periods of both war and peace. Amongst other things, they record local contributions related to knight’s fees towards defence of the realm, and the ransom of King Richard I; they detail specific local expenditure, for example, on various buildings, including royal castles of Kent, and supply of munitions authorised by the sheriff to be paid from local funds, sums deducted from the fixed county farm payment due annually hence providing additional information on local government. They also reveal the importance and influence of various individuals in Kent.

Perhaps the most accessible information to be derived from the early Pipe Rolls, especially to those who do not read Latin, is the wealth of place and personal names recorded. Variant forms and spellings, even including elements of Old English, offer valuable evidence for study relating to early Kentish place names (and development of the English language), including as they do both recognisable modern parishes, and settlements that may now be obscure, possibly preserved only in names of isolated features, farms, or estates.

The early Pipe Rolls thus provide a useful source of information from a period when few other records are available.

The KAS Publications Committee is supporting the Kent Pipe Roll Project which aims to make Kent portions of the published Great Rolls of the Pipe more accessible for research. Canterbury Cathedral Library holds most, but not all, of the published volumes of Great Rolls of the Pipe. Microfilm and digital copies of the pages relating to Kent accounts within the published volumes, both of the Pipe Roll Society and Record Commission, have now been obtained from The National Archives. It is intended that these should be made available for study locally, and eventually on the KAS website, together with several digitally scanned images of the original rolls, accompanied by a transcript and new translations which have been specially commissioned. Prints of pages may also be made available to researchers.

Available images of Kent accounts in Pipe Rolls published to date relate to TNA: P RO E 372/1 for 31 Hen I (1129-30); then E 372/2-68 for years covering the period 2 Hen II – 8 Hen III (Michaelmas 1155-1224), plus E 372/74 for 14 Hen III (Michaelmas 1230). [N.B. Even-pages are published Pipe Rolls with no section relating to Kent: E 372/30, for 30 Hen II (1183-1184); E 372/6, 11 for John (1214-15); E 372/6, 2 Hen III (Michaelmas 1218)].

Additional new KAS material that relates to Kent accounts is:

• E 372/2: Pipe Roll, 2 Hen II (1155-1156) - full transcript of abbreviated Latin recorded in Record Commission volume, plus translation;
• E 372/35: Pipe Roll, 1 Ric I (1189-1190);
• E 372/45: Pipe Roll, 1 John (Michaelmas 1199) - translation.

Enquiries regarding copies of the above Pipe Roll material to: piprolls@kentarchaeology.org.uk or Kent Pipe Roll Project, c/o Kent Archaeological Society, Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Gallery, St. Faith’s Street, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1LH.

For more details on the Pipe Rolls see the catalogue and research guide: Pipe Rolls, 1130-c.1300, on The National Archives website at: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk.