3.2 Key termsĬoncord – final agreement 4. The sum of money given is, by the 14th century, no longer the actual purchase price but a guide price to the value of the property on the open market.Īfter 1489, the date on which the fine was ‘proclaimed’ (announced in court) is endorsed on the back of the fine. The property description is formal and not intended for use as a detailed guide to property boundaries. Other abbreviations used include ‘q’ or ‘quer’ – the querent, and ‘def’ – the deforciants. The key word to look for in the text is INTER, after which the names of the parties are given. Regnal years and legal terms can be converted into conventional dates by using C R Cheney’s Handbook of Dates. The fine opens with the date, given by regnal year, legal term, and names of the judges. 3.1 Information in a foot of fineįinal concords always begin ‘Hec est finalis Concordia’ – ‘This is the final agreement’. They are mostly in Latin until 1733, except for a short period between 16 where English was used. The feet of fines can prove invaluable for finding information about changing land ownership where other records are not available.įines, also known as final concords, are written in a standard form. From the reign of Edward III, all feet of fines made in the central courts were made in the Court of Common Pleas. The records and what they tell usīefore 1290, agreements reached in court were often recorded on the plea rolls but were sometimes recorded elsewhere. Using one piece of parchment separated in this way gave protection against fraud or forgery as only the genuine copies would fit together – like a jigsaw.
The purchaser kept one copy, the seller the other and the final copy – ‘the foot of the fine’ – was kept by the king’s court as a central record of the conveyance. The agreements were normally written out three times on a single sheet of parchment – two copies side by side and one copy across the bottom (the foot) of the sheet, separated by an indented or wavy line. In reality, the disputes were mostly fictitious and were simply a way of having the transfer of ownership of land recorded officially by the king’s court. What are feet of fines?įeet of fines are court copies of agreements following disputes over property. However, you may find that to locate document references you will also need to visit us – there are calendars and indexes held in our building that may prove essential in your search.įor Welsh feet of fines please contact the National Library of Wales. A small percentage of these records are available to view online but, in most cases, to see them you will have to either visit us in Kew or, if you can locate document references, order copies.
0 kommentar(er)
