RECORDS, ADMINISTRATIVEthis general model from some time in the thirteenth
century but to have produced and kept only two main
series of rolls, the Close Rolls and Patent Rolls. On
the Close Rolls were recorded many, but certainly not
all, of the letters close issued by the Irish chancery.
These were documents issued in the king’s name with
a wax impression of the king’s seal attached in such a
way as to damage the wax when they were opened to
be read. They generally took the form of instructions
or authorizations to particular individuals or groups to
take specific actions. These included writs of liberate,
which authorized the Irish exchequer to make pay-
ments to particular individuals, whose counterparts
were enrolled on a separate series of Liberate Rolls in
England, but that were an important constituent ele-
ment of the Irish Close Roll. As in England, the Close
Rolls were also used for recording private acknowl-
edgments of debt and private deeds. On the Patent
Rolls were recorded letters patent issued in the king’s
name, to which an impression of the king’s seal had
been attached in such a way as to allow the document
to be read on multiple occasions without damage to
the wax. Appointments to offices, grants of land or
privileges, pardons, and protections all took this gen-
eral form. Both sets of rolls were kept in Ireland. The
Irish chancery probably also, like its English counter-
part, from the thirteenth century onward kept files of
the writs that it had sent out with instructions to take
action or collect certain information once these had
been returned with a report on the action taken or the
information required. It also kept on file other written
warrants for other action that it took. All these record
series were retained in Ireland.
The English exchequer also compiled and kept
various series of rolls relating to Ireland. The oldest
of these were the Pipe Rolls, annual rolls recording
the accounting of local sheriffs (and later, others as
well) at the exchequer for the sums of money they
and others owed the king. These rolls took the form
of multiple membranes of parchment mainly sewn
together at the top (although some individual mem-
branes were lengthened by adding membranes at the
bottom). There were also from the thirteenth century
two overlapping (but not identical) annual series of
Memoranda Rolls, whose membranes were sewn
together at the top, that recorded a variety of different
materials relating to the exchequer’s functions in col-
lecting money due to the king and disbursing moneys
as required. From the early thirteenth century onward
the Irish exchequer produced Pipe Rolls and by the
end of the thirteenth century, if not before, what
seems to have been a single series of Memoranda
Rolls that resembled their English counterparts. Both
series of rolls were retained in Ireland. The Irish
exchequer, like its English counterpart, also produced
three copies of its annual Receipt Rolls, recording on
a daily basis moneys paid into the treasury of the
exchequer, and of its annual Issue Rolls, recording
moneys paid out of the treasury of the exchequer.
Two copies of both series of rolls were taken to
England when the treasurer of Ireland was required
to present his accounts at the Westminster exchequer
and they were then retained there permanently. The
treasurer also took with him to Westminster proof of
proper authorization of payments he had made in the
form of writs of liberateand receipts for those pay-
ments. These too were retained among the records of
the English exchequer.
The accounts of the treasurer of Ireland rendered at
the English exchequer and enrolled on the English Pipe
Roll (and later on the related roll of Foreign Accounts)
are among the more important of the records relating
to Ireland produced in England. Treasurers of Ireland
were required to account at Westminster from 1293
onward, although the practice died out in the mid-
fifteenth century, and there was also a period in the
late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries when it
seems to have been in suspension. There also survive
some slightly earlier enrolled accounts that were
audited at Westminster because of allegations of mis-
conduct made against specific treasurers and a justiciar
of Ireland. A considerable quantity of material relating
to Ireland is also enrolled on the rolls of the English
chancery, reflecting the ultimate control of the Irish
administration by the king in England. There was no
separate set of rolls for Irish material like the series
of Gascon, Welsh, and Scotch Rolls. Instead, Irish
enrolments are to be found interspersed with material
of purely English relevance in the main English series
of enrollments. Most judicial and administrative
appointments in Ireland (including appointments of
the justiciar and chancellor) are recorded on the
Patent and Close Rolls. Various kinds of license
(including most licenses to grant land “in mortmain”
to the church prior to 1380) are recorded on the Patent
Rolls. Some grants and confirmations of lands in
Ireland are to be found on the Charter Rolls. The files
of the English chancery also include relevant mate-
rial. This includes copies of returned inquisitions post
mortemrelating to lands in Ireland held by tenants-
in-chief of the crown and copies of inquisitions ad
quod damnum into proposed mortmain alienations of
property in Ireland.Surviving Irish Administrative Records
Irish administrative records retained in Ireland have
suffered badly from neglect and destruction over the
centuries. By the early nineteenth century the earliest