Chancery: Inquisitions Ad Quod Damnum, Henry III to Richard III

Description

The Catalogue of Chancery Records re: Inquisitions Ad Quod Damnum, Henry III to Richard III, are a series of records which cover inquisitions from the reigns of Henry III to Richard III (1216-1485). Their purpose is to report on the status of land and people attached to the land in order to decide whether acquiring said land would contradict the interests of the Crown. The documents are individual writs detailing local sheriffs’ findings into the origins of alienated land and often consist of inquiring as to a person’s financial or class standing, or whether the questioned land was well kept.
The physical copies of the original medieval documents are held by the National Archives (UK) at their physical location, but have not been digitized. According to scholar Jane E. Sayers, these writs would have held the seal of the king; they would also have been in Latin. The catalogue of the records compiled and held by the National Archives (UK) is available digitally on the National Archives website. The physical records are only available upon request or appointment at the physical National Archives location in Kew, London. These are public records classified as open documents.