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- Pipe Roll Introduction
- Contents and Use
- What is a pipe roll?
- How big is a pipe roll?
- How were they compiled?
- Why were they produced?
- The overall system
- The county account
- The farm and terre date
- Sheriff's expenditure
- Increment and profit
- Farmer/custodian sheriffs
- Other debts
- Pipe roll terminology
- Recording payment
- Blanched and numero
- Foreign accounts
- Cutting the rolls
- Bibliography
introduction to pipe rolls
In this section you will find an extensive introduction to the production, form, content and use of the pipe rolls, prepared by Dr Richard Cassidy.
Using this Introduction
The pipe rolls are the annual accounts of debts and payments maintained by the Exchequer. The pipe rolls is the earliest series of public records: the earliest pipe roll dates from 1129-1130, and they run in an almost unbroken series from 1155 until 1832. They are now housed in The National Archives in Kew, under the record series E 372.
The early pipe rolls were based on the sheriffs' accounts and are full of information about payments made by the Crown, payments made to the Crown, and debts owed. This can reveal a huge amount about the functioning and resources of medieval government, and how people in the localities interacted with it.
The Pipe Roll Society has published editions of many of the pipe rolls - please see the 'Full List of Publications' page on this site, accessible via the 'About' drop-down menu, to view these titles. Editions are available at a discounted rate for members of the Society; please see the 'Become a Member' page to join the Society.
To cite this introduction, please use the following template:
R. Cassidy, 'Sheriff's expenditure', in An introduction to pipe rolls, available on the Pipe Roll Society website at https://piperollsociety.co.uk/sheriffs-expenditure (accessed 15 July 2020).