THE COURT OF EXCHEQUER IN IRELAND. (With a Plate.) Qui non dat quod amat, non accipit ille quod optat.* THE view here presented to us of the Exchequer Court of Ireland is copied from the Red Book of that court (at fol. 32), a manuscript of an antiquity supposed to be coeval with that of the Red Book of the English Exchequer. The original drawing appears to have been made with a pen, the several figures having been depicted with black, and the table and border with red, ink. It appears also to have been partly tinted or painted with a light green colour: this probably has been an addition to the original sketch; and it is not improbable that when the artist (whoever he may have been) had coloured the checquered cloth, finding he had time and paint to spare, he wasted both by disfiguring the hair as well as the headdresses of several of the officers of the King's Exchequer. With respect to the period of time at or about which this sketch was drawn, we have but somewhat doubtful guides. The word "Henricus," and the character of the handwriting, lead to the supposition that it was made in the time of Henry the Fourth, Fifth, or Sixth. Having been unable to discover any authentic description of the Court of Exchequer of either England or Ireland at this period of time, I have been obliged to refer to such ancient works as have come within my reach and seemed to be likely to afford information upon this subject, to printed references to the Chancery records of Ireland, and also to the original records of the Irish Exchequer, to which I shall now refer as briefly as the subject will admit. "The Exchequer (says Gervase de Tilbury, the supposed author of the 'Dialogus Scaccarii,' written in the year 1177) is a quadrangular table of ten feet in length and five feet in breadth, placed like a dining-table before guests, having on all sides a border of four inches, least any thing placed thereon should fall from it. And there is placed upon the upper Exchequer a cloth bought in Easter term, not of the ordinary kind, but black, separated by lines distant from each other to the extent of either a foot or a hand's breadth. And in the spaces there are counters," &c. Madox says that "the Exchequer was in all probability called scaccarium, because a chequered cloth figured with squares like a chessboard was anciently wont to be laid on the table in the court or place of that name:" but Skene, ad verbum Scaccarium, observes, "Uthers thinkis that scaccarium is so called a similitudine ludi scacchorum, that is, the playe of the chess; because mony persones conveenis in the checker to pleye their causes contrare uthers, as gif they were fechtand in ane arrayed battell, quhilk is the forme and ordour of the said playe." There appears however to be but little doubt that the Exchequer Court derives its name from the pannus laneus, or chequered cloth, which was anciently provided for the court twice a year, and which is still to be found upon the table of that court. The principal officers (says Madox†) of the great or superior Exchequer were the two remembrancers, the ingrosser of the great roll, the usher, the constable, the marshal, the auditors, and the clerk of the estreats; and the position or seats of the principal judges, as well as of the inferior members of the court, as described in the Dialogus de Scaccario, were as follow: At the four sides of the Exchequer there are placed four seats or benches. At the head of the Exchequer, that is, where the breadth is, in the middle, not of the seat, but of the Exchequer, is the place of the Principal (principalis). In the first seat on his left hand is the Chancellor; after him an ordinary knight, whom we call a Constable; after him two Chamberlains; after these the knight commonly called the Marshal; and sometimes others are introduced if these be absent, and some * Verse placed over the King's Exchequer when it was at Woodstock, 25 Hen. III. † History of the Exchequer, vol. ii, p. 264, On the second bench, which is on the long side of the Exchequer, in the chief seat is placed the clerk or other servant of the Chamberlains, with the counter-tallies of receipt next to him, and after any of those who are not seated there ex officio, but are sent by the King, there is a place in the middle of the side of the Exchequer for him who takes the account by the ranging of the counters; after him some not ex officio yet necessary. At the end of that bench is the seat of the clerk who is set over the Scriptorium, and he sits ex officio. Thus you have the disposition of the second bench. But to the right of the presiding judge, and in the first place, sits the present bishop of Winchester not ex officio, but under a recent appointment, in order that he may sit next to the Treasurer, & apply himself diligently to the writing upon the roll. After him the Treasurer at the top of the second [third?] bench on the right hand. Next after him sits his clerk, who is the writer of the Treasury roll. After him a writer of the Chancery roll. After him the chancellor's clerk. After him, at the bottom of that bench, sits the con stable's clerk. And this is the descrip tion of the third bench. On the fourth bench, which is opposite to the justiciary, at the top sits Master Thomas Brown with the third roll, lately added by the King, because, as it is written, "a threefold cord is not easily broken." After him the sheriffs & their clerks, who sit to account with tallies and other ne cessary things. And this is the dispo sition of the fourth seat. It is apparent from this description of the Court as it appeared in the time of Henry II. that it bears but a very slight resemblance to the court as depicted in our sketch; slight however as the resemblance is, we gather from it the fact that the sheriffs and their clerks then sat to account in the Exchequer at a time when the court was composed of its principal members; and that in Edward the Second's reign the Treasurer, Barons, Chamberlains, and other officers sat in pleno scaccario upon the proffers of sheriffs and other accountants is shown by the Memoranda Roll of the English Exchequer, 5 Edw. II.,* when the Earls of Pem broke and Hereford, and other magnates, came to the court, and with threats directed the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield to act no longer as treasurer. Upon referring to the Calendar to the Patent and Close Rolls of the Irish Chancery, pp. 105 and 108, we find that in the 1st and 4th years of Richard the Second, the Court of Exchequer in Ireland consisted of a Treasurer, Chancellor, a chief and two puisne Barons, two Chamberlains, two Engrossers, the Treasurer's clerk, the King's Attorney of the Exchequer, Chief Remembrancer, the Second Remembrancer, Summonister, Transcriptor of the Estreats, the Chaplain, Marshal, and Usher. These records present to us a court composed of five judges and twelve officers, and consequently fail to convey a true picture of it as it is given in our sketch, which is composed of but twelve figures, exclusive of that at the bottom, whom I take to be a sheriff and not a member of the court. Elizabeth, acting under the advice of her Treasurer Burghley, was extremely anxious to reform the Irish Exchequer, and to make the practice of the court analogous to that of England, and for this purpose she transmitted to Ireland a Book of Orders, which contains the following entry : Item, the Barons of the saide Exchequor & all other officers and ministers gent attendaunce in the same Courte in of the same Courte, shall geve theire dili crastino Sancti Michaelis and crastino clausi Pascha, yerelie there to take & receyve the proffers of all and singuler shreves, eschetors, sceneshalles or stewards of liberties, & bayliffes accomptable in the same Eschequor, &c. accordinge to the auncient course of the sayde Eschequor. This record however fails to throw much, if any, light upon the figures in the sketch; and even the following, although it goes more fully into particulars, affords but little aid towards that object. It is remarkable however as giving precedence to the Treasurer before the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and I shall assume it to be the fact that the Treasurer was the principal judge of the Irish Ex * Madox, vol. i. p. 267. chequer at the time when our sketch was made. Saturday, 5th July, 1617. Memorandum, this day the right honorable the Lord Deputy came into Court, attended with divers of the Barons & others of the privy council, & also by Sir Dominick Sarsfield, knight, lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, & Sir Francis Aungier, knight, master of the rolls, in assistance to be present at the taking of an office or inquisition post mortem of Richard late lord baron Bourke of Castleconnell, &c. And the lord deputy being set on the highest bench of the Courte, and the lord cheefe barron and the master of the Rolls on his left hand, and Master vice-threasurer & the lord Sarsfield and Mr. Chauncellor of the Exchequer on his right hande, and all the other lords and privy councell and barrons and the king's councell sett on the lower benches, the Courte proceeded to the said inquiry, &c. I propose now to take in review the different figures of our sketch, commencing with the usher, who is placed at the extreme right and at the top with his staff of office in his right hand, and ending with the sheriff, who is seated at the table at the foot of the sketch, and whose head is covered with a cap of a peculiar form. There can be little doubt that the exclamations which proceed as it were from the mouths of the several figures, and also the words that appear upon the parchments which are placed in the hands of three of the officers, and the words upon the sheriff's cap, were intended to convey the nature of the office that was held by each of those persons, and thus assisted I have assigned to them the following offices: 1. to the figure to the left of the usher the office of second remembrancer; 2. to his left is placed the chief remembrancer; 3. the summonister to the left of the chief remembrancer; 4. the pursuivant; and, 5, the marshal. These occupy the upper bench. Upon the bench to the left of the picture we have three figures, the uppermost I conceive to be one of the Barons of the Exchequer; immediately beneath him is probably the chancellor of the court, and the third may be the treasurer. Opposite to the judges and at the bar we have, as I presume, three suitors or strangers to the court; and, lastly, as I have already observed, we have the sheriff seated alone at the table. THE USHER. It appears by an Exchequer record* of 5 Edw. II., that when John Dymmok and John de Eggemere were appointed ushers (hostiares) of the English Exchequer, the barons directed them to cause the court to be firmly closed at sunset and not to be again opened until sunrise; that persons for whom they would be responsible should sleep therein every night; and that they should not permit a candle or any fire to be therein introduced, so that, as Madox observes, "the King's records which were laid up there might be in safety." And, says the author of the Dialogus de Scaccario, Ostium domus illius in qua Scaccarium residet, Ostiarius ille solus sine consorte custodit. The following document has relation to the usher's robe, which it appears was by an ancient custom in Ireland supplied to him by the sheriff of the county of Dublin once every year. Be it remembered that John Gerard the deputy of Martin de Fishacre the usher of the Exchequer proceeded against John Derpatrick the sheriff of Dublin for the fee of 20s. for taking his oath; to which the sheriff replied that it was not the custom for any sheriff to pay the usher any fee save the gown (robam) he had on when he was being sworn, which he is ready to give; and the treasurer and barons, considering that the sheriff had used his gown ever since he was sworn, and that it was much deteriorated and of less value than when he took his oath, they adjudged him to pay the usher his demand. (Memoranda Roll Scacc. Hib. 6 Edw. II. m. 13). By the Rotulus Exituum of the Exchequer of Ireland of the 1st Hen. V. it appears that it formed a part of the duty of the usher to supply the court and its officers with parchment, ink, and other necessaries. The following payments were made to Thomas Walleys, the usher, in the year 1414. For 18 dozen & 4 skins of parch ment One pottle & a pynt" of ink Two bags for holding the books of * Madox, vol. ii. p. 278. 8. d. 27 5 6 |