Roll

A schedule of parchment which may be turned up by the hand in the form of a pipe or tube.

Jacob, Law Diet.; Colman v. Shattuck, 2 Hun (N. Y.) 502.

In early times, before paper came in common use, parchment was the substance employed for making records, and as the art of bookbinding was but little used, economy suggested as the most convenient mode the adding of sheet to sheet, as was found requisite, and they were tacked together in such a manner that the whole length might be wound up together in the form of rolls. The following list of English rolls is from 2 Holdsw. Hist. E. L.: The Pipe Rolls ( q. v.) are the oldest records: Later, in the Exchequer, are the Memoranda Rolls (1199-1848); Originalia Rolls (1236-1837), recording the estreats or extracts transmitted from the Chancery to the Exchequer; the Liberate Rolls (1201- 1436), containing the list of writs of Liberate, Allocate and Computate issued by the Chancery; the Wardrobe and Household Accounts (1199-1806), containing the accounts of the king's personal expenses and of the army, navy and civil service; the Receipt Rolls, containing an account of money received (superseded by the pells of issue and receipt, (which were journals of daily expenditure and receipt); Scutage Rolls (1215-1347), containing the accounts of the scutage (q. v.). Also there were other later subsidy rolls, containing accounts of later form of direct taxation. Among Chancery enrollments the most important were the Charter Rolls (1199-1515); the Patent Rolls (1202 to the present day); and Close Rolls (1205 to the present day). By Charters the king’s to one or more specified Individuals, closed and sealed. Other Chancery Rolls were the Fine or Ablate Rolls (1199-1641), containing payments to the king by way of ablate or fine for the grant of privileges or by way of amercement. The Pica Rolls of Richard I., John and Henry III. consist of two series: the Curia Regis Rolls— cases heard before the Bench or Coram Rcge; the Assize Rolls— cases heard before the itinerant justices. The Plea Rolls contain our only first hand information of the actual working of the Curia Regis in its early days — the earliest authoritative statements of the common law.

Parliamentary Rolls

The earliest is 1305, but there exist extracts of some earlier rolls. It is not certain that all the later rolls exist. In the 14th century they became the record of the proceedings of Parliament.

They ceased in 1503.

The Statute Rolls. The earliest of these now extant (called the Great Roll of the Statutes) begins with the Statute of Gloucester, 1278. From 1278 to 1468 (except 1431 to 1445) there are six of these rolls in a regular series. Their place was taken by Enrollment of Acts of Parliament Certified Into Chancery (from 1483 to the present day) or by the original acts which exist in an almost regular series from 1197 to the present day. In the mediaeval period the Statute Rolls are neither accurate nor perfect. The records of a court or olfiee.