exchequer

exchequer, the office headed by the treasurer which dealt with the receipt and payment of royal revenues and the auditing of accounts. First mentioned by name in 1200, in the following centuries it grew in size and complexity and came to consist of two departments. The exchequer of receipt dealt with sums paid in by officials and persons owing money to the crown, and with the disbursement of money on the king's behalf. After the financial scandals of the 1280s (see treasurer and treasury) it was reconstituted, with two chamberlains and the treasurer's clerk each keeping independent records of receipts and payments to obviate fraud. In the exchequer of account, accounts of sheriffs and other officials were audited by the barons of the exchequer and enrolled on the pipe rolls. The barons also heard pleas relating to royal financial interests and cases involving exchequer officials. Despite periodic attempts at reform, the barons were often occupied in the investigation of the misdeeds of other exchequer officials and of sheriffs and other local officers responsible for royal money.

In addition to the barons and chamberlains, the staff of the exchequer included clerks who wrote the pipe and memoranda rolls and other records; the chancellor of the exchequer who was responsible for the exchequer seal; and the marshal, to whose custody persons might be committed until they had made arrangements for the payment of money owing to the king.

Philomena Connolly