Additional Docquets of Commissions of the Peace from the Papers of Lord Keeper Coventry (1625–40) in the Worcestershire Record Office

Abstract

The docquets of letters patent are brief chancery documents authorising grants to be made under the great seal. They are, therefore, state papers, but an extensive collection dating from the long lord keepership (1625–40) of Sir Thomas Coventry (1578–1640) remained among Coventry's personal papers at Croome d'Abitot, Worcestershire. Most of the docquets were taken to Birmingham Central Library in 1938, and these form the basis of A Calendar of the Docquets of Lord Keeper Coventry, 1625–1640, ed. J. Broadway, R. Cust and S.K. Roberts (List and Index Society Special Series, 34–7, 4 vols, Kew, 2004). Some docquets were left behind at Croome, however, and in recent years these have been moved to the Worcestershire Record Office. The additional docquets calendared here are from the Worcestershire Record Office deposit and record the entrances and exits to and from the commissions of the peace. They are to be consulted alongside the comparable material presented in A Calendar of the Docquets, and provide useful additional evidence of how the crown adjusted or tuned the commissions of the peace in the counties during the reign of Charles I to 1640.