Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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The Exchequer was (and in some cases still is) a part of the governments of England (latterly to include Wales), Scotland, and Northern Ireland that was responsible for the management and collection of revenues. The various Exchequers have also developed a judicial role.
At an early stage in England (certainly by 1190), the Exchequer was split into two components: the purely administrative Exchequer of Receipt, which collected revenue, and the judicial Exchequer of Pleas, a court concerned with the King's revenue.
Originally the Exchequer referred to the cloth laid over a large table, 10 feet (3.0 m) by 5, on which counters were placed representing various values. According to the Dialogue concerning the Exchequer[1], an early Medieval work describing the practice of the Exchequer, the name referred to the resemblance of the table with a chess board.
The term "Exchequer" then came to refer to the twice yearly meetings held at Easter and Michaelmas, at which government financial business was transacted and an audit held of sheriff's returns.
Under Henry I, the procedure adopted for the audit would involve the Treasurer drawing up a summons which would be sent to each Sheriff, which they would be required to answer. The Treasurer would call on each Sheriff to give account of Royal income in their Shire. The Chancellor of the Exchequer would then question them concerning debts owed by private individuals. The results of the audit were recorded in a series of records known as the Pipe Rolls.
The Exchequer became unnecessary as a revenue collecting department as a result of William Pitt's reforms. It was abolished in 1834. Those government departments collecting revenue paid it directly to the Bank of England.
By extension, "exchequer" has come to mean the Treasury and, colloquially, pecuniary possessions in general; as in "the company's exchequer is low".
The Scottish Exchequer dates back to around 1200 and had a similar role of auditing and deciding on royal revenues as in England. The Scottish exchequer was slower to develop a separate judicial role, and it was not until 1584 that it became a court of law, separate from the King's council. Even then, the judicial and administrative roles never became completely separated into two bodies, as with the English Exchequer.
The term Court of the Exchequer was only used of the Exchequer department during the Scottish administration of Oliver Cromwell, between 1655 and 1659.
In 1707, the Exchequer Court (Scotland) Act (6 Ann. c. 53) reconstituted the Exchequer into a court on the English model with a Lord Chief Baron and 4 Barons. The court adopted English forms of procedure and had further powers added to it.
From 1832 no new Barons were appointed, and their role was increasingly taken over by judges of the Court of Session. By the Exchequer Court (Scotland) Act 1856 (19 & 20 Vict. c. 56) the Exchequer became a part of the Court of Session. One of the Lords Ordinary acts as a judge in Exchequer causes. The English forms of process ceased to be used in 1947.
The Exchequer — AS A PLACE should have postings here:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/242.php
Some Exchequer (the ‘E’) employees
Robert Bowyer
an usher, kept a paternal eye on the clerks, father of Will
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/521.php
Will Bowyer
a doorkeeper, son of usher Robert Bowyer
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/528.php
John Gregory,
employee of the E.; later with Secretary of State’s office; Brook House Committee.
John Hawley
employee of the E.; lived with
More Exchequer Employees
Charles Cervington (“Servington”)
tally-cutter
appears once in the diary — 30 December 1661
Edward Fauconberg (“Falconbridge”)
deputy chamberlain of the receipt in the E.
“Servington” SEE Charles Cervington
Thomas Shadwell
clerk
appears once in the diary — 30 December 1661
John Taylor
clerk
appears once in the diary — 30 December 1661
John Todd
vice-chamberlain of the receipt in the E. (in April ‘60 succeeded Scipio le Squire, d. ‘59)
Woodroofe, Edmund (Pepys spells it “Woodruff”)
clerk
appears twice in the diary — first on 30 December 1661
Tally at the Exchequer
From http://www.pepys.info/1665/1665mar.html
[The practice of striking tallies at the Exchequer was a curious survival of an ancient method of keeping accounts. The method adopted is described in Hubert Hall’s “Antiquities and Curiosities of the Exchequer,” 1891. The following account of the use of tallies, so frequently alluded to in the Diary, was supplied by Lord Braybrooke. Formerly accounts were kept, and large sums of money paid and received, by the King’s Exchequer, with little other form than the exchange or delivery of tallies, pieces of wood notched or scored, corresponding blocks being kept by the parties to the account; and from this usage one of the head officers of the Exchequer was called the tallier, or teller. These tallies were often negotiable; Adam Smith, in his “Wealth of Nations,” book ii., ch. xi., says that “in 1696 tallies had been at forty, and fifty, and sixty per cent. discount, and bank-notes at twenty per cent.” The system of tallies was discontinued in 1824; and the destruction of the old Houses of Parliament, in the night of October 16th, 1834, is thought to have been occasioned by the overheating of the flues, when the furnaces were employed to consume the tallies rendered useless by the alteration in the mode of keeping the Exchequer accounts.]
The Court of the Exchequer was one of the main law courts of Britain, and had since at least the mid 13th century been housed in a building adjoining Westminster Hall, as part of the Old Palace of Westminster. By the time of Pepys diary, the court still occupied the same building which was at right angles to the main north front of the Hall in New Palace Yard. The buildings on the east side of New Palace Yard (along the river side) contained the Receipt of the Exchequer and various other offices of the Exchequer, such as the Tally office.
There be a position called Clerk of the Cheque 1660, it be one Wynne , Paymaster be Kirke , Sir L 1660
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43760
Clerk of the Cheque
Also a post in the dockyards. From Gentlemen and Tarpaulins, J.D.Davies…
“Promotion for Pursers could take the form of appointment to a higer rate, to appropriate dockyard posts such as clerk of the cheque (responsible for mustering the men of the yard and the ordinary)
The exchequer and finances, a clue to the royal life.
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=43757