Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/492

 484 'ADVENTUS VICEG0M1TUM 1258-72 October proves, however, that roughly a fortnight was in practice allowed for the business of each county. 1 Moreover, the sheriff was not the only person in his district who had to appear at the exchequer of audit. The bailiffs of towns paying their own ferms and those of certain religious houses had, I think, to be present. This point is, however, one which requires further investigation. Though it is clear that the sheriff under certain circumstances intervened in these cases, as is shown in the De Pluribus Debi£is entries, and also in the notes regarding distraint found against some of the debts in the Compoti Comitatuum, the exact point at which such intervention took place is not known. What was the usual procedure during the sheriff's year of office and at the audit of his account ? At some time during his year of office, or more probably immediately before, the sheriff received the Summonses of the Pipe for his shire, that is the lists of debts" which he had to collect, made up in the form of an abbreviated copy of the previous Pipe Roll, so far as it concerned his shire. 2 At the end were added the new debts, or nova oblata, which had been contracted recently, but not necessarily during the preceding exchequer year. 3 The summons also instructed him to appear at the exchequer on a certain date for purposes of account. This writ was probably issued at the end of Trinity term to take effect some time in the following Michaelmas and Hilary terms and before Easter for Easter and Trinity terms. In only a few cases have I found Dies Dati for the sheriff's profer, as distinct from his account, though such appointments must have been made. Returning to the Dies Dati ad computandum, we find that, if a calendar is compiled of the days assigned to the different sheriffs, the period covered by the hearing of the accounts is roughly about nine months. The first accountant, or accoun- tants, had orders to attend in crastino Sancti Michaelis ; there were more or less regular appointments every fortnight or three weeks from that date until the following June or July, slightly longer intervals being allowed between the terms. In other words, a sheriff might render his account any time between the end of September and beginning of July for his year of office ending at the preceding Michaelmas. 4 From this it follows that the Pipe Roll was completed about nine months after the date usually ascribed to it. For example, the Pipe Roll of 40 Henry HI 1 King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Rolls 47 & 48 Hen. Ill, mm. 8-14, and 48 & 49 Hen. Ill, mm. 18-25, furnish examples of the data on which this statement is based. A calendar has been worked out for several years together at this period. 2 An interesting set of entries with regard to the Summonses of the Pipe are found on King's Remembrancer's Memoranda Roll 46 & 47 Hen. Ill, mm. 5-12. 3 For an extreme case see Pipe Roll 18 Edw. I, Surrey and Sussex, where Matthew de Hastinge is charged for the first time for not returning writs, as is contained in a certain schedule of sheriffs amerced in 2 Edw. I. 4 Tout, Chapters, ii. 97-8, deals with this point in detail.