Page:Englishhistorica36londuoft.djvu/494

 486 'ADVENTUS VICECOMITUM 1258-72 October cases by direct reference to the Pipe Rolls, and (2) that the second and third sets are based exclusively on the Adventus Vicecomitum. If the sheriffs' attendances at the upper exchequer for pur- poses of audit in the fifteen years before and after the Provisions of Oxford are compared county by county, the nature of the break-down at the exchequer at once becomes apparent. In the fifteen years the account for which begins at Michaelmas 1243, and ends about June 1258, eight county groups answered annually, 1 whilst six missed once. 2 Six sheriffs came up on thirteen, 3 two on twelve, 4 and one on eleven occasions, 5 while the remaining sheriff answered ten times. 6 Had the last two years been omitted from this calculation, the attendance would have been somewhat higher. Thus in this first period of fifteen years, no sheriff in charge of a normal district appeared less than ten times, and only four failed to answer more than twice. In the second period, after 1258, the position was very different. From 42 to 56 Henry III (1258-72), the sheriffs accounted much less regularly, only one district, London and Middlesex, answering annually, and one, Hampshire, thirteen times in the fifteen years. Two sheriffs accounted twelve, 7 three eleven, 8 and four ten times, 9 so that only eleven out of twenty-four sheriffs came up to the exchequer ten or more times during these fifteen years, whereas no sheriff appeared less than ten times at the earlier date. Three county groups rendered their account on nine, 10 three on eight, 11 and three on seven occasions. 12 Of the rest one sheriff accounted six times, 13 and two five, 14 whilst the twenty-fourth, the sheriff of Lancashire, answered only twice in this period, nor did he answer again until a date subsequent to 7 Edward I. The analysis of the Compotus Comitatus entries in the Memoranda Rolls and of the Pipe Rolls along these lines brought out another feature peculiar to the rolls at this date. Before the middle of the fourteenth century certainly, and, probably, throughout the entire history of the Pipe Rolls, a three years' ac- 1 Devon, Essex and Hertford, Kent, London and Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk, Northampton, Nottingham and Derby, Oxford and Berkshire. 2 Cambridge and Huntingdon, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, Shropshire and Stafford- shire, Surrey and Sussex, Warwick and Leicester. 3 Buckingham and Bedfordshire, Cumberland, Gloucester, Somerset and Dorset, Wiltshire, Yorkshire. 7 Essex and Hertford, Norfolk and Suffolk. 8 Cambridge and Huntingdon, Lincolnshire, Wiltshire. 9 Buckingham and Bedfordshire, Kent, Oxford and Berkshire, Northampton. 10 Gloucestershire, Worcestershire, Surrey and Sussex. 11 Nottingham and Derby, Somerset and Dorset, Yorkshire. 12 Devonshire, Northumberland, Warwick and Leicester. 13 Hereford. J* Cumberland, Shropshire and Staffordshire.
 * Hereford, Worcester. 5 Northumberland. 6 Lancashire.