Lansdowne MS 257

folio.

A very fair transcript, on vellum, made about the time of James I. of a part of the record* usually intitled "Testa de Nevill, sive Liber Feodorum in curia Scaccarii," and compiled in the reign of Edw. I. † It contains an account of fees held immediately of the King, or of persons holding of the King in capite; of serjeanties held of the King, escheats, scutage-money, &c. This work has been printed by order of the Commissioners appointed by His present Majesty for the arrangement and preservation of the public records of the kingdom. It is to be observed, that the present manuscript is a copy of one only of the volumes of the Testa de Nevill preserved in the Exchequer, and constitutes the latter moiety of the printed copy, beginning with the county of Kent. Mr. Le Neve, to whom it once belonged, refers, in a note at the beginning, to another copy in the Heralds Office.

*The term "record" is here adopted in conformity to the general mode of speaking of the T. de Nevill but it should seem that in reality it was hone. It is described as follows, in a petition in parliament, anno 7 Edw. III. No. 3. "Une livre qe home appele Teste de Nevill assemble des Enquestes de office, qe n'est pas de record." Rolls of Parl. and see the latter part of the next note. † This appears from the following note or memorandum at the beginning of this volume (transcribed from the original) "Memorandum, quod iste liber compositus fuit et compilatus de diversis inquisitionibus ex officio captis tempore Regis E. fil' R H., et sic contenta in eodem libro pro evidentiis habeantur hic in Scaccario et non pro recordo."