The 'Pipe Rolls' are a series of financial records from
England, beginning in
1130 and lasting, mostly complete, until
1833. They were used by the
Exchequer (treasury) and recorded such things as audits of kings' incomes and expenses. They are named after the "pipe" shape formed by a rolled up piece of
parchment on which records were originally kept. The Exchequer and Pipe Rolls were a great innovation in government; nothing else like it existed in Europe.
Pipe Rolls provide invaluable records for historians for everything from the composition of a hunting party, the contents of a king's kitchen to the tracking of historical figures.
The
Pipe Roll Society, founded by the
Public Record Office in
1883, has published the Pipe Rolls up to the year
1222. They were written in
Latin until
1733.
External links
★
Pipe Rolls at the National Archives