No.: 284
Plaintiff: John Whyte, Blanche his wife, Elizabeth wife of Edward Whyte, Joan Whyte, Cycely Bawdon, and Margaret Whyte.
Defendant: John Wythyell, or Wethean, John Rychard, William Helyer, and Walter Pluck.
Subject: Forcible entry
County: Cornwall
Date: 22 Hen. 8.
Description of Document: 2 ms.

When the arrangement of the records of the Court of Star Chamber was taken in hand at the Chapter House, Westminster, attention was in the first instance directed to the Bills and Answers of the reign of Elizabeth, and a Calendar was prepared dealing with some 43,000 suits, arranged under the initial letters of the plaintiffs’ names. (Seventeenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, p. 8.) Some progress was also made with the reign of Henry VIII., the documents being arranged alphabetically under the plaintiffs’ names from “Ab” to Gy,” and bound in 16 volumes, for which a Calendar was subsequently prepared. (Nineteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper, p. 18.) At this point, however, the work was suspended, partly in consequence of the retirement of the officer who was engaged upon it. For want of a calendar, or index, the remaining documents of the reign of Henry VIII., and all those of the two succeeding reigns, have remained practically useless to students.
          The following Calendar deals with the contents of Bundles 17 to 26 inclusive, which immediately follow the 16 volumes already mentioned. It gives more information as to the subjects of the different suits than was given in the manuscript Calendar for the first 16 volumes; but, on the other hand, no attempt has been made to arrange the documents in alphabetical order, as such an arrangement would have involved considerable delay. By reference to the “county” column, the Calendar can be examined rapidly by anyone searching for information about a particular family or place.
          The Court of Star Chamber, as it existed during the Tudor period, seems to have derived its authority from the Statutes 3 Henry VII., cap. 1, and 21 Henry VIII., cap. 20. The first of these recites that the orderly government of the realm was impeded by unlawful maintenances, giving of liveries signs and tokens, and retainders by indentures promises oaths and writings, or other embraceries, untrue demeaning of sheriffs in the returns and panels of juries, riots and unlawful assemblies, and it enacts that the Chancellor, the Treasurer, and certain other dignitaries should have power to summon persons so offending, and others, and to punish the misdoers just as if they had been convicted in the due course of law. The second stature enlarges the tribunal.
          Most of the suits enumerated in the following Calendar relate to offences specified in the statute 3 Henry VII., cap. 1, riots and unlawful assemblies being the most common. The evidence of these records tends to show that in the reign of Henry VIII. the action of the Court of Star Chamber was by no means oppressive, and that it rather provided security for the humbler members of the community against oppression by their richer or more powerful neighbours. There are, however, instances of juries being prosecuted for their verdicts.