Patent roll facts for kids
The patent rolls are a very old collection of official government records. They were created in England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom by a special office called the Chancery. These records have been kept almost continuously from the year 1201 all the way up to today!
Contents
What Are Patent Rolls?
The patent rolls are like a giant register or diary of special documents called "letters patent." These letters were official orders or grants from the King or Queen. They were sealed with the Great Seal hanging from them, making them public and official.
The King or Queen used letters patent to announce many important things. This included giving people official jobs, granting land, setting up special groups (like corporations), or even giving pardons.
The first patent rolls were started in 1201, during the time of King John. The words of each letter patent were carefully copied onto sheets of parchment (a type of animal skin used for writing). These sheets were then sewn together, end-to-end, to make very long rolls. Each year usually had its own roll. As more and more official business happened, sometimes more than one roll was needed for a single year!
Very important grants of land or special rights were sometimes made as "charters" instead of letters patent. These were recorded on a separate set of records called Charter Rolls. However, after 1516, all charters (especially those granting noble titles) were also added to the patent rolls.
Most of the early patent rolls were written in Latin. English started to appear sometimes in the 1500s. But it wasn't until the 1700s that all the entries were written in English.
Where Were the Rolls Kept?
In the past, the oldest patent rolls were stored in the Tower of London. This was the main place for the Chancery's important papers. Later, from the late 1300s, newer rolls were kept at the Rolls Chapel. This made it easier for officials to access them.
Eventually, the Rolls Chapel became the permanent home for all rolls from the time of King Richard III onwards. In the 1850s, all the rolls from both the Tower and the Rolls Chapel were brought together. Today, they are kept at The National Archives in Kew, London. They have a special code there: C 66. As of 2016, there were 5,790 rolls in the series, covering years from 1201 to 2012.
How Were Inventions Protected?
Letters patent were also used to give people special rights, called "monopolies," over new inventions or techniques. This meant only they could make or sell a certain product. These grants were also copied onto the patent rolls.
Over time, this system was sometimes used unfairly. People would get monopolies for things that weren't really new inventions. To fix this, a law called the Statute of Monopolies was passed in 1624. This was the first law in England to specifically deal with patents for inventions. In 1853, a new office, the Patent Office, took over the job of handling invention patents. After that, invention patents were no longer recorded on the patent rolls.
How Can We Read the Rolls Today?
Many of the old patent rolls, especially those from the medieval and early modern periods (up to 1625), have been published. This means their contents have been copied into books or made available online.
- 1201–1216: These early rolls were published in 1835. The book was called Rotuli Litterarum Patentium in Turri Londinensi asservati. It used a special font to look very similar to the original handwritten documents.
- 1216–1232: The full Latin texts of these rolls were published in two books in the early 1900s.
- 1232–1509: For these years, the rolls were published in "calendar" form. This means they were summarized in English, but still included all the important details. Fifty-three volumes of these "calendars" were published between 1891 and 1916.
- 1509–1547: The rolls from King Henry VIII's reign were included in a larger series of books about his time, called Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII.
- 1547–1582: Nineteen volumes of calendars for these years were published between 1924 and 1986.
- 1582–1603: Later, the List and Index Society published many volumes of calendars for these years, making them easier to study.
- 1603–1625: Calendars and indexes for the reign of King James VI and I were published between 1974 and 1989. These were copies of older 17th-century guides, which are helpful but might not be as complete or accurate as modern publications.
Some parts of the rolls, like records about court sessions (called Assizes), were written on the back of the rolls. These usually weren't included in the published books.
Online Access
The 1835 edition of the rolls for 1201–1216 can be found online, though you can't search the text. The published texts and calendars from 1216 to 1452 are available online and are fully searchable, thanks to the University of Iowa.
See also
