The Cambridge Hundred Rolls are the documentary result of a 13th-century

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

inquiry or

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

into the rights of the English

monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, reigns as head of state for the rest of their life, or until abdication. The extent of the authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutio ...

over land and property in the Hundreds (regional sub-divisions) of the county of

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

. The Rolls are preserved in the English National Archives as part of the national

Hundred Rolls {{Short description, 13th-century census of England and Wales The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are na ...

. The rolls relating to the town of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

provide a particularly detailed record of the ownership history of property in 1279 and over the preceding 100 years, enabling analysis of family dynasties and more than 1,000 properties.

Format

The Hundred Rolls for the town and county of Cambridge were printed by the Record Commission in 1818 in abbreviated

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. Recent work has published the complete rolls for the town of Cambridge in an English translation. This includes a third roll which was omitted by the Record Commission, but has recently been discovered. The Cambridge Hundred Rolls form part of the Hundred Rolls collection held by the National Archives at

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

References

* Casson, Catherine, Mark Casson, John Lee and Katie Phillips
"Compassionate Capitalism. Business and Community in Medieval England"
Bristol University Press, 2020. * Casson, Catherine, Mark Casson, John Lee and Katie Phillips
"Business and Community in Medieval England. The Cambridge Hundred Rolls Source Volume"
Bristol University Press, 2020. {{ISBN, 978-1529209730 13th century in England History of Cambridgeshire Hundreds of Cambridgeshire