The Pell Office was a department of the
Exchequer
In the Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's ''Transaction account, current account'' (i.e., mon ...
in which the receipts and payments were entered upon two rolls of parchment, the one called the ''introitta'', which was the record of monies received, and the other the ''exitus'', or the record of monies issued. A statement of all moneys issued was entered by the Clerk of the Pells on the issue roll. In 1552 the unreliable "Declarations of the State of the Treasury" were replaced by declarations made by the Clerk of the Pells,
[National Archives, notes on "Category E" Records of the Exchequer, and its related bodies, with those of the Office of First Fruits and Tenths, and the Court of Augmentation]
/ref>
Etymology
Up to the reign of James I of England, King James I entries recording Treasury transactions were made upon rolls, or pells, from the Latin ''pellis'' meaning "skin, hide, pelt". From the reign of James I Treasury records have been entered in books.
Location
The Pell Office was situated on the eastern side of Westminster Hall
Westminster Hall is a medieval great hall which is part of the Palace of Westminster in London, England. It was erected in 1097 for William II (William Rufus), at which point it was the largest hall in Europe. The building has had various functio ...
until the beginning of the 19th century. Some early Treasury records were kept in the nearby Chapter House
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
of Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...
. The office was damp and was liable to destruction by fire due to the many wooden partitions within it and the many hearths used for heating. In 1820 the records were reported to be dry and well-aired, but were piled up on the floor of a room too small to contain them properly. In 1822 they were transferred to attic storage in Somerset House
Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...
and were "heaped in some places up to the ceiling and in an exceedingly dirty state". In 1840 the records were taken to the Comptroller of the Exchequer's Office in Whitehall Yard, where they were thoroughly cleaned and re-bundled. They were then placed on racks in Rolls House in 1841 where they were catalogued and labelled. They were then transferred to the new Public Record Office
The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...
in Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane is a one-way street that forms part of the City of London#Boundary, western boundary of the City of London. The east side of the street is entirely within the City,[National Archives
National archives are the archives of a country. The concept evolved in various nations at the dawn of modernity based on the impact of nationalism upon bureaucratic processes of paperwork retention.
Conceptual development
From the Middle Ages i ...]
site at Kew.
Clerks of the Pells
This is a list of the Clerks of the Pells in the English Exchequer. Similar offices existed in Scotland and Ireland.
*1516–1549: John Uvedale
*1555–1560: Edmund Cockerell
*1560–1570: Robert Hare
*1570–?1611: Chidiock Wardour (died 1611)
*1603-1611: Edward Wardour (jointly) [
*1637–1643: Edward Wardour (jointly) (died 1646) ][
*1646–: William Wardour ][
*1698–1721: ]Henry Pelham
Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who serv ...
(died 1754)
*1721–1739: Robert Walpole, Viscount Walpole
*1739–?1784: Hon. Sir Edward Walpole
Sir Edward Walpole Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, KB Privy Council of Ireland, PC (Ire) (1706 – 12 January 1784) was a British politician, and a younger son of Sir Robert Walpole, Prime Minister of Great Britain, Prime Minister fr ...
(died 1784)
*1784–1802: Isaac Barré (blind 1784, died 1802)
*1802–1823: Hon. Henry Addington jnr (died insane 1823)
*1823–1825: Edward Roberts
*1825–1834: Henry Ellis
References
{{English Exchequer
Exchequer offices