A single sheet or ‘ membrane ’ of an early Pipe Roll is generally formed of two skins of parchment, sewn together to form a membrane about 16 inches in width, and something like 3 to 5 feet in length. All the membranes which were passed at one session of the Exchequer are stitched together at the head to form a File, and constitute the Pipe Roll of the regnal year concerned.

On the Pipe Rolls, or, to use their more formal title, the Great Rolls of the Exchequer, are recorded the accounts which were presented at Michaelmas to the Exchequer by Sheriffs or other responsible Accountants, of all moneys due or received on behalf of the Crown from the Shires, from Honours, and such like; these moneys issued from the Royal Demesnes and other estates in royal hands, from the profits of Justice, and similar sources. For easier administration, two smaller Shires were often coupled under one Sheriff; Bucks, and Beds, were so coupled from (at latest) a date soon after the Conquest till 1574.

The following account, intended simply to make the Calendar more intelligible to the members of the two Societies which have joined in its publication, must be taken as strictly applicable only to the period of Richard the First, and in detail only to the two Shires concerned.

When the Sheriff presents his account for audit, the chief persons whom he must satisfy, the principal Barons of the Exchequer, are:—(i) the Chief Justiciar, vice-gerent of the realm in the absence of the King abroad, and head of the great judicial system devised by the first two Henries; (ii) the Chancellor, keeper of the King’s seal and general secretary of the State, whose clerks do the secretarial work of the King; (iii) the Treasurer, keeper of the King’s Treasure at Winchester, and now the chief financial officer, with his colleagues, the Chamberlains.

The details of procedure at the audit have been fully described by others, and need not be repeated here. The chief authority is the Dialogus de Scaccario, written between 1176 and 1179 by Richard fitz Nigel, Bishop of London 1189 to 1198, and himself Treasurer for about 40 years; this is readily accessible in ‘ Select Charters ’ and in the authoritative Oxford edition.