The Old English Chancery

We shall seek in vain amongst the Tabulae Curiales of this country for an authentic list of Anglo-Saxon chancellors such as has been compiled for the contemporary history of the Continental chanceries. The earliest description of such a native establishment dates only from the close of the reign of Henry I, and even this reference has been taken to apply more especially to the court of the Norman duchy. Some twenty-five years later, the English chancery, as it then existed, appears as the clerical department of the all-powerful Exchequer. Indeed beyond a natural grouping of the chancellor with the King's chaplains and with the clerks of the Scriptorium we have little direct evidence of his professional activity until the reign of Richard I, when royal charters are first authenticated in his name.

Far less, then, can we expect to find any positive mention of a chancery establishment under the Anglo-Saxon monarchy. And yet, not only does a royal chancellor, with appropriate notarial appurtenances, figure in certain charters of this period, but the office has been readily accepted and described by English antiquarians from Coke and Spelman down to our own times.

We should be, perhaps, prepared for such a view by the prevalent opinion respecting the transformation of the Old English handwriting through foreign notarial influences before the Conquest. It is not surprising therefore that this opinion should include the establishment of an Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman chancery in which the new writing could be officially employed.