Pipe Rolls

Type Object Region Europe Time 1130–1833

The Pipe Rolls (also Great Rolls) are the English Exchequer's continuous parchment records of each shire sheriff's annual accounts, named for their p…

Timeline

1129–1130Winchester · EnglandThe 1129–1130 roll fully preserves each shire sheriff's amounts due, paid, and outstanding, showing that Exchequer checkered-table auditing had been written into standardized records. It is a direct archive for observing the late Henry I royal fiscal geography and debt structure.
1135–1156English Exchequer · EnglandCentral accounting collapsed under Stephen and the roll sequence was interrupted. After Henry II rebuilt the Exchequer, Pipe Rolls survived almost annually from the 1155/56 accounting year, becoming archival evidence of the Angevin restoration and making the 1130 roll an isolated but crucial early sample.
1156–1833Westminster / Public Record Office, London · EnglandThe continuous rolls let the crown track sheriff debts across years, and modern historians use them as quantitative sources on population, taxation, and local politics. The series ended in 1833; the original rolls are held by The National Archives, with scholarly editions published by the Pipe Roll Society.

Sources

Pipe Rolls https://www.britannica.com/topic/pipe-rolls
The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Thirty-First Year of the Reign of King Henry I — ed. Judith A. Green (2012)
Dialogus de Scaccario — Richard FitzNeal