Overview
Those working within Exchequer knew what money to collect because copies of the fine roll were sent to them in installments throughout the year. This is why in the rolls there are intermittent notes (sometimes in the margin, sometimes in the body of the text) "hinc mittendum est ad scaccarium", "from here it is to be sent to the Exchequer". The note identifies the point at which the last installment of the fine roll had been dispatched to the Exchequer, and where a new one had to be prepared. A typical note from October 1219 reads:
From here it is to be sent to the Exchequer and what is above has been delivered to the Treasurer by the hand of R de Neville.
Ralph de Neville here is the keeper of the seal and the man in day-to-day charge of the Chancery, the king’s writing office. The copy of the fine roll sent to the Exchequer was known as the "originalia roll". On receipt of the originalia roll, the Exchequer transferred the debts to the "summonses", that is, the list of debts which it sent twice annually to the sheriff for him to collect and pay into the treasury. Simultaneously, the Exchequer copied the debts onto the Pipe roll (the annual record of the audit of all money owed to the crown) where they were placed, county by county, under the heading "nova oblata", "new offerings". On the rare occasions when fines was paid direct to the king (usually into his personal department, the Chamber, or as it became known later, the Wardrobe) a note was added to the fine roll stating that the fine in question should not be sent to the Exchequer. This meant that the debt would not be placed on the originalia roll.
The fine rolls also include a lot of material that was unrelated to fines but of importance to the Exchequer. For example, they contain various letters relating to the rates of debt repayment, the taking of land into the king’s hands on the death of a tenant-in-chief, the seizure of land in cases of rebellion, the taxation levied on the royal demesne (including the Jews), and the terms of appointment to sheriffdoms and the custody of manors. Sometimes, when the relevant letters were addressed to the sheriff or another official, the intention, it may be supposed, was to keep the Exchequer informed of them through a copy on the originalia rolls. In other cases, where the letter was addressed to the Exchequer in the first place, it was probably entered on the fine roll rather than the close roll because of a growing belief that the former was the more appropriate roll for that type of Exchequer business. The rolls are now kept at The National Archives (TNA), Kew.
Read more about this topic: Fine Rolls