A register of titles to property in the borough. The recognizance rolls of Ipswich are a register of titles to property in the borough and are among the most varied and interesting of the courts records. They begin in the late thirteenth century and extend, in a series of filesand leger-books, through to the Victorian age. Their texts comprise abstracts and copies of private deeds, testaments proved in the borough court, and grants of common soil. The careful description of properties, including ownership of neighbouring tenements, and the naming of parishes, streets, and landmarks, makes them a source of great historical and topographical interest. The early part of the series is well preserved, and its continuity allows us tofollow the fortunes of individuals and of families in some detail. We can observe in these gifts, bequests, and exchanges the recruitment of the burghal community and the affiliations of its members. It also offers a varied picture of the borough court at work, both as a tribunal and as an administrative office. The contents of the first twenty-one rolls are presented in an English paraphrase that takes account of all significant variations in the originalLatin, and also indicates the clerk's marginal notes and memoranda.

All the surviving records of the old Corporation, from the first charter under King John in 1200 to its dissolution in 1835; particularly rich in medieval legal records, Tudor and Stuart financial records. Ipswich received its first charter from King John in 1200; the Corporation records survive from 1255, placing the borough archive among the earliest in England, antedated only by Leicester, Shrewsbury, Wallingford, London and Exeter. The archive is particularly rich in records of the medieval courts, most notably perhaps those of the Court of Petty Pleas, whose cases touched almost every aspect of town life, and those of the Petty Court of Recognizances -in effect a register of deeds furnishing a detailed record of transactions involving burgage tenements. The financial records of Treasurer and Chamberlains are particularly detailed for the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, and muchsocial history is contained in the records of various town charities. This catalogue, published to celebrate the 800th anniversary of John's charter, includes all the surviving records of the old Corporation down to its dissolution in 1835, thus facilitating access to an unjustly neglected major source for the history of Suffolk. Also two contextual essays: The Government of Ipswich from its Origins to c. 1550 by GEOFFREY MARTIN (former Keeper of the Rolls) and The Government of Ipswich from c. 1550-1835 by FRANK GRACE (Lecturer, Suffolk College). Dr DAVID ALLEN is on the staff of the Suffolk Record Office in Ipswich and editor of the Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History.

A major contribution to the history of Parliament, to medieval English history, and to the study of the English constitution. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW The rolls of parliament were the official records of the meetings of the English parliament from the reign of Edward I (1272-1307) until the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), after which they were superseded by the journals of thelords, and, somewhat later, the commons. Chris Given-Wilson is Professor of Late Medieval History, University of St Andrews