Edmund Oldhall: he is an example of an escheator who also served as sheriff (1401-2 and 1413-14), in this case both before and after his term as escheator. [4. CFR 1399-1405, 234; 1405-13, 19; List of Escheators, 86; HPT, s.n (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/strange-sir-john-1347-1417).] Strange served again in 1407-9, when he was named by Henry IV as the replacement for the king's original choice, John Reymes, who did not wish to accept the office. [5. Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V, ed. J. L. Kirby (1978), no. 708. For Reymes see HPT, s.n. (http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/reymes-john-1367-1411).] (Formally escheators were apointed by the chancellor, treasurer, and chief barons of the Exchequer, in accordance with a statute of 1340, but informally many people might try to influence their decision.) [6. SR i.283; SC 1/56/116 (request by Queen Anne to the chancellor and treasurer for the appointment of Roger Toup as escheator in Lincoln, 1383); Paston L & P, ii. no. 164; Plumpton L&P, no. 6.]
Although it might be burdensome, the office was potentially lucrative. As we have seen, the standard fee for carrying out an IPM seems to have been 40s. by the fifteenth century, not an insignificant sum; escheators might also receive payments or other douceurs for carrying out an inquisition promptly. If an estate were in dispute, it was useful and sometimes essential for claimants to acquire the escheator's support, providing further opportunities for gifts and payments. Furthermore the escheator was, by virtue of his office, likely to be possessed of valuable information about lands falling into the king's hands whose custody could be sought; he was also in a position to curry favour by bringing infringements of royal rights to the king's notice.
The escheator's responsibilities were various and were summarized in the oath he swore when taking office as faithfully keeping the king's rights and ‘all manner of things belonging to the crown'. [7. Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 1146, f. 9v (French); Ashmole MS 1147, p. 75 (English).] His activities may broadly be divided into those carried out ex officio and those carried out in response to a royal writ. Ex officio inquisitions typically concerned such matters as alienations of land and acquisitions in mortmain that had been carried out without royal licence. These were among the subjects which the thirteenth-century Articles of the Escheators had made the responsibility of the escheator and which were outlined in other treatises on the office. [8. SR i.238-41; BL, Add. MS 32087, fos. 259v-261r; S. L. Waugh, ‘The origins and early development of the articles of the escheator', Thirteenth-Century England v (1995).] In addition many ex officio inquisitions, in the later years of Richard II and the early years of Henry IV, concerned estates forfeited for treason and a good number dealt with the goods and chattels forfeited to the crown by felons and outlaws.
Writs were sent to the escheator by both Exchequer and Chancery. The former typically followed from earlier inquisitions and asked for fuller information concerning, for example, the value of an estate. Chancery writs often concerned some aspect of the IPM process but could deal with a wide range other matters in addition. As well as in the IPM archive, these inquisitions chiefly survive in Chancery miscellaneous inquisitions (calendared in full to 1485) [9. CIM.]
