Letter-Books of the City of London

[4] The books, written in scores of varying hands, are not in strict chronological sequence, but speak in detail of the business habits of Chamberlains of the City of London and Common Clerks in the times of the Plantagenets, and contain entries in English, French, and Latin.

The lack of sequence in many entries is probably due to rough copies of the memoranda, or "remembrances," being kept in hand at times for a month or two together, or even longer, and then entered in the volumes without much regard to the chronological order of the facts they recorded.

These recognizances have their value as illustrating the commercial intercourse of the citizens of London with Gascony and Spain in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, more especially in connection with wine and leather; the names of those sworn as "correctors" (coretaru), or licensed brokers, of those commodities, appear on the first page of Letter-Book A.

On the flyleaf of Letter-Book E, the following statement is written in a hand of the sixteenth century:[d] Memorand' that this Boke of E was lost & was lackyng of a long seasoun untill the viijth day of July in the xxxijth yere of the reign of Kyng Henry the viijth that Robert Broke coen' seriaunte espied out the seid Boke and caused it to be redemyd unto the Chambre of London &c. die et anno predictis.How the book went astray and what length of time it had been missing will probably never be known.

However, considering that stringent regulations on the manner in which the City's records were written up and maintained by the four clerks or attorneys of the Mayor's Court were not set until 1537,[7] that such a transient loss occurred is not surprising.