AALT: Digitised documents from medieval and early modern England
The website of the Anglo-American Legal Tradition (http://aalt.law.uh.edu/AALT.html) is the result of a collaboration between the University of Houston Law Center in the US and The National Archives (TNA) in the UK, which was first drawn up in 2006. Its aim is to provide digital images of TNA documents from medieval and early modern England, as a free resource for research into the history of English law and related subjects. Since its inception, some non-TNA material has been included, but by far the majority of images are from huge series of English governmental, judicial and royal sources held at Kew.
The website now contains millions of images of series such as Chancery proceedings (C 1), Exchequer Plea Rolls, King’s Bench Plea Rolls, Pipe Rolls, Court of Requests, and proceedings of the Court of Common Pleas, as well as a selection of royal wardrobe accounts. They are arranged by regnal year with little other accompanying apparatus, and so for much research this is simply a remote substitute for being in the reading room. In some instances, however, AALT is compiling indexes to enhance accesibility. The most notable example is the records of the Court of Common Pleas (CP 40), for which a growing number of modern indexes are providing a whole new way into this incredibly rich resource, featuring individuals from all walks of life and areas of the UK from the 14th to the 17th centuries.
Matthew Payne, Hon. Treasurer
