The Neville Inquisition Post Mortem Series: three generations in C 142, and the parallel Court of Wards inquisition

Topic: The Neville Inquisition Post Mortem Series (C 142, WARD 7)

Central finding

The corpus works one inquisition post mortem intensively. C 142/356/123, the 1615 inquisition for Sir Henry Neville the diplomat, is cited in fifteen packets, has a image witnesses set and a redone transcription, and has its own packet.

Three further inquisitions have now been located that the corpus does not cite anywhere:

The most immediately useful of the three is WARD 7/51/268, because it is not a new death but a second, independent inquisition into a death the project has already studied more closely than any other.

Source-Control Position

All four references are catalogue index entries only. The C 142 and WARD 7 descriptions are of the barest kind — "Nevill, Henry, knight: Berkshire. Dated 36 Eliz I." — a name, a rank, a county, a regnal year. They carry no detail that identifies a particular man.

Every identification below therefore rests on death dates established elsewhere in this corpus, matched against regnal years. That is a reasonable inference and it is not proof. attribution_status is provisional for all three.

1. Quoted Source Passages

C 142/240/95 — probably the elder Sir Henry Neville

• Source: TNA C 142/240/95; Discovery record C7831246; covering dates

1593 Nov 17 - 1594 Nov 16. Context: "Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series II, and other Inquisitions, Henry VII to Charles I. Documentation of Inquisitions, 36 Eliz I."

• Quotation:

"Nevill, Henry, knight: Berkshire. Dated 36 Eliz I."

• What it proves: An inquisition post mortem was taken in Berkshire in 36 Eliz I

on a knight named Henry Nevill.

• Limits: Nothing in the entry names the man beyond rank and county. The

identification with the elder Sir Henry Neville of Billingbear, who died in January 1593, rests on the fit between his death and the regnal year, and on his being the knighted Henry Neville then holding in Berkshire.

WARD 7/51/268 — probably a second inquisition for the 1615 death

• Source: TNA WARD 7/51/268; Discovery record C7744856; dated 14 Jas I.

Context: "Court of Wards and Liveries: Inquisitions Post Mortem. (Described at item level)."

• Quotation:

"Nevill, Henry, knight: Berks."

• What it proves: The Court of Wards took an inquisition post mortem in 14 Jas I

on a Berkshire knight named Henry Nevill.

• Limits: The regnal year is the same as that of C 142/356/123, the Chancery

inquisition for the diplomat's death of 1615. That the two concern the same death is a strong inference from the coincidence of name, rank, county and year, but the entry does not say so.

C 142/453/96 — probably Sir Henry Neville III

• Source: TNA C 142/453/96; Discovery record C7854298; covering dates

1629 Mar 27 - 1630 Mar 26; same C 142 series context, 5 Chas I.

• Quotation:

"Nevill, Henry, knight: Berkshire. Dated 5 Chas I."

• What it proves: An inquisition was taken in Berkshire in 5 Chas I on a knight

named Henry Nevill.

• Limits: As above. The fit is with Sir Henry Neville III, who died in 1629.

2. Why a parallel Court of Wards inquisition matters

Chancery and the Court of Wards were separate jurisdictions, and each could take its own inquisition on the death of a tenant-in-chief. The Chancery inquisition established the descent for the Crown's general purposes; the Wards inquisition served the Court's own business in wardship and livery — the heir's suit to have the lands delivered out of the Crown's hand.

Two consequences follow, and both are useful here.

1. The two records are independent witnesses to the same facts. Lands, the

date of death, the heir's identity and age can be collated between them. Where they differ, the difference is itself evidence.

2. A Wards inquisition can carry material the Chancery one does not, because

its purpose is different — particularly around the heir and the terms on which the lands were held.

That bears directly on an unresolved problem in the 1615 inquisition packet, which records a conflict between the executor passage at C 142/356/123/005 and the probate will PROB 11/126/63: the IPM names one arrangement, the probate act reads Anne Neville and Sir Henry Savile as executors who renounced, with administration issued to the son. WARD 7/51/268 is a further contemporary inquisition into the same estate and should be read before that conflict is called unresolvable.

3. What each would settle

• C 142/240/95 would give the Berkshire estate as found by inquest at the

moment the younger Henry Neville inherited it in 1593 — a baseline against which every later sale, mortgage and settlement in the corpus can be measured. The corpus discusses the elder's inquisition in general terms but has not carried its reference.

• WARD 7/51/268 would give a second, independent statement of the 1615

descent.

• C 142/453/96 would give the estate at the death of Henry Neville III in

1629, closing the three-generation sequence and bearing on the daughters' portions and the South Cave descent documented from the Hull History Centre deeds in land holdings.

4. A gap worth testing

The three C 142 index entries all give Berkshire only. A tenant-in-chief holding land in several counties normally generated a separate inquisition in each county. The Nevilles held in Berkshire, in Sussex (Mayfield), and in Yorkshire (South Cave, Otley, Lund). Whether Sussex and Yorkshire inquisitions were also taken, and survive, has not been tested. If they exist they would be the fullest surviving statements of the non-Berkshire estate.

5. Citations

• The National Archives, Kew. C 142/240/95, inquisition post mortem, 36 Eliz I.

Discovery C7831246. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7831246>

• The National Archives, Kew. WARD 7/51/268, Court of Wards and Liveries

inquisition post mortem, 14 Jas I. Discovery C7744856. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7744856>

• The National Archives, Kew. C 142/453/96, inquisition post mortem, 5 Chas I.

Discovery C7854298. <https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7854298>

• The National Archives, Kew. C 142/356/123, inquisition post mortem for Sir

Henry Neville, 14 Jas I — worked in neville inquisition 1615, which holds the image witnesses and transcription.

• Catalogue descriptions are Crown copyright under the Open Government Licence

v3.0.

6. Notes on Access

• Captured witnesses and their notes:

SOURCE NOTES.

• None of the three new records is digitised. Each requires a Kew visit or a

copying order.

• C 142 and WARD 7 inquisitions are in Latin. Budget for that: the 1615

inquisition needed a redone transcription, and the same will apply here.

• Priority order: WARD 7/51/268 first, because it speaks to a death the

project has already transcribed and to a live conflict in that packet; then C 142/240/95; then C 142/453/96.

Source-Fact Audit — 8 August 2026 (Round 7)

The series map is a retrieval map, not three completed identifications. C 142 is the Chancery IPM series; WARD 7 preserves Court of Wards inquisitions. A catalogue title can establish shelfmark, county, reign, and named decedent, but only the returned inquisition can establish lands, tenure, death date, heir, age, settlements, and jurors. The 1615 Chancery return already transcribed as C 142/356/123 and the separate WARD 7/51/268 item must therefore be collated rather than treated as duplicates with necessarily identical contents.

The working generational sequence—elder Sir Henry (d. 1593), the ambassador (d. 1615), and Henry III (d. 1629)—remains a strong catalogue-based organization. The first and third assignments stay provisional until their membranes are inspected. County scope also remains open: a Berkshire catalogue hit is not proof that no Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, or Yorkshire return existed.