JACOBEAN RECUSANT ROLLS FOR MIDDLESEX
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(E377/17) the sheriffs began to collect the rents from the tenants and to collect back debts from their predecessors.2 The collection increased after 1610 (E377/19) ; in E377/33, which is the Roll for both the last year of James and the first year of Charles I, sheriffs were collecting from the widows and executrices of the deceased predecessors . In 1611 (E377/20) the nature of the leases changed ; land was no longer granted for as long as it remained in the ' king's hands, but for a given term of years with a rent equal to two -thirds of change the king's two parts.3 The in the collection policy and the change in
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the nature of the leases indicate that James was following Salisbury's financial reforms after the failure of the Great Contract . In 1616 and 1617 (E377 / 26,27) there are four entries of fines for not receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper; that was not a common offence and the note on p . 106 gives other references to that offence. Anyone working with the Recusant Rolls owes an immense debt to Dom Hugh Bowler , O.S.B. without whose pioneering work none of us would know the richness of the information contained in the Rolls . I would also like to thank Mr. Patrick Burhenne, one of my undergraduate students, who transcribed the microfilm of the Rolls for me. Without his careful and diligent work, this work would have taken much longer to produce. would also like to thank my parents : without their sacrifices would not have attended Xavier High School and encountered the Society of Jesus.
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Xavier University, Cincinnati , Ohio
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John J. LaRocca, S.J.
31 July, 1993
2An example of the increasein revenue can be found in the table in Bowler, op. cit., p. cxi n. 456. 3The change in leases is evident in the Signet Docket Book ( P.R.O. SO 4) where all of the grants of the benefit of a person's recusancywere made for a term of years and for two thirds of the king'stwo parts .