King's Remembrancer

The Queen's Remembrancer (or King's Remembrancer) is an ancient judicial post in the legal system of England and Wales. Since the Lord Chancellor no longer sits as a judge, the Remembrancer is the oldest judicial position in continual existence. The post was created in 1154 by King Henry II as the chief official in the Exchequer Court, whose purpose was 'to put the Lord Treasurer and the Barons of Court in remembrance of such things as were to be called upon and dealt with for the benefit of the Crown', a primary duty being to keep records of the taxes, paid and unpaid. The first King's Remembrancer was Richard of Ilchester, a senior servant of the Crown and later Bishop of Winchester. The King's Remembrancer continued to sit in the Court of the Exchequer until its abolition in 1882. The post of Queen's Remembrancer is held by the Senior Master of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court.

The Exchequer Court is reconstituted every year for the three ancient ceremonies of the "Rendering of the Quit Rents to the Crown" by the City of London at the Royal Courts of Justice.

The oldest dates from 1211, where the City pays service for two pieces of land, The Moors near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, for which the City must pay two knives, one blunt and one sharp.

The second oldest has been made, entered in the Great Roll of the Exchequer, since 1235, for 'The Forge' (forge) in Tweezer's Alley, just south of St Clement's Dane, near the Strand in London, for which the City must pay six horseshoes and 61 horseshoe nails - over 550 years old, since after being rendered to the Queen’s Remembrancer they are preserved in his Office, and with the permission of the Crown they are loaned to the Corporation of London to be rendered again the following year.

These two quits are paid together as one ceremony, during which a black-and-white chequered cloth is spread out — it is from this that the word "Exchequer" derives - combined with the introduction to the Remembrancer of the City's newly elected Sheriffs.

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