Inquisitions post mortem

Inquisitions post mortem are documents that were used in medieval times to apportion the disposition of lands and responsibilities on the death of an individual that had "control" of that area at the time of their death.

While they are very useful historical documents they are often used to determine family lines of descent and provide little context on why such judgements were made. IPMs were often draw-up when there is no clear (male) heir to an estate. Other instances of IPMs reflect a punitive action taken when there was a dispute between either the Crown or an influencial agent of the Crown.

An example of a punitive IPM is that of the Inquisition Post Mortem 587. JOHN BOTETOURT. 30 November, 18 Edward II. [1324]

The Wikipdia page says:

The definition refers to "tenent-in-chief"

An Inquisition post mortem (abbreviated to Inq.p.m. or i.p.m., and formerly known as an escheat)[1] (Latin, meaning "(inquisition) after death") is an English medieval or early modern record of the death, estate and heir of one of the king's tenants-in-chief, made for royal fiscal purposes. The process of making such inquisition was effected by the royal escheators in each county where the deceased held land. The earliest inq.p.m. was made in 1236, in the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272), and the practice ceased c.1640, at the start of the English Civil War, and was finally abolished by the Tenures Abolition Act 1660, which ended the feudal system.

Interpretation of IPMs

Bearing in mind how texts are translated, especially as the oroginals are hand written, there is a chance that there is a fair amount of interpretation and possible mis-translation.

Inquisitions post mortem were typically written in Latin, as it was the administrative and legal language of England during the medieval and early modern periods. These documents were formal inquiries into land ownership and inheritance, often involving tenants-in-chief of the crown. Latin was used for its precision and widespread understanding among educated officials of the time

In addition, early IPMs, those written in the reigns of Edward I, II and III, also coincide with the belief that they were decendents of King Arthur of Geoffrey of Monmouth's accounts. Edward I had a round table made in memory of the "Knights of the Round Table".

Top

Diem clausit extremum (Latin meaning 's/he has closed his/her last day)

The term: Diem clausit extremum is often found in an IPM as a writ of Diem clausit extremum. This probably can be seen in modern terms as a will or last testament.

IPMs often refer to wills of the deceased where the inheritor of a property is specified. In many cases the land of property is "assigned" to other individuals on their death. All estates were historically owned by the crown and the concept of private ownership had yet to develop.

Escheator

"History by IPM"

The use of IPMs and writs to determine events from history in fraught with problems.

I have copies/screenshots from IPMs on many of my pages where I have found the names of the people that I have been researching. While these IPMs give a record of how lands and estates were appropriated on the death of a noble, there is little context of why the decision was made.

IPMs can give a clue to what went on when somebody died and the lands are apportioned

Inquisitions post mortem

Links