The Full Abstracts of the Feet of Fines Relating to the County of Dorset: Remaining in the Public Record Office, London, from Their Commencement in the Reign of Richard I, was published by Edward Alexander Fry and George Samuel Fry in 1896.
This exceedingly useful and valuable series of documents preserved at the Public Record Office known as Feet of Fines (abstracts of which, as far as relate to Dorset, are printed in this volume), cover an unbroken period of over six centuries, that is to say, from the reign of Richard 1. (a.d. 1196) to 4 William IV. (1834), in which year a Statute was passed for the abolition of Fines and Recoveries, and the substitution of more simple modes of assurance. As “Fines,” or, as they are also called, “Final Concords,” were one of the most usual methods for assuring the transfer of lands and tenements from one party to another.
The publication was digitized by Google in 2007 and may be read online or downloaded here.
