My Court of Requests case from 1600 involving John Guillim is the archival document that keeps on giving.

At one point the defendant says "one Henrie Blome gent did pretend the said landes by vertue of a statute knoweledged by the Complaynant & had a liberate therof"

This somewhat cryptic sentence means that Guillim had made a financial transaction with Blome, secured by a "recognizance in the nature of a statute merchant". This was a stronger form of bond, and if he defaulted, allowed the debt to be recovered from his goods or lands. That is what happened here, and Blome sued out a writ of Liberate.
(h/t to the UK National Archives for the very helpful administrative background section in the catalogue entry)

The key point is that these recognizances had to be recorded, and the entry books survive in The National Archives, in series LC 4, which could lead me to further information.

#EarlyModern #Archives #Guillim #StatuteMerchant #LegalHistory