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The term Exchequer of Pleas describes an aspect of the Court of Exchequer: a 'collateral and derivative department of its jurisdiction', namely its function as a Court of Common Law for the adjudication of Civil Pleas. For much of its history the Exchequer had a threefold jurisdiction: as a Court of Revenue, a Court of Civil Pleas and a Court of Equity. The 'Plea side' of the Court was administered by the Office of the Clerk of the Pleas in the Exchequer.
The Exchequer was, in origin, a Court of Crown Revenue, which had split from the curia regis in the 1190s. The extension of its jurisdiction from collecting and protecting the revenues of the Crown to cover the adjudication of civil pleas (i.e. lawsuits between individuals) was described in the 19th century as 'obviously and confessedly grounded on usurpation, now confirmed by immemorial usage, founded on a tacit but universal acknowledgment of its utility and convenience'. (Full article...)