The entry for the first manor in this roll was dated by day, month and year (presumably regnal). Entries for subsequent manors are dated, first as ‘the same day’, later by successive days (6-13) in September, ‘of the same year’. Thus the year was given only once in the roll, and that is now lost through decay. An approximate date is provided by the watermark, which is similar to one in another document dated to 1469. Internal evidence agrees with this approximate date. Within the roll a few charters are cited, of which the latest is dated 1453-54 (32 Henry VI: p. 72).

Some clues about dating can naturally be obtained from the tenants mentioned within the roll, when they are also known from other sources. Dating from tenants is not infallible, particularly from the free tenants (who are the easier ones to trace), since free tenancies, passing normally by inheritance, were not always updated assiduously or speedily, so that their names can be some years out of date in a roll such as this. However, when the roll does recognize a known and dated change, a terminus post quern is provided. One such case is that of a free tenement at Trink, in Connerton manor: in 1463 this was held by an unnamed ‘heir of William Trefrynk’; in AR2/1339 by ‘Stephen Calmady, sometime William Trefyng’ (sic), and in 1499 again by Stephen Calmady (below, pp. 44, 89 and 133). In 1476-77 relief was paid in the manor upon the death of John Calmady, evidently Stephen's predecessor; so our roll, showing awareness that Stephen had succeeded John Calmady, must be dated later than 1476.

Conventionary tenants can provide the same kind of clue. In the manor of Tregarne, one John Chynale took a tenement at Tregevis in 1476 for a term of seven years. He is seen holding that tenement in AR2/1339 (below, p. 80), but in the extents of 1460 and 1499 he is not named there, nor elsewhere. In theory, his term in 1476 could have been a renewal, and it may have been extended after it ended in 1483, so his tenancy cannot provide a precise range of dates; but a date within a few years of 1476 is at least suggested.