Catalogue description Board of Trade: Companies Registration Office: Truro Registry: Files of Dissolved Companies

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Details of BT 286
Reference: BT 286
Title: Board of Trade: Companies Registration Office: Truro Registry: Files of Dissolved Companies
Description:

Surviving files of the Truro Joint Stock Company Registry relating to dissolved Cornish and Devonshire mining companies within the jurisdiction of the former Stannary Court.

There are, in the case of some companies, either one or two additional types of files. In July 1881 the Assistant Registrar in Truro started eliciting from companies newly registering, a second copy of the memorandum of association and of (if any) the articles of association. This second set was sent to the London registry which put them on files for public inspection there.

This arrangement was further developed by the Stannaries Act, 1887, which provided that with effect from 1 December 1887, companies registered at Truro should provide a duplicate copy not only of the memorandum and articles of association on initial registration but of all subsequent returns.

As a result the London Registry opened and maintained its own set of files for these duplicate copies in respect of 84 companies registered at Truro. Although, strictly speaking, they were London registry files, these 'duplicates' files were included in this series.

The Stannaries Act, 1887 had reciprocal effect. It enacted that the Truro Registry should hold files of duplicate returns in the case of companies which were mining or quarrying in Devon/Cornwall but were registered in London (or Edinburgh). When the Truro registry was closed the file covers were not preserved but the contents were put on the main London (or Edinburgh) company registration files.

In the case of 18 companies there is also a third type of file. The companies Winding Up Act 1890 provided for the return to the Register of Companies of Liquidators Returns in a prescribed form. Instead of putting these on the main file the Assistant Registrar in Truro opened separate files.

There is in addition an omnibus file with miscellaneous liquidator's affidavits for 16 companies in respect of which an individual file for liquidators' returns was not opened.

The companies registered in Truro were defunct by 1914, with the exception of the Bodelva China Clay Company Limited which became finally dissolved in 1933.
Date: 1863-1895
Arrangement:

When this series was orginally listed in 1991, the complicated background of the records was not fully understood and the three original file sequences were combined into a single sequence. In 1997, an alphabetical index was created, distinguishing the main Truro files (showing in brackets the Truro company registration number) from the London office duplicate copies files ('Londup'), and the individual files for liquidators' returns ('CWUP') from the inclusion in omnibus files for liquidators' returns ('Liq').

In the online catalogue, each subseries contains a different type of file. The numerical sequence of piece numbers reflects the arrangement imposed in 1991.

The highest Truro company registration number was 503 but there are 607 files in total. These include:

  • 84 London duplicate files;
  • 18 individual files ('CWUP') and 1 omnibus file for liquidators' returns;
  • 2 additional files for the Devon Great Consols Company Ltd, and 1 additional file for the Bodelva China Clay Company Ltd;
  • 2 registration in the same file for the New Trumpet Consols Mining Company and New Trumpet Consols Mining Company Ltd;
  • No Truro registration file exists for the Florence Mining Company Ltd.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 607 volume(s)
Administrative / biographical background:

The Truro registry was established by order of the Board of Trade on 1 December 1863 under powers conferred by Section 174 (3) of the Companies Act 1862. It was responsible for the registration of companies formed for working mines within the jurisdiction of the Court of the Vice Warden of the Stannaries. That court was abolished under the Stannaries Court (Abolition) Act 1896, and the Truro registry was closed on 31 March 1897. Thereafter the work of the Truro Registry was undertaken by the registrar of companies and its papers were returned to the London Registry.

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