Catalogue description Chancery and Lord Chancellor's Office: Crown Office: Petitions and Fiats for Commissions of Sewers

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Details of C 191
Reference: C 191
Title: Chancery and Lord Chancellor's Office: Crown Office: Petitions and Fiats for Commissions of Sewers
Description:

This series comprises the original petitions from local gentlemen or farmers to the lord chancellor or lord keeper, the chief justices and sometimes other leading officials, for commissions of sewers under the Statute of Sewers of 1531, together with the fiats issued following them.

Most of the petitions request the renewal of an existing commission of sewers which was nearing its expiry date; others ask for names to be added to a current commission of sewers so that vacancies could be filled. Each of the petitions bears the fiat of the law officers who sanctioned the commission. Names of commissioners are given. Some volumes are indexed under counties or districts.
Date: 1685-1895
Related material:

Material from the Petty Bag Office relating to commissions of sewers is in:

C 225

C 226
Separated material:

From c.1840 plans of the districts covered were occasionally attached; these have been transferred to map series.
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 9 volume(s)
Administrative / biographical background:

With the passing of the Land Drainage Act in 1861 the petitioning procedure changed. To secure a new commission of sewers local proprietors had now to petition the enclosure commissioners. If the enclosure commissioners considered that the boundaries of the proposed sewers commission were warranted, they passed on their recommendations to the home secretary, the home secretary informed the queen, and a commission was issued.

Although the petitions continue after 1861 until July 1863, as before they are addressed to the lord chancellor and the chief justices; none are addressed to the enclosure commissioners. The bulk of the material for the period after 1861 comprises enclosure commissioners' reports, forwarded to the lord chancellor so that he could issue a fiat for a commission, and requests from commissioners of sewers for writs of dedimus potestatem to enable them to swear in new colleagues. The last fiat signed by the lord chancellor and the chief justices is dated November 1870.

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