Catalogue description Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, James I

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Details of SP 14
Reference: SP 14
Title: Secretaries of State: State Papers Domestic, James I
Description:

The archives of the principal secretaries of state during the reign of James I, as they survived in official custody. The papers are evidence of the great variety of business passing through the secretaries' office, and the presentation of the most important matters for consideration by James I and the Privy Council. The series includes what was formerly a separate series of Scottish Papers.

The volumes are of two types: contemporary volumes, and volumes of individual letters and papers, from various sources, sorted and bound in the nineteenth century for the purpose of publication in calendar form in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, James I. The date sequence includes the Conway Papers (a private collection of state papers apparently removed from official custody by Sir Edward Conway, Secretary of State from 1623-1628) which returned to the State Paper Office in 1857. The Conway Papers were split up and bound in the relevant date order in SP 14, but were not incorporated into the first two volumes of the Calendar.

The contemporary volumes include Exchequer papers, Gunpowder Plot papers, articles of union between England and Scotland, charters of Trinity House and the Cinque Ports, records concerning lands given for superstitious uses in London and Middlesex, a survey of the Navy in 1618, musters of troops for Count Mansfeldt's expedition in 1624, proclamations, treatises, lists of justices of the peace, registers of aliens in London, Sir Walter Raliegh's 'Prerogative of Parliaments' , etc.

Date: 1603-1640
Arrangement:

The records are generally arranged in chronological order, though addenda were added until 1859. Those addenda inserted into existing volumes were marked as items with a letter or an asterisk (e.g. SP 14/1, no 28A; SP 14/1, no 34*).

Related material:

Addenda found after 1859 is in SP 15, calendared in the Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Addenda, Elizabeth-James I, 1558-1623

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Physical description: 218 volume(s)
Access conditions: Available in digital format only
Custodial history: The papers were mostly retained in the custody of the State Paper Office. In 1857, however, the Conway Papers (a private collection of state papers apparently removed from official custody by Sir Edward Conway, Viscount Conway, Secretary of State from 1623 to 1628, and by later Conway Secretaries) were returned to the State Paper Office, and the relevant parts were incorporated into SP 14
Publication note:

The records are calendared in Calendar of State Papers (Domestic Series) of the reign of James I ed. M A E Green (4 vols; London, 1857-1859). An online version of this is available here: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=19008

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