Catalogue description Records of the Companies Registration Office

The registration and regulation of joint stock companies was originally entrusted to the Board of Trade by an Act of 1844 which established a register of joint stock companies and enabled companies to acquire corporate privileges by the simple process of registration, without resort to special acts of parliament or royal charters. The act applied to the United Kingdom including Ireland but excluding Scotland except for Scottish companies with an office in England. From 1850 onwards a separate registry of Irish companies, defined as those whose head office was in Ireland, was kept in Dublin.

The duties of the registrar of companies, as prescribed in this act, include the acceptance and registration of documents required from companies on their formation or registration and from time to time during their existence, and the filing and preservation of such documents for public inspection.

The Act of 1844 was amended in 1847 and replaced in 1856 by an act which required all companies completely registered under the 1844 Act, but not those only provisionally registered, to re-register. This act did not apply to banking or insurance companies: their registration as limited liability companies was, however, subsequently authorised under the Joint Stock Banking Companies Act 1858 and the Companies Act 1862. Further Companies Acts of 1929 and 1947 were consolidated by the Companies Act 1948.

From 1888 to 1962, canal companies and railway companies owning canals were required to submit annual returns giving brief details of their canals to the registrar of companies. From 1862 until 1897 there was a Joint Stock Company Registry at Truro for the registration of companies formed for working mines within the jurisdiction of the Court of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries.