Catalogue description Chancery and Lord Chancellor's Office: Petty Bag Office and Crown Office: Parliamentary Election Writs and Returns

This series contains nearly all parliamentary writs to secure the election of Members of the House of Commons, and the returns made on them.

The format of writs and returns has evolved over time towards greater simplicity. From 1407 attestation of the return by electors began, in addition to the sheriff or returning officer. By the early eighteenth century there might be as many as 150 signatures, with their seals. In the twentieth century the indentures of return disappear: all that remains is a printed form serving as a writ, and the returning officer's endorsement of receipt and certification of the Member returned.

Returns refer directly to neither contests nor parties. Records of election of Scottish representative peers, 1900-1959, are also included.

The earliest selection of parliamentary writs and returns to be published, for the period up to 1460, was Brevia Parliamentaria rediviva, ed William Prynne (London, 1662). This was followed, for the years 1542 to 1660, by Notitia Parliamentaria, ed Browne Willis (3rd ed, London, 1750). A list of MPs for the century following 1660 was provided in The Succession of Parliaments, ed Charles Whitworth (London, 1764). The records in this series, up to 1399, were also calendared in Parliamentary Writs, ed Francis Palgrave (4 vols, Record Commission, 1827-1834). In 1878 the House of Commons ordered the publication of the Official Return of Members (4 vols, London, 1879-1891), which covered the period from 1213 to 1880. In 1932 the House of Commons recommended the establishment of a History of Parliament to make good the deficiencies in these previous publications. The following volumes have appeared so far, and the series is ongoing: Register of the Ministers and of the Members of both Houses 1439-1509, ed J C Wedgwood (2 vols, HMSO, 1936-1938); The Commons 1754-1790, ed L Namier and J Brooke (3 vols, HMSO, 1964-1989); The Commons 1715-1754, ed R Sedgwick (2 vols, HMSO, 1970); The Commons 1558-1603, ed P W Hasler (3 vols, HMSO, 1981); The Commons 1509-1558, ed S T Bindoff (2 vols, London, 1982); The Commons 1660-1690, ed B D Henning (3 vols, London, 1983); The Commons 1790-1820, ed R G Thorne (5 vols, Stroud, 1986); The Commons 1386-1421, ed J S Roskell, L Clark and C Rawcliffe (4 vols, Stroud, 1992).