Catalogue description Records of the Crown Office

The origins of the Crown Office in the House of Lords, which is to be distinguished from the Crown Office and Associates' Department of the Central Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature, are to be found in the Chancery and in a number of offices which, in the course of the nineteenth century, were absorbed by or brought under the direction of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. These included the Office of the Clerk of the Hanaper taken over under the Suitors in Chancery Relief Act 1852, and the great seal duties of the Clerk of the Petty Bag under the Great Seal Offices Act 1874.

By the same act provision was made for the abolition of the Office of Clerk of the Patents although this was not effected until 1883 when the duties of that post were assumed by the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. Earlier, in 1880, the duties of the Law Officers as regards the preparation of warrants or queen's bills for the issue of letters patent under the great seal had also been taken over by the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery.

When, in 1885, the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery came to retire the opportunity was taken to amalgamate his post with that of the permanent secretary to the Lord Chancellor. Since that time the Crown Office, otherwise the Office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, has formed part of the Lord Chancellor's Office (since 1972 the Lord Chancellor's Department) taking over responsibility for ecclesiastical patronage work in 1890 and for funds held in the Pay Office of the Supreme Court of Judicature in 1926.

The formal duties of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery (or Crown Office) may be divided into two categories: those which are parliamentary in character and those associated with the authentication of royal acts. In the House of Lords he issues writs of attendance and summonses addressed to peers, commissions to summon and prorogue Parliament, commissions for giving the royal assent to bills and other commissions; receives and certifies to Parliament the returns of election of Scottish representative peers; reads the titles of bills prior to the royal assent; acts as registrar to the Lord Chancellor acting as lord high steward and as registrar to the coronation Court of Claims.

In the House of Commons he makes out and issues parliamentary election writs and receives and certifies to the House election returns. His duties in the second category comprise the issue of warrants and patents of appointment and honour, licences in mortmain, commissions of service, pardons and proclamations under the great seal.