Catalogue description Chancery and Lord Chancellor's Office: Crown Office: Oath Rolls and Entry Books

The clerk of the Crown historically claimed the right to administer oaths to a number of the great officers of state.

Included in this series are oaths taken by the lord chancellor, vice chancellor, master of the rolls, lords justice, lords high treasurer, judges and commissioners of a range of courts, commissioners for the custody of the great seal, clerks of the Crown, masters in Chancery, officers of Parliament, Chancery officials, king's and queen's counsellors, king's serjeants and serjeants-at-law, lunacy commissioners and others.

Also entered in the books are the oaths of allegiance and supremacy that were taken by HRH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in 1816 and by HRH Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. The princes were required to take the oaths following their naturalisation by act of Parliament.

In 1985, following a lapse of sixteen years caused by pressure of work and staff shortages, the oath record book was re-introduced by order of the lord chancellor, Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone.