Catalogue description Record Agency Business

From the establishment of the Office of Land Revenue Records and Enrolments in 1832, until its merger with the Public Record Office at the end of 1902, successive keepers of the land revenue records and enrolments held, simultaneously, the post of Crown record agent. The two positions were separate in theory, and in the eyes of the Treasury (the keepership being salaried, the agency work depending on fees), but in practice it proved difficult to maintain a distinction between searches for information in the records made in the course of the keeper's duties, and those made at the request of various government departments in the course of defence of the Crown's rights in land and land revenues.

The situation was further complicated by the fact that the Hewlett family, which provided the last two keepers of the land revenue records and enrolments (Henry Gay Hewlett, 1832-1897, and his son, Maurice Henry Hewlett, 1861-1923) continued to take an interest in the family firm's private record agency work, despite official disapproval of such activity, on the grounds of potential conflict with the interests of the Crown, expressed at the time of H G Hewlett's appointment.