Catalogue description Records of the Parliament Office, House of Lords

Records of the Parliament Office, the department within the House of Lords responsible for managing the legislative and judicial business of the Lords.

House of Lords, Parliament Office, c 1509

J.C. Sainty, 'Clerks in the Parliament Office, 1600-1900', House of Lords Record Office Memorandum, 22 (1960).

D. Dewar, 'The Financial Administration and Records of the Parliament Office, 1824 to 1868', House of Lords Record Office Memorandum, 37 (1967).

In the middle ages a number of Chancery Masters and clerks attended upon each Parliament, some having been summoned by Writs of Assistance. One clerk had the specific title of 'clerk del Parlement', or 'clericus parliamenti', the implication being that he was clerk of the Parliament then sitting but was not regarded as holding a continuing office between Parliaments. In 1447 the clerks began to receive appointment by Letters Patent, and the grant was usually for life. In the early 16th century the title of 'Clerk of the Parliaments' is used, perhaps as an indication that the office was now considered a continuing one. Occasional mention, however, is still found in the Rolls of Parliament and in the Lords Journal of 'le clerk del Parlement'.

The Clerk of the Parliaments dealt with the business of Parliament as a whole and with that of the Upper House sitting separately; the Under-clerk was responsible for the service of the Lower House, and acquired the alternative title of Clerk of the House of Commons, together with a separate staff and independent status.

The Clerk of Parliaments and his assistants in the Upper House form the department now known as 'the Parliament Office'. Originally, the office was part of Chancery, but it hived off to form a separate department c. 1509.1 In 1497 the Clerk began to preserve the original Acts in his own office instead of transferring them with the enrolments to Chancery, and his successors in the 16th c. extended this practice, until by Elizabeth I's reign, nothing was so transferred except the Parliament Roll, in spite of an attempt by Chancery in 1567 to recover the entire mass of records which had by then accumulated in the Parliament Office. The staff ceased to have any connection with Chancery; the expedient of making the Parliamentary Clerks Masters in Chancery on appointment was not adopted after John Taylor's clerkship (1509-23), and the Parliament Office staff, under barristers such as Bowyer, Elsynge and Browne, had a closer connection with the Inns of Court than with Chancery.

Although the Clerk of the Parliaments had probably always had assistance at the Table of the House of Lords, the names of assistant clerks do not appear until the time of Sir Thomas Smith (Clerk 1597-1609) who employed Owen Reynolds as 'Under-clerk'. This office then seems to have continued under the title of 'deputy Clerk' (e.g. in 1635). After 1660 various subordinate officers were named with specific titles, notably the Clerk Assistant and the Reading Clerk, who with the Clerk of the Parliaments, sat at the Table of the House. In addition there were Committee Clerks, a Clerk of Ingrossments, a Clerk of the Journals and various writers or copying clerks.

By the middle of the 19th century the establishment comprised, as well as three Clerks at the Table, a Clerk of the Journals and a Chief Clerk, with seven other first class clerks, seven second class, and fourteen third class clerks, a copyist and a summoning officer.

All assistant in the Parliament Office were appointed solely by the Clerk of the Parliaments, and a number of deeds of appointment by him survive. The House, however, in the 18th century was frequently petitioned by junior clerks for support against the Clerk of the Parliaments, and the House came to concern itself increasingly with its own clerical staff, normally by appointing a Select Committee to inquire into some specific issue and then to report back to the House, which thereupon made an Order. From 1824 onwards, a Select Committee on the Parliament Office (usually known as the 'Offices Committee') has been appointed each Session, and this Committee exercises a general supervision over the work of the office.

In 1824 the Clerk of the Parliaments Act, 5 Geo. IV, c. 82, provided that the Clerk himself should continue to be appointed by Letters Patent, but that from the next appointment he should execute the duties of the office himself, and not by deputy (as he had done for a century), whilst those of his colleagues who were in attendance at the Table of the House should be appointed by the Lord Chancellor. In practice, this has meant that the Clerk Assistant, the Reading Clerk and the Fourth Clerk at the Table have been so appointed; other clerks and officials in the Parliament office are still appointed by the Clerk of the Parliaments, with a report to the Offices Committee and the House. Duties were re-allocated from time to time, and the increase of work in the 19th century led to further specialisation and to the formation, by 1854, of fixed departments: the Public Bill Office, the Private Bill and Committee Office, the Judicial Office, the Journal Office, and the Accountant's Office. To these departments a Record Office was added in 1946, a Computer Office in 1990 and an Information (ie Press) Office in 1997.

• View Record
• View Record
• View Record