Public Record Office: Petrie Transcripts

PRO 31/5

c600-1393

This series contains transcripts of medieval chronicles, lives of saints, registers, etc, for the most part printed in the series of Chronicles and Memorials issued under the direction of the Master of the Rolls and elsewhere.

These transcripts were assembled by Henry Petrie, keeper of the records at the Tower of London, from 1819 until his retirement in 1840. In 1843 they were transferred to the Master of the Rolls by his executors.

Annual reports by Petrie on the progress of his work are in PRO 36/47

The abbreviation C.B.H. is used in piece descriptions to refer to T D Hardy's history of Great Britain and Ireland (see publication details below). The abbreviation R.S. refers to the Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland("Rolls Series").

There is also some correspondence and papers relating to a plan for continuing the publication of 'Materials for the History of Britain' in the 1840s in PRO 1/124

Not Public Record(s)

English

15 bundle(s)

Topics

Archives and libraries

Pay and pensions

After Petrie's death in 1842 the transcripts were transferred to the master of the rolls by his executors and deposited in the Public Record Office in March of the following year.

In 1823 Henry Petrie was appointed by the Record Commission to undertake work, with the assistance of the Rev J Sharpe, his brother-in-law, upon the early sources of national history. Partly on account of the deterioration in Petrie's health the work was put in suspense in 1834, except for sections concerning the Anglo-Saxon laws and the Welsh laws which were published separately under the respective editorships of Benjamin Thorpe in 1840 and Aneurin Owen in 1841.