Royal Commission on Public Records, 1800 to 1837

PRO 36

1800-1893

This series relating to the Royal Commission on Public Records, 1800-1837, consists of minute books with indexes; reports on various accumulations of records and of work done; returns from record offices; orders, etc, relating to Rymer's Foedera, including reports from W H Black and T D Hardy, and some miscellaneous papers.

Additional papers of the Records Commission are in PRO 30/10 PRO 31/7 PRO 31/8

Transcripts made under its direction are in:

Public Record(s)

English

58 volume(s)

The Record Commission is the collective name given to a series of six Royal Commissions on the Public Records appointed, with a varying membership, between 1800 and 1831.

The first was appointed shortly after the presentation on 4 July 1800 of the report of a select committee appointed to inquire into the state of the public records, and the last of them lapsed on the death of William IV in 1837. Besides publishing a considerable number of texts and other volumes drawn from the records, the Record Commission produced three general reports in 1812, 1819 and 1837.

The proceedings of the commissioners became in the course of time the subject of adverse criticism, which led in 1836 to inquiries by a select committee of the House of Commons. Its report in that year included a proposal for the collection of the public records into one place under a single authority, and resulted in the Public Record Office Act 1838.