Chancery: Books of Common Prayer

C 95

1674

Two sealed copies of the Book of Common Prayer which were deposited in the Court of Chancery and the Tower of London following the 1662 Act of Uniformity.

They consist of printed volumes with manuscript corrections, endorsed with a certificate by commissioners as to their authenticity and letters patent certifying the same.

The original manuscript of the Book of Common Prayer is in the House of Lords Library.

Public Record(s)

English

2 volume(s)

Reviving the Book of Common Prayer after the religious anarchy of the Interregnum was not expected to be an easy task, and the framers of the 1662 Act of Uniformity were anxious to ensure that the forms enshrined in the new version of the book should be scrupulously observed. Accordingly, to avoid disputes about which was the authoritative version, the act stipulated that before Christmas 1662 the deans and chapters of every cathedral or collegiate church in England and Wales should obtain under the great seal an accurate printed copy of the new Book of Common Prayer and a copy of the act itself. These were to be produced in a court of record whenever occasion required.

In addition, the act further stipulated that 'there shall be delivered true and perfect Copies of this Act and of the same Booke into the respective Courts at Westminster and into the Tower of London to be kept and preserved for ever among the Records of the said Courts and the Records of the Tower to be alsoe produced and shewed forth in any Court as need shall require which said Bookes soe to be exemplified under the Great Seale of England shall be examined by such persons as the Kings Majestie shall appoint under the Great Seale of England for that purpose and shall be compared with the Originall Booke hereunto annexed and shall have power to correct and amend in writing any Error committed by the Printer in the printing of the same Booke ...'