Chancery and Lord Chancellor's Office: Crown Office: Draft Letters Patent

C 197

c1558-1912

Draft letters patent prepared by the clerk of the Crown in Chancery.

The series also includes some original warrants signed by Queen Victoria, a few original letters patent, and a number of draft and original surrenders of office. The vast majority of the drafts date from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

There are a number of draft patents for licences. These include licences in mortmain, licences for theatres, for markets, for the enclosure of highways and roads, and for Trinity House to receive tolls for lighthouses.

Public Record(s)

English

39 bundle(s)

Topics

Road Transport

Conveyancing

Trade and commerce

The preparation of letters patent was undertaken in a number of different Chancery offices, although the bulk of them were drawn up in the Crown Office.

The clerk of the Crown prepared all patents of honour on the creation of a peerage, or on the creation of baronets and knights bachelor by patent. Many of the principal officers of state had letters patent of appointment made out by the clerk of the Crown; so too did most of the legal officers, both domestic and colonial.

Commissions were drawn up in the Crown Office, including commissions constituting public boards such as the Treasury, Admiralty, Customs and Excise. The clerk of the Crown also made out the commissions for dissolving or proroguing Parliament, and engrossed proclamations sent from the Privy Council for holding Parliament, or for any other purpose.

Letters patent for domestic and colonial episcopal appointments were prepared in the Crown Office. Patents for colonial and Channel Islands governorships were made there too. The clerk of the Crown also made out pardons for murder, homicide and felony.