Court of Common Pleas: Articles of Clerkship and Affidavits of Execution

CP 5

1713-1837

Original articles of clerkship, affidavits of the execution of the articles, affidavits of the payment of stamp duty, and fiats for admission to practise in the Court of Common Pleas, under the Attorneys and Solicitors Act of 1728.

The articles of clerkship provide the names and places of residence of the trainee attorney or solicitor, his parent or guardian, and the attorney to whom he was articled. They also supply the parent's occupation, and sometimes the premium paid for the articles. Some documents are endorsed with the name of the judge who authorised admission.

The original arrangement of the documents in this series cannot easily be reconstructed. Documents then said to have a date range of 1730 to 1819 were transferred to the Public Record Office at Carlton Ride in 1841 and arranged in 255 bundles. Twelve boxes of bundles, dated 1730 to 1829, were moved from Carlton Ride to the newly constructed repository in Chancery Lane in 1857. In the next two years thirty four parcels, covering 1830 to 1837, and sixty-eight bundles, dated 1800 to 1838, were also moved from Carlton Ride to Chancery Lane. It seems that the sixty-eight bundles were 'incorporated' into the 'main series' in 1860. In 1908 the series comprised fourteen pieces. Pieces 1 to 12 were dated from 1730 to 1829, and must therefore have been made up of the twelve boxes moved to Chancery Lane in 1857. Pieces 13 to 14 were dated 1830 to 1838 and must have been formed from the documents moved in 1858 and 1859. By 1923 the personal name index had been compiled, and the documents were arranged in 251 bundles. It is highly likely that the compilation of the personal name index resulted in the extensive physical rearrangement of the documents

Public Record(s)

English

251 bundle(s)

Topics

Litigation

Taxation