Registrar of the High Court of Delegates, and Registrar of Ecclesiastical and Admiralty...

DEL 6

1650-1838

Assignation books of the High Court of Delegates.

The surviving assignation books run in a complete sequence from 1650 to 1838. They are notes of proceedings both in court and in chambers and give the names of parties, their proctors, dates of appearance, details of the case and some final judgments.

The assignation books fall into two groups. DEL 6/1-25 (1650-1691) are clearly rough drafts of the act books (DEL 4). They are unindexed and very difficult to read, being compiled at speed while the court was sitting. DEL 6/26 is the first volume to be indexed and although its successor is not, from DEL 6/28 onwards (1696-1838) all the volumes have indexes and it is clear that they are being used as the formal record of proceedings; the writing is clearer and the entries fuller and by this point the act books (DEL 4) have ceased to be kept. DEL 6/26-27 (1691-1696) may represent a transitional period.

The assignation books are laid out in much the same way as the act books, each entry beginning with the names of the parties and their proctors and a note of the business assigned. Following this is an account of the business as transacted.

For later Assignation Books see PCAP 2

Public Record(s)

English

57 volume(s)

Topics

Litigation

Religions

Navy

Armed Forces (General Administration)

The majority of the records which now form the series DEL 1 to DEL 8 were transferred to the Public Record Office at various dates between 1863 and 1923. They came from the registry of the High Court of Admiralty and its successor, the Admiralty registry of the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court. Duncan states that two volumes were missing from the sequence he consulted when writing his book. These volumes (DEL 6/34B, DEL 6/57) are now with the series; they were presumably added after 1970 but their provenance is unknown.