Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Town Clerk's Department pre 1835

Y/C

Great Yarmouth Borough Council, Town Clerk's Department pre 1835

1244-1947

1 ARCHIVE LISTS

2 ROYAL CHARTERS AND GRANTS

3 PIRACY COMMISSION

BOROUGH COURT -

4 court rolls

5 court books

6 waste court books

7. court books post 1841

8. court files and miscellaneous

BOROUGH SESSIONS -

9. waste sessions books

10. licensed victuallers' recognizance rolls

11. sessions estreats

12. sessions miscellaneous

13. CORONERS ROLL

14. LEET

15. QUEST OF LIBERTIES

16. ADMIRALTY COURT

17. DEED ROLLS

18. MEMORANDUM AND ENROLMENT BOOKS

ASSEMBLY -

19. assembly books and files

20. assembly committee books

21. 'breeds' (records of Assembly attendances)

22. FREEMEN AND APPRENTICES

23. PIX ROLLS

24. MURAGE RECEIPT ROLLS

25. CHAMBERLAINS' DOORS

26. LOCAL CUSTOMS ACCOUNTS

27. AUDIT BOOKS

28. HAVEN ACCOUNTS

29. RENTALS

30. CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL RENTALS

CORPORATE ESTATE -

31. title deeds

32. leasehold

33. EXCHEQUER QUITTANCES

34. FORMAL DOCUMENTS (not title deeds)

35. SETTLEMENT BONDS

36. CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS

37. MAPS AND PLANS

38. MISCELLANEOUS

CIVIL PARISH -

39. churchwardens' accounts

40. vestry

41. overseers' accounts

42. church rate books

43. highway rate books

44. watch rate books

English

45 series

Records received by Norfolk Record Office on unknown dates

PRELIMINARY NOTE

From the 16th century to 1638 the principal repository for the town's archives was one of the vestries in the parish church. In 1638 they were transferred to a room under the Guildhall, which stood in the churchyard, and there they remained until the Guildhall was demolished in 1850. By the mid 18th cent. a subsidiary store had been established above the Town Clerk's office, which was by this time attached to the Town Hall

Until 1835 the archives were under the surveillance of a committee known from its association with the great chest or hutch as the Hutch Committee. This committee was responsible for the reception of documents coming into the archives, for locating and issuing documents needed for current business, for replacing such documents, and for sealing. Its own record survives from 1591 (see C20/1). As an extension of its usual activities under the direction of Henry Manship, a former Town Clerk and the first major histories of the borough, a reporte which embodies the oldest surviving list of the archives was compiled in 1612 (C1/1)

The demolition of the Guildhall in 1850 drew the attention of the Borough Council to the archives. A Record Committee was then set up, a fire-proof muniment room was established in the Town Hall, and a lawyer and antiquary, Henry Harrod, was engaged in 1853 to list and arrange the documents. His Repertory was published two years later, and he continued to be called in to make searches and to advise on archive problems during the next decade

The archives were moved into a strongroom in the new Town Hall on its completion in 1882, and they were listed by John Cordy Jeaffreson for the Historical Manuscripts Commission while they were awaiting transfer. In 1898 a local man, Frederick Johnson, was engaged to put the documents in order. Two copies of Harrod's Repertory with his annotations survive. In 1961 when work on the archives began again most of the documents were found to bear either his labels or Harrod's

It is clear from Harrod's Repertory and the Historical Manuscripts Commission Report that losses since 1855 have been comparatively few. It can equally clearly be deduced from Manship's reports and the Hutch Books that losses before 1855 were heavy. It is known that many documents found their way into the collection of Dawson Turner before 1835, only some of which were recovered after his death, and it seems likely that, as well as to normal hazards, other losses may be attributed to prowling antiquaries of the 18th and early 19th centuries

This list covers such of the archives of Great Yarmouth Corporation as are preserved in the Town Clerk's Department and are of date before 1835. In certain cases (C 1, 2, 7, 8, 16, 21, 22, 26, 29) where no break occurs following the passing of the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 the list is extended to cover the whole series

The following works are quoted in the list by brief titles -

Harrod (H.Harrod), Repertory of deeds and documents relating to the Borough of Great Yarmouth (Yarmouth 1855)

H.M.C. Historical Manuscripts Commission, 9th Report, part I (1883), appendix pp. 299-324

Swinden H.Swinden, History and Antiquities of Great Yarmouth (Yarmouth 1772)

Manship H.Manship, History of Great Yarmouth 1619 (ed. C.J.Palmer, Yarmouth 1854)