Records of the Town Clerks, Chief Executives, and related departments of Bath City...

The town clerk was the most important officer of the council. Until the mid-nineteenth century he was elected by the councillors: a local lawyer, he was paid only a small honorarium, and continued his private practice alongside his work for the council. He did however claim fees for specific work, which enabled him to appoint a paid deputy and office clerks to carry out the wide range of duties required by the role: he was the official solicitor to the council, attended meetings of the council and of quarter and petty sessions, witnessed oath-taking, kept records, assisted the mayor sitting as coroner, and made journeys on council business, as well as a range of other duties.

The Municipal Corporations Act of 1835 provided that a salaried town clerk had to be appointed, ending the practice of fee-based payments, and also increased the responsibilities of the clerk. As the functions and responsibilities of the Council increased from the mid-nineteenth century, so the role of the clerk expanded, and more staff were employed in what became a 'clerk's department' to carry out the work. In the twentieth century, the prominence of the town clerk within the Council declined gradually, as the numbers of administrative staff increased and other officials were appointed to head departments which became semi-independent, with budgets agreed directly with the treasurer. The title 'Town Clerk' was superseded by 'Town Clerk and Chief Executive Officer' in 1967 and by 'Chief Executive' in 1974.

This description has been compiled with reference to the following printed sources, as well as from internal evidence from the records themselves:
Trevor Fawcett, 'Bath Administer'd', Bath, 2001
K B Smellie, 'A History of Local Government', London, 1968

The Records
Since the town clerk dealt with an extremely wide range of matters, the records in this sub-fonds are extensive and diverse. They include legal documents such as sealed orders, contracts and agreements; the papers of individual town clerks and chief executives; series of letter-books; legal cases in which the Council was involved; records relating to the clerk's regulatory duties; records relating to elections; and maps and plans held by the town clerk for reference purposes. However, some of the records which were created by or which were ultimately the responsibility of the town clerk have not been included in this sub-fonds. This has been done for a number of reasons:
-for major series, such as Council minutes, because it was felt more appropriate to separate them into a distinct sub-fonds;
-for certain series, because it was felt that it would be easier for potential users - for example some civil defence records created by the clerk, which have been catalogued with other civil defence records in sub-fonds 19;
-because responsibility for a particular function later passed to a different officer or department - for example leases and other property records, originally drawn up and kept by the clerk, but later dealt with by a separate department which are catalogued in sub-fonds 6 (records relating to property owned or administered by the Council).

System of Arrangement
The records are arranged as follows:

BC/3/1 Byelaws, sealing registers, sealed orders, contracts, agreements and related registers, matrixes
BC/3/2 Papers of early Town Clerks (up to about 1835). Early town clerks made no distinction between the records created in the course of their work for the council, and those created by their own legal practice. The records reflect this, and include both council and private-practice material.
BC/3/3 Papers of nineteenth and twentieth century town clerks and chief executives (personal and departmental). Includes Town Clerks' papers on special subjects, papers relating to city records, Policy Committee filing 1870s-1980s.
BC/3/4 Clerks' letter books
BC/3/5 Legal cases
BC/3/6 Town Clerk's regulatory duties - registration / licensing.
BC/3/7 Elections
BC/3/8 Town Clerk's map collection

The letter books (BC/3/4), the records relating to the Town Clerk's regulatory duties (BC/3/6), and part of the series of papers of the early Town Clerks (BC/3/2) have been catalogued in detail. The remaining records have not yet been catalogued in detail. Please contact the Record Office for more information.