- Clerk of the Signet
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The Clerks of the Signet were English officials who played an intermediate role in the passage of letters patent through the seals. For most of the history of the position, four clerks were in office simultaneously.
Letters patent prepared by the Clerk of the Patents were engrossed at the Patent Office and then sent by the Secretary of State to receive the royal sign-manual. The duty of the Clerks of the Signet was to compare the signed bills with a transcript prepared by the Clerk of the Patents, and then to rewrite the transcript as a bill of privy signet, which was returned to the Secretary of State to be signed with that instrument.[1]
By the end of the seventeenth centuries, many of the Clerks of the Signet performed their work through deputies, with the office itself becoming a sinecure. The Treasury was given the authority to reduce the number of clerkships in 1832, abolishing one in 1833 and another in 1846. The two remaining posts were done away with in 1851.[2]
List of Clerks of the Signet
- 1509–1523: Brian Tuke
Date One Two Three Four 1523 Thomas Derbye Unknown Unknown Unknown 1530 Thomas Wriothesley 1532 William Paget bef. 1537 John Godsalve 2 October 1539 John Huttoft 14 April 1540 Thomas Knight 1541 Richard Taverner bef. 1544 William Honing bef. 1545 William Railton 1547/55 Nicasius Yetsweirt John Cliffe 30 October 1561 John Somer December 1569 Sir Thomas Windebank 1578/89 Sir John Wood Charles Yetsweirt 9 March 1589 Sir Thomas Lake 23 December 1595 Nicholas Faunt 24 October 1607 Levinus Munck 1608 Francis Gall 5 September 1610 Francis Windebank 13 January 1616 Robert Kirkham 27 May 1623 Sir Humphrey May 9 June 1630 John More 15 June 1632 Sir Abraham Williams 1638 Edward Norgate Philip Warwick 1641/5 Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet Appointments were not made under the Commonwealth of England until 1655.
- 16 June 1655: James Nutley
- 20 March 1656: Samuel Morland
Appointments resumed upon the Restoration in 1660, including two of the former officeholders, Warwick and Windebanke.
Date One Two Three Four 1660 Sir Philip Warwick Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet William Trumbull Sir John Nicholas bet. 1674–1678 Sidney Bere 1678 Nicholas Morice 15 January 1683 Sir William Trumbull 1684 John Gauntlett 9 February 1705 William Cooke 25 August 1708 Joseph Moyle 18 February 1716 Hon. Peter Alexander 2 October 1716 Gauntlet Fry 28 May 1728 Charles Delafaye
Thomas Delafaye13 November 1729 Edward Weston 7 May 1736 Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet 22 May 1746 William Blair 1747 Charles Delafaye 22 December 1762 James Rivers 15 July 1770 Montagu Wilkinson 16 April 1781 John Tirel Morin 4 March 1782 William Fraser June 1797 Eardley Wilmot 24 January 1801 Sir Brook Taylor 11 December 1802 William Harry Edward Bentinck 19 March 1807 John Gage 30 October 1807 Thomas Norton Powlett 26 February 1825 Alexander Cockburn 8 May 1826 Augustus Granville Stapleton 1831 abolished 15 October 1846 abolished 26 January 1847 Charles Samuel Grey 7 August 1851 Office abolished References
- "Clerks of the Signet c.1539-1660". Institute of Historical Research. http://www.history.ac.uk/office/signet.html. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
- ^ Andrews, Charles McLean (1912). Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783 v. 1. Carnegie Institution of Washington. pp. 268–273. http://books.google.com/books?id=WhgPAAAAYAAJ. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
- ^ "Lists of appointments". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2: Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660-1782 (1973). pp. 22–58. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16620. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
Categories:- Civil service positions in the United Kingdom
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