RECORDS 



601 



calendars, covering a large portion of the field, 

 have now been published. 



The activity of the authorities of the Public 

 Record Office has, however, not been confined to 

 the records stored in Fetter Lane, for since 1858 

 the Master of the Rolls has issued, under the 

 authority of the Treasury, more than 200 volumes 

 of the series known as Chronicles and Memorials 

 of Great Britain and Ireland. These are carefully 

 edited texts of the ancient chroniclers, such as 

 William of Malinesbnry, Gervase of Canterbury, 

 William of Xewburgh, and Matthew Paris, collated 

 with MSS. in English and continental libraries, 

 and prepared by specially selected editors. 



The Historical Manuscripts Commission, though 

 not in name a department of the Record Office, is 

 in reality closely connected witli it. In answer to 

 requests from this body, private libraries and 

 muniment rooms all over England, Ireland, and 

 Scotland have, almost without exception, been 

 thrown open to authorised inspectors, who have 

 reported on their principal MS. contents. Since 

 1870 many volumes of reports on these collections 

 have been published, embodying transcripts of 

 documents of special interest, and giving brief 

 abstracts of a host of others. 



The Literary Search Room at the Public Record 

 Ollice is open from 10 to 4 every day, except 

 Saturday, when it closes at 2 o'clock, and a few 

 public holidays, when the office is shut up. Any 

 resiiectable person may, on entering his name and 

 address in a book kept in the lobby, attend and 

 consult almost any document he may desire to see. 

 A few of course are subject to special reservation. 



.Scotland. The public records of Scotland were 

 undoubtedly numerous and multifarious as early as 

 1282, as appears from an inventory of mnniments 

 examined in that year by the order of Alexander 

 III,; and another inventory of Scottish rolls and 

 writs was compiled at the command of Edward I. 

 of England in 1291. Few, if any, of the docu- 

 ments mentioned in these lists are now known to 

 exist. In 1651 the records of the Scottish parlia- 

 ments and courts of justice were removed by Crom- 

 well to the Tower of London. The more ini|Mirtant 

 of these, to the number of 1609 volumes, were 

 restored in 1657, and the remainder, after the 

 restoration of Charles II., were packed in eighty- 

 live hogsheads and shipped on board a frigate for 

 Scotland ; but in a violent storm they were trans- 

 ferred to a smaller vessel, which went down with 

 its precious cargo. The control of the records has 

 from very early times been entrusted to the Clerk 

 of the Rolls and Registers, or Lord Clerk Register/ 

 one of the high officers of state, who had a seat 

 in the Scottish parliament, and to whom, and his 

 deputies and other officers appointed by him, it 

 was assigned to superintend both the formation 

 and custody of the public records. These were at 

 first in the inconvenient form of rolls, but in the 

 reign of David II. the practice was introduced of 

 writing them in books. By an act of 1463 the 

 king's rolls and registers were appointed to be put 

 in Dooks ; but tiie accounts in the Exchequer 

 continued, nevertheless, to be kept in rolls till the 

 passing of another act in 1672, appointing them to 

 lie written in liooks. Originally the records were 

 kept in the Castle of Edinburgh, but in later 

 times they were deposited under care of the Clerk 

 ICfgister, in the Laigli Parliament House, now 

 part of the Advocates' Library ; and shortly before 

 the Union the whole records were transferred to 

 that depository, where they continued till the 

 erection of the large building called the General 

 Register House ( 1787). The Register House serves 

 the purpose of preserving and making available the 

 national muniments, as well as accommodating the 

 whole otlices nl record connected with the supreme 



court. The Lord Clerk Register and his depute 

 have now merely the custody of the records, their 

 preparation being entrusted to another class of 

 officers. 



Under the Scottish records are included the Acts 

 of Parliament and of Privy -council, and the records 

 of the supreme courts of justice ; also the records 

 of the Great Seal, Privy Seal, and Signet. An 

 important class of records are the Setours of Services. 

 A service is by the law of Scotland, in cases of 

 intestacy, necessary to transmit a right to real 

 property to the heir from his ancestor. At present 

 this service consists of the decision of the sheriff 

 of the county or the sheriff of Chancery ; but the 

 form in use till 1847 was by retour, a writing which 

 contained the verdict of a jury returned in answer 

 to a brieve from Chancery for finding the heir at 

 the death of his ancestor. The register of retours 

 contains services from 1545. 



The registers connected with the transmission of 

 heritable rights are even more important. After 

 several unsuccessful attempts to introduce a system 

 of registration, the Register of Sasines was estab- 

 lished by Act 1617, chap. 16. By the system then 

 introduced, since continued with modifications in 

 detail, all instruments requisite to the trans- 

 mission of real property must, in order to convert 

 mere personal right into real right, ! put on 

 record for publication. Besides the general register 

 in Edinburgh there were particular registers for the 

 various counties kept at their respective county 

 towns; but any instrument might be recorded either 

 in the particular or the general register. Volumes 

 were issued from the General Register House to 

 the local recorders of sasines, which, when filled, 

 were returned to the General Register House. 

 This arrangement was changed by the Lands 

 Registration Act of 1868, providing for the entire 

 discontinuance of the particular registers before 

 the last day of 1871, ana enacting that all writs of 

 this class lie thenceforth recorded in the general 

 register in Edinburgh, which register is so kept 

 that the writs applicable to each county are 

 recorded in separate series of volumes. By means 

 of the Register of Sasines any title to real pro- 

 perty can lie ascertained with certainty and pre- 

 cision, and may, if necessary, be traced back nearly 

 three centuries. It is also obligatory to record in 

 separate registers all instruments necessary for the 

 constitution, transmission, and extinction of volun- 

 tary encumbrances. See REGISTRATION. This 

 system, while confirming the credit of the proprietor, 

 also o]>erate8 in favour of the security of creditors. 

 There is a special Register of Entails, in which, 

 in terms of Act 1685, chap. 22, deeds of entail 

 must be recorded at the sight of the Court of 

 Session. There are also the records of the various 

 commissariats, which include testaments and other 

 relative documents. The object of registration in 

 all these cases is publication; but charters by 

 subjects, dispositions, bonds, contracts, and other 

 probative writs may, under Act 1698, chap. 4, be 

 recorded in the Register of Deeds for preservation. 

 A third object of registration is execution. Every 

 deed constituting a personal claim of debt, or an 

 obligation to perform some lawful prestation, if 

 intended to be made the subject of personal dili- 

 gence for payment or performance, must be regis- 

 tered previously to execution being issued on it. 

 Calendars of state papers relating to Scotland pre- 

 served in the English Record Office have been 

 recently published ; while the publication of the 

 Scottish records in the Register House has been 

 going on at intervals since 1811. These include 

 the Acts of Parliament, Register of the Great 

 Seal, Register of the Privy-council, Exchequer 

 Rolls, Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, and 

 other records. 



