RECORDER 



RKCORDS, PUr.l.Ii'. 



Ml 



proceedings re in the sheriffs court, lie IB ordered by the writ <.! 

 Becordari faclw loquelam to cause the plaint to be recorded by four 

 knights. And by a record of the 8th year of King John, we find that 

 a judgment of battle in the court of the archbishop of Canterbury 

 being vouched in the king'* courts, four knights were sent to inspect 

 the proceedings, who returned " quod recordati sunt' (' Placitorum 

 Abbreviatio,' 54.) The practice of certifying and recardix'j the cus- 

 tom of London by Ou mtmth of tke recorder, which is antecedent to 

 the charters granting or recognising the practice, appears to be refer- 

 rible to the same source. Where criminal or civil jurisdiction wad 

 erercUed by citizens or burgesses, it would add to the importance of 

 the court il its proceedings took place in the presence of an officer to 

 whose record the superior courts would give credit, either in respect 

 of his personal rank, as a peer or knight, or on account of his con- 

 nection with those courts, as a Serjeant or barriater-at-law. [8nu 



Since 1835 the duties of recorders in the cities and boroughs coming 

 within the operation of the Municipal Corporations Act (5 & 6 Will. 

 IV., c. 70), have been regulated by the provisions of that and of sub- 

 sequent statutes. The jurisdiction of the recorder in places of minor 

 importance will not require to be noticed. Nor do these acts affect 

 the city of London. 



I. The recorder of London is a judge baring criminal and civil 

 jurisdiction. He is also the adviser and the advocate of the corporation. 

 In respect of the duties performed by the recorder in the assemblies 

 of the corporation, in the courts of mayor and aldermen, of common 

 council, and of common hall, his office may be said to be ministerial. 

 He is by charter a justice of the peace within the city of London, and 

 i\ justice of oyer and terminer, and a justice of the peace, in the 

 borough of Southwark. 



The first charter of Edward IV. to the city of London grants that 

 the customs of the city be certified and recorded by word of mouth, 

 and that the mayor and aldermen of the city and their successors do 

 declare by the recorder whether the thing under dispute be a custom 



or not. 



The business of the mayor's court, in which the recorder ordinarily 

 presides alone, comprehends a court of equity. In the mayor's court 

 the recorder tries civil causes, both according to the ordinary course of 

 common law and the peculiar customs of the city. The amount for 

 which such actions may be brought is unlimited. 



All the duties of a justice of the peace, including those of chairman, 

 devolve upon the recorder at the quarter and other sessions held at 

 Guildhall for the city of London. At the twelve sessions which are 

 held yearly at the Old Bailey, the recorder acts as one of the judges 

 under her majesty's commission of oyer and terminer, and genera] 

 jail delivery. 



The annual salary of the recorder of London is SOOfM. Besides this 

 he has fees on all cases and briefs which come to him from the cor- 

 poration, and he is also allowed to continue his private practice. 



The recorder is elected by the court of aldermen, most commonly a1 

 a special court held for the purpose. Any alderman may put any 

 freeman of the city in nomination as a candidate for the office, but ar 

 actual contest seldom takes place. The recorder elect is admitted and 

 sworn in before the court of aldermen. The appointment is during 

 good behaviour, that is, in contemplation of law, for life. The re 

 corder has always been a serjeant-at-law or a barrister. The office has 

 been held by men of considerable eminence : of eleven persons who 

 filled the situation during the last century, one became lord chancellor 

 another, master of the rolls ; another, chief justice of the Common 

 Pleas ; and two, barons of the Exchequer. 



By an order made by the court of aldermen in the reign of Philip 

 and Mary, the recorder, common-Serjeant, and judge of the sheriff' 

 court, were directed to be chosen " from old and learned officers of the 

 city or out of the number of the six learned counsellors," that numbe 

 comprehending, in addition to the ordinary city counsel, the attorne; 

 and solicitor-general, who were always retained for the city. Fou 

 persons by whom the recordership of London has been held durin; 

 the present century, have previously filled the office of common 

 erjeant. [SERJEANT.] But no similar instance occurred during th 

 18th century. 



The recorder of London deriving his authority from charters, am 

 not being appointed by commission (except temporarily as include 

 with other judges in the commission of oyer and terminer, &c., at th 

 Old Bailey), he is not, like the judges of the superior courts, liable tc 

 dismissal by the crown upon an address by both Houses of Parliament 

 But all recorders may be removed for incapacity or misconduct by 

 proceeding at common law. 



Deputy recorders have, in some instances, been appointed by th 

 court of aldermen on the nomination of the recorder. (' Report o 

 Municipal Corporations.') 



II. In cities and boroughs within the Municipal Corporations Ac 

 the recorder (who must be a barrister of not less than five years' stam 

 ing) is a judicial officer appointed under the sign manual by the crow 

 during good behaviour, having criminal and civil jurisdiction with! 

 the city or borough, with precedence next to the mayor. He hole 

 once in every quarter of a year, or at such other and more frequen 

 time* as he shall in his discretion think fit, or as the crown nil II thin 

 fit to direct, a court of quarter-session of the peace, at which he sits at 

 tho sole judge, such court lieing a court of record, and having cogn 



sance of all crime*, offence*, and matters whatever i-.^ni-ab!,- by any 

 ourt of quarter-session of the peace for counties in England. 

 recorder has power to make or levy any rate in the nature of a county- 

 rate, or to grant licence to keep an alehouse or victualling-house, to 

 sell exciseable liquors, or to exercise any of the powers by that act 

 wcially vested in the town council. 



The civil jurisdiction of the recorders of boroughs U exercised in the 

 x>rough court, according to the charters or acts of parliament, if any, 

 hich regulate them. He may, however, delegate this duty to a judge 

 f the court. 



RECORDER, a musical instrument formerly in use; "a flageolet or 

 :i;ill English flute, the mouthpiece of which, at the upper extremity 

 : th.' instrument, resembled the beak of a bird ; hence the larger 

 utes so formed were called jula * bee. The recorder was soft in 

 one, and an octave higher than the flute. Milton speaks (' Par. Lost,' 



" The Dorian mood 

 Of flute* and t-fl rtcordtri." 



It would appear, from Bacon's 'Sylva Sylvarum.' cvnl. in., iil , th:it 

 Ilia instrument was larger in the lower than in tin- upper jrt : 

 wood-cut of the flageolet in Mersenne's ' Harmonif 1'niversi'lle,' 

 jo the same conclusion. On the etymology of the word much inge- 

 uitv has been bestowed, but without any satisfactory result." (Note 

 u ' Pict. Shaksp.,' Hamlet, Act iii., So. 2.) 



RECORDS, PUBLIC. Authentic memorials of all kinds, as well 



jublic as private, may be considered in one sense as records. Thus 



he Metopes of the Parthenon are indisputable records of Grecian art ; 



he journal stamp on a letter is a record that it has passed through 



he post-office ; a merchant's letter is a record of his business ; and 



every lord of a manor may keep written records of his courts, as the 



hancery, the exchequer, and other courts do of their proceeding-. 



Jut our present purpose is to give some general account of tin ; 



records, properly so called, understanding by the term the contents of 



ur Public Record Office. 



Records, in the legal sense of the term, are contempor.i; 

 satements of the proceedings in those higher courts of law which are 

 distinguished as courts of record, written upon rolls of parchment. 

 Britton, c. 27.) Matters enrolled amongst the proceedings of a 

 nit not connected with those proceedings, as deeds enrolled, &c., are 

 not records, though they are sometimes in a loose sense .-aid t.> ! 

 'things recorded." In a popular sense the term is applied to all 

 jublic documents preserved in a recognised repository ; and as such 

 locuments cannot conveniently be removed, or may be wanted in 

 several places at the same time, the courts of law receive in evidence 

 examined copies of the contents of public documents BO preferred, 

 as well as of real records. [COURTS ; RECORD ; RECORDER.] 



The course we propose to take, is to treat that as a record which i 

 thus received in the courts of justice. The act, for instance, which 

 abolished Henry VlII.'s court of augmentation (of the m 

 obtained from the suppression of the religious houses), declared that 

 its records, rolls, books, papers, and documents, should thenceforth be 

 lield to be records of the court of exchequer ; and accordingly we have 

 seen many a document, originally a mere private memorandum, 

 elevated to the dignity of a public record, on the sole ground of its 

 official custody, and received in evidence as a record of the Augmenta- 

 tion-office. On the other hand, numbers of documents which were 

 originally compiled as public records, having strayed from their legal 

 repository to the British Museum, have thereby lost their character of 

 authenticity. (' Proceedings of the Privy Council,' vol. v., p. 4, edited 

 by Sir Harris Nicolas.) 



"Our stores of public records," says Bishop Nicolson, and, we 

 believe, with perfect accuracy. " are justly reckoned to excel in age, 

 beauty, correctness, and authority, whatever the choicest archives 

 abroad can boast of the like sort." (Preface to the ' English Historical 

 Library.') 



By far the greater part of records are kept as rolls written on skins 

 of parchment and vellum, averaging from nine to fourteen inches wide.* 

 and about three feet in length. Two modes of fastening the skins or 

 membranes were employed, one, th.it of attaching all the tops of the 

 membranes together bookwise, which is employed in the exchequer and 

 courts of common law; the other, that of sewing each membrane 

 consecutively, which was adopted in the chancery and wardrobe. 



The solution of the reasons for employing two different modes has 

 been thought difficult by writers on the subject. It appears to have 

 been simply a matter of convenience in both cases. The difference in 

 the circumstances under which these rolls were formed, accounts for 

 the variation of make. In the first case, each inrolment was often 

 begun at one time and completed at another. Space for the completion 

 of the entry must have been left at hazard. Besides, several scribes were 

 certainly engaged in inrolling the proceedings of the courts, and the 

 roll was liable to be unbound, and to receive additional membranes 

 after it had once been made up. In the other case, the business of 

 the chancery being simply registration, the scribe could register the 

 documents before him, with certainty that nothing in future would 

 affect their length, and he was enabled to fill every membrane, and 

 perfect the roll as he proceeded. 



* The rolls of the Oront Warclrobo exceed ripbtof , inrlion in width. 



