Activities Record Commission



extract patent roll 3 john (1201–2), published record commission in 1835 using record type


the first commission established on 19 july 1800, on recommendation of select committee appointed earlier in year, on initiative , under chairmanship of charles abbot, mp helston, inquire state of public records of kingdom . public records @ time housed in variety of repositories, including tower of london, chapter house of westminster abbey, pell office adjacent westminster hall, somerset house, , elsewhere, in disorganised state , in highly unsuitable physical conditions. idea of single central repository mooted 1800, , became subject of abortive parliamentary bill in 1833, years before achieved: in meantime, commissioners arranged various moves of individual classes of records new accommodation. these moves well-intentioned , led improvements in storage , arrangement, more resulted in loss , further disorganisation of records.


the commission (in particular sixth commission, sat 1831 1837) gained reputation inactivity, corruption, jobbery, , including among members many persons in high office other demands on time. of these criticisms came external observers, such sir harris nicolas; others made commission s own salaried employees, notably henry cole, , lesser extent thomas duffus hardy. parliamentary committee, appointed inquire work, reported in 1836 national archives remained scattered in number of unsuitable locations, , in custody of multitude of imperfectly responsible keepers . out of these controversies emerged public record office act 1838, established public record office in same year.


the commissioners second objective make records more accessible through compilation of finding aids (indexes , calendars), , possible publication of these, publication of full texts of selected records of particular importance. sixth commission employed 4 sub-commissioners (joseph hunter, francis palgrave, joseph stevenson, , time john caley), other ad hoc editors , number of clerks, on task of editing records publication. of commission s publications used record type typeface, designed present text in near-facsimile of manuscript originals. publications programme considered success, , many of commission s editions remain in current scholarly use. in other cases, however, absence of permanent arrangement records rapidly rendered compilation of finding aids efforts redundant.








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