Clerk of the Signet

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
  • John Depeden c.1420 [3]
  • Thomas Andrew c.1422
  • William Crosby 1437–1459 [3]
  • George Ashby c.1440 [3]
  • Robert Osbern c.1440 [3]
  • Nicholas Harpesfield c.1445
  • Edmund Blake c.1450 [3]
  • John Bowden 1452–1459 [3]
  • Richard Bell 1463–1474 [3]
  • William Robyns c.1470–c.1482[4]
  • Oliver King c.1473 [4]
  • John Wylde c.1475–c.1488 [4]
  • Edmund Gregory c.1479–c.1483 [4]

The history of these earlier Signets in the medieval period is not recorded by the table below.

DateOneTwoThreeFour
Early Modern to Later Modern Clerks of the Signet
1509Brian Tuke
1523Thomas DerbeyUnknownUnknownUnknown
1530Thomas Wriothesley
1532William Paget
bef. 1537John Godsalve
2 October 1539John Huttoft
14 April 1540Thomas Knight
1541Richard Taverner
bef. 1544William Honing
bef. 1545William Railton
1547/55Nicasius YetsweirtJohn Cliffe
30 October 1561John Somer
December 1569Sir Thomas Windebank
1578/89Sir John WoodCharles Yetsweirt
9 March 1589Sir Thomas Lake
23 December 1595Nicholas Faunt
24 October 1607Levinus Munck
1608Francis Gall
5 September 1610Francis Windebank
13 January 1616Robert Kirkham
27 May 1623Sir Humphrey May
9 June 1630John More
15 June 1632Sir Abraham Williams
1638Edward NorgatePhilip Warwick
1641/5Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet

Appointments were not made under the Commonwealth of England until 1655 as the republic did not recognise hereditary house of Lords, so peerages were not created.

  • 1655–1705:John Nicholas
  • 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.

DateOneTwoThreeFour
1660Sir Philip WarwickSir Thomas Windebanke, 1st BaronetWilliam TrumbullSir John Nicholas
bet. 1674–1678Sidney Bere
1678Nicholas Morice
15 January 1683Sir William Trumbull
1684John Gauntlett
9 February 1705William Cooke
25 August 1708Joseph Moyle
18 February 1716Hon. Peter Alexander
2 October 1716Gauntlet Fry
28 May 1728Charles Delafaye
Thomas Delafaye
13 November 1729Edward Weston
7 May 1736Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet
22 May 1746William Blair
1747Charles Delafaye
22 December 1762James Rivers
15 July 1770Montagu Wilkinson
16 April 1781John Tirel Morin
4 March 1782William Fraser
June 1797Eardley Wilmot
24 January 1801Sir Brook Taylor
11 December 1802William Harry Edward Bentinck
19 March 1807John Gage
30 October 1807Thomas Norton Powlett
26 February 1825Alexander Cockburn
8 May 1826Augustus Granville Stapleton
1831abolished
15 October 1846abolished
26 January 1847Charles Samuel Grey
7 August 1851Office abolished

References
  1. Andrews, Charles McLean (1912). Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783 v. 1. Carnegie Institution of Washington. pp. 268–273. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  2. "Lists of appointments". Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 2: Officials of the Secretaries of State 1660-1782 (1973). pp. 22–58. Retrieved 2008-08-30.
  3. Otway-Ruthven, J. The King's Secretary and the Signet Office in the XV Century.
  4. Otway-Ruthven, J. The King's Secretary and the Signet Office in the XV Century. p. 159.
Bibliography
  • J L Kirby (ed), Calendar of Signet Letters of Henry IV and Henry V (London 1978)
  • Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas (ed.), Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England (7 vols, 1834-37)
  • "Clerks of the Signet c.1539-1660". Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 2008-09-01.
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