Public Record Office

“ Each Act is on a separate Roll numbered; and Reference is made to them from a Calendar kept of the Acts of each Session in the Parliament Office. These are the Materials from which the Clerk of the Parliaments makes up the Inrollments of Public Acts sent by him into Chancery, and preserved there; or certifies Acts into Chancery, when required so to do. [18]
As to the comparative Authority of the Original Acts and the Inrollments in Chancery, it is to be observed, that all the Original Acts are separate from each other ”

“ Whereas the Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, and Commissioners of Shires and Boroughs in Our Parliament of Great Britain assembled, having taken into their Consideration the State of the Public Records of this Kingdom, and the necessity of providing for the better arrangement, preservation, and more convenient use of the same, have heretofore humbly laid before Us a Report of their Proceedings thereon, and also humbly represented unto Us that the Public Records of the Kingdom are in many Offices unarranged, undescribed, unascertained ”

“ A central office, in which papers from all departments of the Government are lodged after they have passed out of current use, examined, classified, and filed by a staff familiar with their contents, need only be brought into use to become indispensably serviceable in the carrying on of public business; but in addition, the archivist, knowing the contents of the documents in his custody, is able to direct and help in a manner that can not otherwise be done, that portion of the public interested in the information contained in the Government archives. ”

“ Upon the conclusion of a President's term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President. The Archivist shall have an affirmative duty to make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely as possible consistent with the provisions of this Act. ”

“ If so, he will know.”
“He” was a haven, for his office was labelled [50] Satisfaction—and he was satisfactory. After a fourth explanation of my desires, he answered me with the elaborately patient and compassionate politeness usually employed by men in business and public offices to a woman’s apparently useless inquiries. He said gently: “Only deeds and transfers are here in the Hall of Records; those records you wish to see are all in the County Clerk’s office, over there.” ”

“ That the Parliament Office is the proper Repository for the Original Acts passed in this Realm; and that Transcripts of the said Acts, certified in due Form, ought to be in the Rolls Office, there to remain of Record. ”

“ As keeper of the rolls he gained the name of the 'father of record reform.' It was through his unremitting perseverance that the government at last consented to provide an adequate repository for the national records. In the House of Lords he abstained from party controversy as being inconsistent with is judicial office, and devoted his time there to the prosecution of legal reforms. ”

“ With all our craze for accumulating files we do not record many telephone conversations. You must be the judge as to whether a record for your office is necessary, and in such exceptional cases state your wishes at the time. ”

“ Federal record includes all books, papers, maps, photographs, machine-readable materials, or other documentary materials, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by an agency of the United States Government under Federal law or in connection with the transaction of public business and preserved or appropriate for preservation by that agency or its legitimate successor as evidence of the organization, functions, policies, decisions, procedures, operations, or other activities of the Government or because of the informational value of data in them. ”

“ On the filing of such notice with such clerk or register, it shall be the duty of such clerk or register to record same in the books used for recording deeds in the office of such clerk or register and to index the name of the person or persons to whom such notice is directed as a grantor in an index book to be kept by such clerk or register ”

“ He will set down which Statutes are warranted by the Record, and which not. He will correct the printed Book by the Record. For which Purpose he requireth free Access at all Times to the Records in the Tower. Being very aged, viz. almost Fourscore, he desireth that for his Ease and better enabling in his Work, the Keeper of the Records within the Tower of London may every Day deliver unto him, when he shall so require, One Parliament Roll, to be by him and his Clerk perused and viewed, in a Lodging which he hath taken near unto the said Office ”

“ Every document does not contain truth, yet even such a document may, in effect, be a fact in history, and training and experience lead to a reasonably true interpretation.
The Ontario Bureau of Archives, organized in 1903, is equally related and attached to all the Government departments, and receives all papers and documents of record value or of historical interest, not in current use, from all branches of the public service. When possible, these documents are classified, calendared, and indexed. ”

“ The publications of the Record Office are of three kinds: reports, lists and indexes, and calendars. The reports are the annual reports of the Deputy Keeper, and now deal merely with the administrative work of the office; up to 1889 they also contained, in the form of appendices, inventories and detailed descriptions of various classes of records. In the present article these reports are referred to by number. The lists and indexes are either inventories of special classes with more or less detail, or indexes to the contents of certain documents grouped for that purpose ”

“ And if Parliament has thought it an object worthy of national wisdom to print the original Domesday Book at the expense of the public, which relates only to one simple period of time, it is scarcely to be imagined that the generous good sense for which our County has been remarkable, would be inattentive to the public preservation of this invaluable record; which faithfully registers the succession, not only of their property, but of their progenitors for such a length of centuries. ”

“ In the treasury department there is an elaborate system of filing for all current appointments, but those which are obsolete are relegated to the cellar; all matter relating to appointments in this department previous to the twenties was destroyed by fire. The state department has preserved its records from the foundation of the government, and has them all on file for reference. Mr. Gaillard Hunt made use of this material in writing his articles on office-seeking, and he has also prepared a calendar of all the material for the administration of Washington. ”

“ VI. “At the End of every Session of Parliament, all the Public Acts are ingrossed into one great Roll by Bowyer, as Clerk of the Parliament; and the same Roll, being by him subscribed, he delivereth into the Chapel of the Rolls; which is thereupon there received, and placed among the Records of the Chancery, being the highest Record of the Kingdom, without any other Warrant than his Hand: Which Acts or Statutes so by him transcribed, do bind his Majesty’s Subjects of all Degrees for ever. ”

“ Local archives administrations at or above the county level shall be in charge of the archival work within their administrative regions and exercise supervision and guidance over the archival work of state organs, groups, enterprises, public institutions, and other organizations within the said regions.
The people's governments of townships and towns shall designate personnel to manage their archives and to supervise and guide the archival work of the affiliated entities, community-level self-governance organizations, and other institutions subject to their administration. ”

“ As with all nineteenth-century history, the extent, the variety, and the intricacy of the various sources are simply overwhelming. The number of official records—Statutes, Orders, Circulars, Minutes, Reports, Letters, etc.—dealt with for the present small volume (although we have confined ourselves in the main to the publications of the Central Authority itself, and have not been able to consult the manuscript records and letter-books of more than a score of the Boards of Guardians) runs into, literally, tens of thousands. ”

“ Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That, as soon as said commission shall be executed and completed, the records, documents, and all other papers in the possession of the commission or its officers, shall be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State. ”

“ The term `Presidential records ́ means documentary materials, or any reasonably segregable portion thereof, created or received by the President, his immediate staff, or a unit or individual of the Executive Office of the President whose function is to advise and assist the President, in the course of conducting activities which relate to or have an effect upon the carrying out of the constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties of the President. ”

“ The first care, therefore, of the custodian of records should be to preserve this connexion, where it exists. In the majority of countries a previous task awaits him; it has been his duty to collect and arrange his documents. There are few countries in which records have not passed through a period of neglect; each office of state has kept or rather neglected its own papers; each court of justice has been the keeper of its own records; the student has been paralysed by a multitude of repositories among which he vainly sought the documents he required. ”

“ The History of England since the Conquest runs parallel with the History of England's Records. You cannot thoroughly understand either without knowing something of the other.
Statutory definition of the Public Records. I will first of all give you the statutory definition of Public: 'They shall be taken to mean all rolls, records, writs, books, proceedings, decrees, warrants, accounts, papers, and documents whatsoever of a public nature belonging to His Majesty'. ”

“ We drafted a memorial, and the Council and the House of Representatives signed it, and we sent to them the names of men of our own choice—as many as from five to eight men for each office—men from our own midst, out of whom to appoint officers for this Territory. ”

“ All Federal agencies coming within the purview of the Federal Register Act are requested to cooperate with the Division of the Federal Register, the National Archives, in carrying out the purposes of this order. ”

“ Books and Manuscripts not of Record, containing Entries or Copies of Statutes, are very numerous. In the Court of Exchequer at Westminster are Three Books, marked IX. X. XI. Book X. contains many of the earlier Statutes previous to Edw. III: Books IX. XI. contain the Statutes from 1 Edw. III. to 7 Hen. VIII.
In the Town Clerk’s Office, at the Guildhall of the City of London, are several Manuscript Volumes ”

“ A book should be kept in every office, in which should be entered the name and age of each Clerk or other officer, at the time of his appointment, the dates of his examination, first appointment, and subsequent promotions, together with notes of all the reports made upon him from time to time, either on the occasions afforded by the occurrence of vacancies, or at other times, in consequence of some special instance either of good or ill behaviour. ”

“ I propose to make a beginning by putting two capable men and a boy in an office, with instructions to cut out, preserve, and verify all contemporary records in the daily and weekly press that have a bearing upon any branch of our departments. ”

“ As with all narratives pieced together out of fragmentary records, care must be taken not to lay too much stress on merely negative evidence with regard to any particular point. The two chief sources of information are the Register of the Privy Council, which contains minutes of letters written to the City Corporation or the Justices of Middlesex and Surrey and of other action taken by the Council with regard to plays, and the City Remembrancia, a book containing copies of letters passing between the Corporation and the Council or other persons of importance. ”

“ No.” Such statements as aforesaid shall contain a caption, stating the day on which, and the number of the district, the town or ward, and the county at which the election was held, and at the end thereof a certificate that such statement is correct in all respects, which certificate shall be subscribed by all the inspectors, and a true copy of such statement shall be immediately filed by them in the office of the clerk of the town or city. ”

“ The municipal clerk is the oldest of public servants and a critical part of efficient and responsive local government. The accurate recording, careful safeguarding, and prompt retrieval of public records are vital functions, without which effective local government could not exist. ”

“ Agency heads may conduct internal systematic review programs for classified information originated by their agencies contained in records determined by the Archivist to be permanently valuable but that have not been accessioned into the National Archives of the United States. ”