Before the Public Record Office Act was passed in 1838, the records of British government and courts were held in an array of places and in various conditions. This Act was aimed at facilitating public access to these valuable documents, as well as keeping them safe from damage (the Houses of Parliament had burned down only four years earlier). The new office was to act as a non-ministerial department, to centralise safe-keeping of public records. Its headquarters was at Rolls House, on Chancery Lane in central London, and while the first Masters of the Rolls was Lord Langdale, the real responsibility lay with his deputy, Sir Francis Palgrave.
Although the first Act was passed in 1838, it was not until the 1850s that two important …
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Public Record Office established". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 August 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=4781, accessed 23 November 2024.]
