The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was a civil servant within the Irish Chancery in the Dublin Castle administration. His duties corresponded to the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Clerk of the Hanaper in the English Chancery.[1] Latterly, the office's most important functions were to issue writs of election to the Westminster Parliament, both for the House of Commons and for Irish representative peers in the House of Lords.

Functions

In 1859 commissioners investigating the Irish Chancery described the duties of the office thus:[2]

The office of the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in Chancery is regulated by the Act of 6 and 7 Wm. IV., cap. 74, which provides that the office shall consist of the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper, and two clerks to be appointed by him.

The duties of the office are threefold:—first, those connected with the petty-bag or law side of the Court; secondly, preparing and issuing certain writs specified in the schedule to the Act of 4 Geo. IV., cap. 61; and thirdly, swearing gentlemen into office before the Lord Chancellor.

The business of the petty-bag or law side of the Court is confined to proceedings to enforce the performance of a recognizance entered into in the Court, and to proceedings in cases of debt against officers of the Court, there being an antiquated privilege appertaining to officers of the Court of Chancery, that they are not amenable in cases of debt to the ordinary tribunals of the country, but must be sued in their own Court.

Prior to the acts, enumerated thus in 1817 by commissioners into legal costs:[3]

Until 1836, the Clerk was appointed by letters patent, and could himself appoint a deputy.[4] There were no statutory qualifications required for the post.[5]

In 1868 the Public Record Office of Ireland catalogued the older records it archived from the Hanaper office thus:[6]

  1. Writs of Election and Returns of Members of Parliament.
  2. Writs and Returns electing Temporal Peers
  3. Commissions of Lunacy, Idiocy, &c, and Returns.
  4. Writs of Ad quod Damnum.
  5. Commissions of Inquiry, and Inquisitions thereunder.
  6. Writs to elect Coroners, and Returns.
  7. Significavit and Warrants for Writs of Excommunicate Capiendo
  8. Apostles and Warrants for Commissions of Delegates
  9. Dedimuses to swear in Justices of the Peace, and a number of Six Clerk dockets
  10. Fiants
  11. Proclamations and Warrants for sealing them.
  12. Commissions of Valuation.
  13. Warrants for Pardons
  14. Commissions to examine Witnesses before Lords Deputy and Council
  15. Writs of Ease.
  16. Sheriffs' Patents.
  17. Warrants for superseding Magistrates.
  18. Warrants of Appointment to the office of Custos Rotulorum.
  19. Warrants appointing Masters Extraordinary.
  20. Commissions of Array.
  21. Commissions of Perambulation relating to ecclesiastical matters.
  22. Commissions of Assize and Association.
  23. Writs of Summons to Parliament (Irish)
  24. Rolls of Allegiance
  25. Roll of Oaths of Roman Catholic and Assistant Barristers
  26. Writs of Scire Facias.

A mandate from Edward IV enumerates "that the Clerc of the Hanapier continuelly receive the fees of the sele of writts, comisssions, and patents, and also all suche fynes as shall be made in the Chaunsery, and thereupon pay the Chaunsellor his fees, wages and rewardes accustomed, and deliver the remnant unto the Kyng's Ex[checquer]. upon his accomptes, which he shall make yerly therof".[7] It also mandates the clerk to appoint deputies in the King's Bench and Common Pleas to collect the fees and fines from those courts.[7]

History

James Roderick O'Flanagan states:[8]

The office of Clerk of the Hanaper is of old date in Ireland. In this office the writs relating to the suits of the subject, and the return thereon, were anciently kept in hanaperio, a hamper; while those relating to the crown were placed in parva baga, a little bag; whereon arose the names Hanaper and Petty Bag Offices.

The offices of Clerk of the Hanaper and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery were originally separate but came to be held by the same person in the seventeenth century and were later formally merged.[9] From 1888 the holder was ex officio secretary to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.[9]

In the early centuries, the Clerk was often a qualified lawyer. He might reasonably hope for promotion to the office of Attorney-General for Ireland, or to the Bench. At least five Clerks in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries achieved judicial office, or the Attorney-Generalship. The office was an onerous one: in 1427 Stephen Roche, later Attorney-General, petitioned the Privy Council complaining of the great labours he had endured in the King's business, without reward "to his great impoverishment". The Council granted his petition and awarded him 10 marks.

Abuses

In 1789, the Attorney-General for Ireland told the Irish House of Commons that it had "been a matter of necessity to purchase home the office of Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper to the court of Chancery; the person who had held that employment had been for twenty years an absentee, during which time the business had been done in such an irregular and slovenly manner, that a reform was indispensable".[10] The 1817 commissioners noted disapprovingly that the appointed Clerk was paid £1800 annually by a deputy who in return kept all the fees chargeable by the office.[3] They recommended that the Clerk should be paid a fixed salary and required to execute the office in person rather than by deputy;[3] this was mandated by the Court of Chancery (Ireland) Acts of 1823 and 1836.[11] The 1836 act formally abolished the existing patented office (compensating the holder) and established a replacement office on a statutory basis so that it could be subject to regulation.[4] The 1859 commissioners recommended that the office be abolished, its few functions transferred elsewhere in Chancery, and the prolix form of its documents be simplified to reduce the cost of scriveners.[2]

Abolition

The last Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was Gerald Horan, K.C. (1880–1949),[12] who issued the writs for the June 1921 Stormont election[13] and June 1922 Free State provisional parliament election,[14] and a royal charter in September 1922 to the Law Society of Northern Ireland.[15] His office was one of the parts of the Dublin Castle administration which had not been transferred to the Provisional Government by 27 September 1922.[16][17]

In the Irish Free State, the offices of Chancery and Hanaper were presumed not to have survived the coming into force of the Free State Constitution on 6 December 1922.[1] Writs for the 1923 Free State election were issued by the clerk of the Dáil.[18][19] The office's residual statutory election functions were formally transferred to the Department of Local Government and Public Health when that was established under the Ministers and Secretaries Act 1924.[20] The office was implicitly abolished by the Court Officers Act 1926.[9][21]

In Northern Ireland, The Speaker of the House of Commons of Northern Ireland in March 1923 refused to allow the moving of a by-election writ because there was no official appointed to do so.[22] An order in council of 12 August 1924 transferred the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper's election functions in Northern Ireland to the Clerk of the Crown for Northern Ireland.[23]

List

Clerks of the Hanaper

Clerks of the Crown

  • 1414–43 Thomas Brown[26]
  • 1443–60 Hugh Wogan[26]
  • 1553: Nicholas Stanyhurst

Clerks of the Crown and Hanaper

References

Sources

  • Commissioners appointed to inquire into the duties of the officers and clerks of the Court of Chancery in Ireland (1859). Report. Sessional papers. Vol. (12) 2473. Dublin: Alexander Thom.
  • "Court of Chancery (Ireland) Act, 1823 (4 George IV c.61)". The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 4 George IV. 1824. pp. 205–232. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  • "Court of Chancery (Ireland) Act, 1836 (6 & 7 William IV c.74)". The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. 14. George Eyre and Andrew Strahan. 1838. pp. 191–198.
  • Foster, Joseph (1883). The peerage, baronetage, and knightage of the British Empire. Vol. 2. Westminster: Nichols.
  • Matthew, E. A. E. (1994). The governing of the Lancastrian lordship of Ireland in the time of James Butler, fourth Earl of Ormond c.1420-1452 (PDF). E-Theses. Durham University.
  • O'Connell, Maurice R. (1974). The correspondence of Daniel O'Connell. Vol. 3, 1824–1828. Irish University Press for the Irish Manuscripts Commission. ISBN 978-0716502043.
  • Otway-Ruthven, A.J. (2008). "The medieval Irish chancery". In Crooks, Peter (ed.). Government, War and Society in Medieval Ireland. Four Courts Press. pp. 106–120. ISBN 9781846821059.

Citations

  1. 1 2 Gardiner, Baron Gardiner, Gerald (3 February 1966). "PETITION: REPRESENTATION OF IRISH PEERS". HL Deb. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). vol 272 col.573. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 Chancery Commission 1859, pp.6–7
  3. 1 2 3 Commissioners of Inquiry into Courts of Justice in Ireland (1817). "Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper". First report (Chancery) with appendix. Sessional papers. Vol. 10 9. pp. 89–96. Retrieved 10 September 2016.; Commissioners of Inquiry into Courts of Justice in Ireland (1818). "Clerk of Crown and Hanaper". Fourth report (Offices). Sessional papers. Vol. 10 140. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  4. 1 2 Court of Chancery (Ireland) Act 1836, §§ 1–3
  5. ↑ Corbett, Thomas Lorimer (17 April 1907). "Irish Chancery Court Appointments—Professional Qualifications". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). HC Deb vol 172 cc946–7. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  6. ↑ Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland (12 February 1869). First Report. pp. 63–64.
  7. 1 2 "Close Roll 19 Edward IV ; No.8". CIRCLE. 1479–80. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  8. ↑ O'Flanagan, James Roderick (1870). The Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of Ireland: From the Earliest Times to the Reign of Queen Victoria. Longmans, Green, and Company. p. 135. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  9. 1 2 3 Hand, G. J. (1973). "Rules and Orders to be Observed in the Proceedings of Causes in the High Court of Chancery in Ireland, 1659". The Irish Jurist. 7: 119.
  10. ↑ The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland ... Vol. IX. Dublin: Printed by P. Byrne and W. Porter. 1790. p. 259.
  11. ↑ Court of Chancery (Ireland) Act 1823, §§ 1, 4, 5, and 53, and Schedule Table 10; Court of Chancery (Ireland) Act 1836, §§ 1–3
  12. ↑ "Letter from Gerald Horan to James O'Shea, 11 February 1916". Explore: Letters of 1916. Maynooth University. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  13. ↑ "Tuesday, 7th June, 1921". The Stormont Papers. Arts and Humanities Data Service. 7 June 1921. House of Commons debates Vol.1 col.1. Retrieved 10 September 2016. the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper (Gerald Horan, Esq., K.C.) delivered to the said Arthur Irwin Dasent, Esq., a book containing a list of the names of the Members returned to serve in this Parliament
  14. ↑ Augusteijn, Joost (2002). The Irish Revolution, 1913-1923. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 97. ISBN 9781137239839.
  15. ↑ "Charter of The Incorporated Law Society of Northern Ireland" (PDF). Law Society of Northern Ireland. 12 September 1922. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  16. ↑ "Provisional Government (Transfer of Functions) Order, 1922. Agreement as to Day of Transfer". London Gazette (32661): 2732. 4 April 1922. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  17. ↑ "Transferred and Lent Officers". Dáil Éireann debates. 27 September 1922. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  18. ↑ "Electoral Act, 1923, Section 54". Irish Statute Book. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  19. ↑ Clerk of Dáil Eireann (19 September 1923). "Cur Amach Riteacha [Issuing of writs]". Dáil Éireann Debate. Retrieved 10 September 2016. In compliance with Standing Order No. 3 of the Standing Orders of Dáil Eireann, I have to report that on the 9th August, 1923, immediately upon the issue of the Proclamation of that date summoning the Oireachtas to meet at Dublin on the 19th September, 1923, I issued my writs, pursuant to the relative provisions of the Electoral Act, 1923, to the following Returning Officers for the Constituencies named hereunder
  20. ↑ "Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924, Schedule 1". Irish Statute Book. Third Part. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  21. ↑ "Court Officers Act, 1926". Irish Statute Book. section 31(3)–(4). Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  22. ↑ "Writ for Vacant Seat". House of Commons debates, Vol. 3 col.113. The Stormont Papers. 14 March 1923. Retrieved 10 September 2016. I think I could hardly accept such a motion now, for the very good reason that, so far as I know, there is nobody to whom I could issue my warrant for the writ. From inquiries I have made, and information I have received, I am given to understand that there is no person at present in the North of Ireland representing the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper, to whom my warrant would be issued, and therefore until such a person is appointed—no doubt it will be very soon—I do not see that I could accept a motion to issue my warrant when there is nobody of whom I have official cognizance to whom to issue it.
  23. ↑ Smith, Colin (12 August 1924). "Election Laws (Northern Ireland) Order, 1924". London Gazette (32964): 6032. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Otway-Ruthven 2008, pp.119–120
  25. ↑ Matthew 1994, p.59 fn.15
  26. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Matthew 1994, pp.500–502
  27. ↑ Gorman, Vincent (1985). "Richard, Duke of York, and the Development of an Irish Faction". Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C. 85C: 169–179: 176. JSTOR 25506129.
  28. ↑ Matthew 1994, p.76
  29. 1 2 Morrin, James (1861). Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, of the Reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth. Vol. I: 1514–1575. A. Thom & sons. pp. 5, no.22. Retrieved 22 September 2016. Appointment of William Fitzwilliam to the office of Clerk of the Hanaper of Chancery, during pleasure, vice Nicholas Wycombe. —Aug. 26, 24°.
  30. 1 2 3 Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland (1875). "Appendix X". Seventh report with appendix. Command papers. Vol. C.1175. p. 35 no.40. Retrieved 19 September 2016. Grant to Nicholas Stanyhurst and Thomas Alen; of the office of clerk or keeper of the hanaper, held by William Fitzwilliam. To hold to them and the longer liver, with such fees as Nicholas Wycombe or Richard Nangle had.—11 August, xxvii.
  31. ↑ Irene Cassidy. "FITZWILLIAM, Sir William I (d.1559), of Windsor, Berks". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  32. ↑ Lee, Sidney. Stanyhurst, Richard. Vol. 54. Retrieved 19 September 2016. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  33. ↑ Colgan, John. "Leixlip Chronology 1550 –1585". Kildare.ie. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  34. ↑ Kirkpatrick, W.T. (1896–99). "Donacomper Church". Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society and Surrounding Districts. 2: 277–283: 280.
  35. ↑ Brady, Ciaran (2002). The Chief Governors: The Rise and Fall of Reform Government in Tudor Ireland 1536-1588. Cambridge University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780521520041.
  36. ↑ Morgan, Rhys (2014). The Welsh and the Shaping of Early Modern Ireland, 1558-1641. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 62. ISBN 9781843839248.
  37. ↑ Deputy Keeper of Public Records in Ireland (12 March 1884). "Appendix II: Continuation of the fiants of the reign of Queen Elizabeth". Sixteenth report. Command papers. Vol. C.4062. Dublin: Alex. Thom. p. 82, no.5249.
  38. 1 2 Goodwin, Gordon (1892). "King, John (d.1637)". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31.
  39. ↑ Treadwell, Victor (March 1960). "The Irish Court of Wards under James I". Irish Historical Studies. 12 (45): 1–27: 11. doi:10.1017/S0021121400019416. JSTOR 30005037. S2CID 159471881.
  40. ↑ Edgeworth, Richard Lovell (1820). Memoirs of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq. R. Hunter. p. 6. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  41. ↑ Edwards, Anthony (1792). "1666: The list for civil affairs". Edward's Cork Remembrancer ... from the earliest period, to the year 1792. A. Edwards. p. 98.
  42. ↑ Shaw, William Arthur. "Nicholas, Sir Edward". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 40. p. 429. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  43. ↑ Alcorn Baron, Sabrina; Thrush, Andrew. "NICHOLAS, Edward (1593-1669), of Dover Castle, Kent and King Street, Westminster; later of West Horsley, Surr.". History of Parliament. Vol. 1604–1629. History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  44. ↑ Morrin, James (1863). Calendar of the Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, of the Reign of Charles the First: First to Eighth Year, Inclusive. A. Thom, Hodges, Smith & Company. p. 593.
  45. ↑ Edwards, Edward (2005). "Volume 44, July-December 1666". Carte Calendar. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  46. 1 2 3 4 Ball, Francis Elrington (1901). "Loughlinstown and its History". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 31 (11, 5th series) (1): 68–84: 77, fn.5.
  47. ↑ "Translation of patent appointing Thomas Domvile Clerk of the Hanaper and Clerk of the Crown in the Chancery of the Kingdom of Ireland, 1675". Holdings: Domvile Papers. National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  48. ↑ Foster 1883, p.vi
  49. ↑ "Warrants for a grant to Thomas Arthur of the Offices of Clerk of the Hanaper and Clerk of the Crown in the Court of Chancery and to Donnogh, Earl of Clancarty of the office of Clerk of the Crown and Peace of Munster. May 1689". Holdings: Stuart Mss. National Library of Ireland. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  50. ↑ Kelly, Richard J. (31 March 1904). "The Courts, Judges, and Legal Office-Holders of Ireland in 1739". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. 34 [Fifth Series, Vol. 14] (1): 20–29: 21. JSTOR 25507344.
  51. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Beatson, Robert (1806). "A List of the Principal Officers in the Court of Chancery, since October 1760". A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain & Ireland. Vol. 3 (3rd ed.). Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. pp. 329–330.
  52. ↑ The English Peerage. Vol. 1. London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson. 1790. p. 362.
  53. ↑ "Promotions". The Magazine of Magazines. Vol. XIII. Limerick: Andrew Welsh. January 1757. p. 96.
  54. 1 2 3 4 Aspinall, Arthur, ed. (1968). The later correspondence of george 3. Vol. IV. CUP Archive. 443; No.3247 and fn.1. ISBN 9781001405421. Retrieved 20 September 2016.
  55. 1 2 O'Connell 1974, p.426, note 7
  56. ↑ Woods, C. J. "Nugent, George Frederick". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  57. ↑ Jupp, P. J. "FORBES, George John, Visct. Forbes (1785-1836), of Kilren, co. Louth.". History of Parliament. Vol. 1790–1820. History of Parliament Trust. Retrieved 19 September 2016. What clinched matters was his father's appointment in 1815 as clerk of the hanaper, the Irish sinecure he had requested, worth £1,800 a year.
  58. ↑ O'Connell 1974, p.112 note 3
  59. ↑ Webb, Alfred (1878). "John O'Connell". Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: Gill. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  60. ↑ Chancery Commission 1859, p.59 Q.775
  61. ↑ Foster 1883, p.709
  62. ↑ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1905). "Holmes (U. O.)". Armorial families : a directory of gentlemen of coat-armour. Edinburgh: T.C. & E.C. Jack. p. 679. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  63. ↑ Smith, J. G. (February 1935). "Some Nineteenth-Century Irish Economics". Economica. New Series, Vol. 2 (5): 20–32: 25. doi:10.2307/2549104. JSTOR 2549104.
  64. ↑ "Charters" (PDF). Law Society of Ireland. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
  65. 1 2 "Irish Notes". The Law Times. 138 (3754): 441. 13 March 1915.

Further reading

  • Hughes, James L. J. (1960). Patentee Officers in Ireland, 1173–1826: Including High Sheriffs, 1661–1684 and 1761–1816. Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission.
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