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.
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.
List of Clerks of the Signet
John Depeden c.1420 Thomas Andrew c.1422 William Crosby 1437–1459 George Ashby c.1440 Robert Osbern c.1440 Nicholas Harpesfield c.1445 Edmund Blake c.1450 John Bowden 1452–1459 Richard Bell 1463–1474 William Robyns c.1470–c.1482 Oliver King c.1473 John Wylde c.1475–c.1488 Edmund Gregory c.1479–c.1483
The history of these earlier Signets in the medieval period is not recorded by the table below.
DateOneTwoThreeFour+1509 Brian Tuke1523 Thomas Derbey Unknown Unknown Unknown1530 Thomas Wriothesley1532 William Pagetbef. 1537 John Godsalve2 October 1539 John Huttoft14 April 1540 Thomas Knight1541 Richard Tavernerbef. 1544 William Honingbef. 1545 William or Gregory Railton.Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1560–1563, 2 (London: HMSO, 1948), p. 1001547/55 Nicasius Yetsweirt John Cliffe30 October 1561 John SomerDecember 1569 Sir Thomas Windebank1578/89 Sir John Wood Charles Yetsweirt9 March 1589 Sir Thomas Lake23 December 1595 Nicholas Faunt24 October 1607 Levinus Munck1608 Francis Gall5 September 1610 Francis Windebank13 January 1616 Robert Kirkham27 May 1623 Sir Humphrey May9 June 1630 John More15 June 1632 Sir Abraham Williams1638 Edward Norgate Philip Warwick1641/5 Sir 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.
DateOneTwoThreeFour1660 Sir Philip Warwick Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet William Trumbull Sir John Nicholasbet. 1674–1678 Sidney Bere1678 Nicholas Morice15 January 1683 Sir William Trumbull1684 John Gauntlett9 February 1705 William Cooke25 August 1708 Joseph Moyle18 February 1716 Peter Alexander 2 October 1716 Gauntlet Fry28 May 1728 Charles DelafayeThomas Delafaye13 November 1729 Edward Weston7 May 1736 Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet22 May 1746 William Blair1747 Charles Delafaye22 December 1762 James Rivers 15 July 1770 Montagu Wilkinson16 April 1781 John Tirel Morin4 March 1782 William FraserJune 1797 Eardley Wilmot 24 January 1801 Sir Brook Taylor11 December 1802 William Harry Edward Bentinck19 March 1807 John Gage 30 October 1807 Thomas Norton Powlett26 February 1825 Alexander Cockburn8 May 1826 Augustus Granville Stapleton1831 abolished15 October 1846 abolished26 January 1847 Charles Samuel Grey7 August 1851 Office abolished
References
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)