RECORDS, PUBLIC (Lat. recorded, to contemporary authenticated state ments of the proceedings of the :egislature, and the judgments of those higher courts of law which are distinguished as courts of record. It has been a subject of much discussion what constitutes a record, and in a looser sense the term record has sometimes been applied to any public document preserved in a recognized repository. No country is so rich in public record.s as England. A committee of the house of commons, in 1837, described the public records of England as comprised under tour classes. 1. Indepen dent series of records of territorial surveys at different periods. 2. Series of enrollments, comprising on one roll varieties of distinct entries, classed together according to their formal character. 3. Records of judicial proceedings. 4. Separate documents, as let ters, inquisitions, commissions, and privy 'seals. Act 1 and 2 Viet. c. 94 sets at rest the question what is legally to be held a record, by providing that the word records shall be taken to mean all rolls, records, writs, books, proceedings, decrees, bills, war rants, accounts, papers, and documents, whatsoever belonging to her majesty, or then deposited, or which ought to be deposited, in any of certain places of custody, which arc enumerated.
The oldest existing English records are tallies in exchequer, which down to,1834 continued to lie used both for receipts and for simple records of matterr of account., They consist of wooden rods, marked on one side with notches, to indicate the sum for which the tally was an acknowledgment; while on the two other sides were written the amount, the name of the payer, and thedate of the transaction; mid the tally being divided longitudinally, the one half was preserved in exchequer, and the other given to the per son who had paid the money. This rude contrivance, which came down to us from Anglo-Saxon times, was an effectual safeguard against forgery. Parchment is the material on which the greater portion of the records are written; the skins being, in some cases, as in the rolls of the exchequer and common law courts, attached at the top bookways; in other cases, as the chancery and wardrobe, sewed consecutively Some records are in the form of books, as Domesda g; others are filed—i.e., each document is pierced with a string or gut passed through it, the whole being fastened together in bundles. A few records are written on paper. The early parliamentary records and statutes are principally in Norman-French, which continued in partial use till the time of Henry V.; all tire other great series of records, except those of parliament, are in Latin down to the reign of George II., or later, except during the commonwealth, when Eng lish was substituted.
Public records, which can be traced in germ before the conquest, gradually expanded under the Norman and Plantagenet kings. They enabled the subject to defend and main tain those feudal rights and privileges which were gradually trenching on royal preroga tive, and to protect himself from arbitrary exactions; while to the king they furnished )recedents which could not be questioned for his calls of military i,ervice and taxation.
The various courts being the king's courts, and following the sovereign from place to place, their earliest receptacles were the royal palaces in different parts of England; but when the higher courts were permanently established at Westminster, "treasuries," or places of custody for the records of the different courts, were appointed there. A por tion of the public records were, as far back as Henry M.'s reign, deposited in the tower of London and New Temple; and in the reign of Edward III. the tower had become a permanent treasury. The parliamentary committee of 1837 enumerated among the places of deposit a room in the tower over a gunpowder magazine, and contiguous to a steam-engine in daily operation; a chapel at the Rolls, where divine services was per formed; underground 'Vaults at Somerset house; damp and dark cellars at Westminster ball; the stables of the late Carlton Ride; and the Chapter-house, :Westminster. From the reign of Edward H. downward, the attention of parliament had often been called to the safe custody and arrangement of the records as an object of solicitude. The fullest examination in recent times was made by a committee of the house of commons in 1800. whose report presents far the most comprehensive account of the records in existence. A commission was appointed to go on with the work which the committee had begun, and renewed six times between 18001and 1831. All the several record commissions directed the commissioners to cause the records to be methodized, regulated and digested, bound and secured, and to have calendars made, and original papers printed; and numerous valuable publications have been issued by the commissioners front time to time. A full investigation into the proceedings of the record commissioners was made by a committee of the house of commons in 1835, since which time annual reports have been issued by the deputy-keeper of records. The most important recent statute regard ing the custody and preservation of the records is 1 and 2 Viet. c. 49, which restores to the master of the rolls that custody of the records which he had originally possessed, but which had for a long time become nominal. That officer is empowered to appoint a deputy-keeper of the records, and in conjunction with the treasury, to do all that is requisite in the execution of this service. He makes rules for the management of the office, and fixes what fees may be demanded. He allows copies to be made, which, when certified by the deputy and assistant keepers, and authenticated with the seal of the office, are producible as evidence in courts of law. The home secretary directs from time to time such of the catalogues, calendars, and indexes, and such of the records as he thinks fit, to be printed, and sold at prices fixed by him. The act 1 and 2 Viet. c. 94 contemplates the consolidation of all the recordslu the large receptacle near Fetter lane, into which, under sir John Romilly, then master of the rolls, they began to be gradually collected from their different scattered depositories.