PRIVY-PURSE, Keeper of the, an officer of the royal household in England, in charge of the payment of the private expenses, including charities, of the sovereign. He has no control over any official or household ex penses, and is independent of the great officers of the household.
(privatum sigillum), a British governmental seal formerly appended by the sovereign to such grant or documents as were afterward to pass the great seal; and sometimes used in matters of less consequence, which did not require to pass the great seal, as to discharge a recognizance, debt, etc. No writ, however, which related to the common law could pass the privy-seaL From the time of Henry VIII until the reign of Queen Victoria the privy-seal was the warrant of the legality of grants from the Crown, and the authority for the Lord Chancellor to affix the great seal Such grants were termed letters patent. The officer who had the custody of the privy-seal was anciently called clerk of the privy-seal, afterward guardian del privy-seal; and later Lord Privy-Seal. The Lord Privy-Seal could not
put the seal to any grant without good warrant; nor with warrant if it was against the law or inconvenient without first acquainting the sov ereign therewith. In 1884 the Great Seal Act stipulated that all documents required to pass the great seal need not be passed under the privy-seal, a warrant under the sign manual countersigned by the Lord Chancellor, Secre tary of State or a high treasury official being sufficient. Although without salary and no def inite duties, the title of Lord Privy-Seal, with its former rank as fifth great officer of the state and a seat in the Cabinet, is conferred usually upon a peer above the rank of baron, although a commoner may receive the honorary title.