A Parliamentary Miscellany

A Parliamentary Miscellany contains a diverse collection of papers relating to various aspects of parliamentary history, particularly the House of Lords. Subjects include leaders and whips of the political parties, representative peers for Scotland and Ireland and the presence of the monarch in parliament.

• Brings together for the first time in one volume a body of work produced by the author over many years
• An invaluable text for researchers, providing information that is both difficult and time consuming to obtain
• J.C. Sainty is a highly respected parliamentary historian who was a clerk in the House of Lords for 28 years, seven of which he served as Clerk of the Parliaments

Abbreviations vi

Foreword viii

Chapter 1. Leaders and Whips in the House of Lords 1783–1960 (first published as House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 31, 1964) 1

Chapter 2. Further Materials from an Unpublished Manuscript of the House of Lords Journal for Sessions 1559 and 1597–8 (first published as House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 33, 1965) 25

Chapter 3. A List of Representative Peers for Scotland, 1707 to 1963, and for Ireland, 1800 to 1961 (first published as House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 39, 1968) 47

Chapter 4. The Origin of the Office of Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords (first published as House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 52, 1974) 85

Chapter 5. The Parliament Office in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Biographical Notes on Clerks in the House of Lords 1600 to 1800 (first published by the House of Lords Record Office, 1977) 120

Chapter 6. Parliamentary Functions of the Sovereign since 1509 (first published as House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 64, 1980) 148

Chapter 7. ‘The Edmunds Case and the House of Lords’, in Parliamentary History, Libraries and Records: Essays Presented to Maurice Bond, ed. H.S. Cobb, pp. 59–65 (first published by the House of Lords Record Office, 1981) 159

Chapter 8. The Parliamentary Office in the Early Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: Biographical Notes on Clerks in the House of Lords 1800 to 1939 (first published by the House of Lords Record Office, 1990) 166

Chapter 9. ‘New Light on the Office of Chairman of Committees in the House of Lords’ (first published in House of Lords Record Office Memorandum 79, pp. 10–11, 1991) 210

J.C. Sainty’s professional career was spent in the service of the House of Lords culminating in his appointment as Clerk of the Parliaments 1983-90. He was also Editor of the Office-Holders series published by the Institute of Historical Research, providing accounts of the development and personnel of government departments. In addition to his interest in parliamentary history he maintains a continuing concern with the history of office-holding generally and the identification of officials of the central government in particular.

To mark the 80th birthday of Sir John Sainty, and pay tribute to his enormous contribution to the journal Parliamentary History, the journal has reproduced the texts of all John’s memoranda, together with three other House of Lords Record Office publications. The result, A Parliamentary Miscellany, contains a diverse and fascinating collection of papers originally published by the House of Lords Record Office (now the Parliamentary Archives), relating to various aspects of parliamentary history, particularly the history of the House of Lords.

This body of work has been produced by the author over many years, but is now exceedingly difficult to extract, despite its value in having formed the foundations upon which other historians built their work. Now the papers are available for the first time in a single volume, with subjects including the leaders and whips of the political parties, representative peers for Scotland and Ireland, biographies of lords clerks, the origin of the office of chairman of committees, and the presence of the monarch in parliament. This publication is invaluable for researchers, making easily accessible a broad range of information that is difficult and time consuming to obtain both from the parliamentary and the state records at The National Archives.