| Description | Clerk to the Lieutenancy: papers relating to county militia and offices of Lord Lieutenant, Vice and Deputy Lieutenants, 1773-1984; Secretary to the Advisory Committee for the Magistracy: minutes, committee reports and correspondence, 1911-1985; Secretary to the Advisory Committee for Appointment of General Commissioners of Income Tax: correspondence on appointments and boundary proposals, 1959-1979 |
| Administrative History | The county Lieutenancy originated in the 16th century as an ad hoc appointment in times of emergency and became permanent by the Act of 13-14 Ch II c3 (1662). By the Act of 42 Geo III c90 (1802) meetings of the Lieutenancy were to be held regularly, but only one minute book of these meetings, for 1802-1851 and 1860 survives. Other early material relating to the Deputy Lieutenants from 1773 is also in the material listed here.
The Clerk to the Lieutenancy and Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant's Advisory Committees for the Magistracy and Commissioners of Income Tax for Derbyshire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries successively was a solicitor in private practice. On the death of the last of these Clerks in 1943 the then Clerk of the County Council and Clerk of the Peace for Derbyshire was appointed to the three offices. He held it until his retirement in 1957. The offices were then held concurrently with the post first of the Clerk of the County Council and then of the Chief Executive until 1984.
When the County Archivist took over the care of the County Council's legal records in 1968, a few books and files and a number of dis-ordered loose papers relating to the Lieutenancy were already amongst the legal records and runs of files were added at intervals until 1984. A handlist of the files of the Advisory Committee for the Magistracy was prepared for the Lord Chancellor's Department in June 1980, but the loose papers were not examined at that time.
Detailed examination in November 1985 revealed that a few books and files, together with loose papers, survived for the period prior to 1943. Some of the files were continued (D14/YL13/1, YC 5/2, YC11, YC13 and YC 14) and a new General Lieutenancy file YL 11, had been opened in 1943 which included earlier material. Some General Lieutenancy papers, both before and after 1943, appear not to have been filed: a few found loose have been added to the relevant files D14/YL 4-6. New files were created for the rest as part of the preparation of this list.
The loose general Lieutenancy papers were found associated with loose papers for the Advisory Committee on the Magistracy and a few file covers. These file covers and the range of loose papers indicated an original, informal filing system based on slipping loose into folders the natural accumulation of papers for consideration by a meeting of the Advisory Committee and papers resulting from the deliberations of that meeting. A few file covers were used for one meeting, and one or two for successive meetings. A few bore the Clerk's name and others were unlabelled, or labelled "pending". They were mostly empty. For further detail see YC16.
Documents may have been removed from this informal filing system in the early 1960's by the Clerk's secretary to facilitate the setting up of a more sophisticated system. The space and time for this sorting were very limited and unneeded papers and their former folders were placed in a box with loose general Lieutenancy papers, and sent to the Clerk's strong room. The new filing system was continued and refined by the secretary to the new Chief Executive appointed in 1974.
Unless otherwise stated the files as listed are original files. |
| Custodial History | Transferred to Derbyshire Record Office from 1968 to 1984 |