Misplaced Pages

#887112

24-510: 53°13′45″N 0°32′05″W  /  53.2293°N 0.5346°W  / 53.2293; -0.5346 Lincolnshire Archives is the county record office of Lincolnshire , England . It was established as a county service in 1948 by the Lincolnshire Archives Committee, which had been formally constituted on 24 October 1947 with Sir Robert Pattinson as chairman. The Times , surveying the trend towards County Record Offices at

48-487: A Marketable Record Title Act (MRTA) which will extinguish various interests, restrictions, or claims to a property within a certain time period unless renewed during that time period by muniments. A muniment of title is any documentary evidence upon which title is based. Muniments of title are deeds, wills, and court judgments through which a particular land title passes and upon which its validity depends. Muniments of title need not be recorded to be valid notwithstanding that

72-572: A court of law that "person X" had good title to an estate at some past date, the present owner, in order to have equally good title, needed to prove that he had obtained, in a valid manner, the asset directly or indirectly from person X. For example, if a royal charter survived granting a manor to person X, that would constitute an ideal starting point from which to prove devolution of title. Thus several charters, indentures, entails , marriage settlements and last will and testaments of varying dates and contained within several sheets of parchment might form

96-473: A formal association with one or more of their county’s principal local studies libraries, although the two professions of archivist and librarian generally remain quite distinct. Public access to central government archives (technically known as public records ) and by extension to local government records was previously regulated in accordance with instruments such as the Public Records Act 1958 and

120-623: Is derived from the Latin noun munimentum , meaning a " fortification , bulwark, defence or protection". Thus "muniments of title" means the written evidence which a land owner can use to defend title to his estate. An example of muniment of title is the use of a death certificate of a joint tenant to prove that title resides with the surviving joint tenant. In the United States the definition of "muniment" may differ in statutes state by state. For example, states often have their own version of

144-504: Is provided by Janet Foster and Julia Sheppard’s British Archives (4th edition, 2002). Select lists for certain specialised categories covering many UK repositories have also been issued by a variety of other publishers, notably the Federation of Family History Societies . Muniment A muniment or muniment of title is a legal term for a document , title deed or other evidence , that indicates ownership of an asset . The word

168-782: The Public Records Act 1967 . The 1958 Act enabled county repositories to be appointed by the Lord Chancellor to hold individually specified classes of Public Records – including local court records. Access to material within record offices in England & Wales is now largely regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 , although these do not necessarily cover privately deposited items, and closure periods may apply in certain cases. Since 1929 many county record offices in England have also been designated by

192-459: The addition of new materials can make these go rapidly out of date. Furthermore, many offices also have considerable backlogs of uncatalogued materials. From the 1990s onwards, an increasing number of offices have launched online catalogues of varying completeness, linked to their respective websites. An earlier summary of archive repositories, including brief details of the development of each office together with outlines of their principal holdings,

216-524: The advent of capitalism and the stock-market investment, the ownership of land and operational manors was the principal asset used by the English gentry for the long-term storage of wealth. It was essential to prove "devolution of title" to an estate, which necessitated the retention of every historical deed which had been used at some time over decades if not centuries to transfer legal ownership of that estate. For example, if it had been determined historically in

240-540: The complete devolution of title for just one estate. Many gentry families in England held particular estates for many centuries (the Berkeley family has held Berkeley Castle since the 12th century, and holds it still in 2021), generating a large volume of documents of title as the estate passed down the generations of the family. Such often large and highly verbose documents were generally folded up to form small packets and were then sealed with wax, with an epitome or summary of

264-519: The document written in ink on the finished packet. In 21st-century England, the establishment of the Government department of the Land Registry , and the compulsory requirement for persons and companies to register all land transactions, renders the use of title deeds superfluous and devolution of title is not required to prove title as proof of title is now determined prima facie merely by an entry in

SECTION 10

#1732855164888

288-532: The end of 1948, reported Lincolnshire as a "notable recent development": "the three county councils of the shire, the Diocese of Lincoln, the Dean and Chapter, and the city council are combining to convert the austerely beautiful building, the old gaol at Lincoln, into a joint record office for all six." The first County Archivist, Joan Varley, delivered her first annual report in spring 1949. Assistant archivist from 1948 to 1958

312-541: The foundations of many of the earlier collections were the extensive surviving archives originating from a county's quarter sessions – in the county of Somerset a special muniment room had actually been provided for these as early as 1617. There are also many broadly similar repositories in Scotland, Ireland, and overseas. To varying extents, they will also help with the care of the county's semi-current or "modern records" using records management principles, as well as with

336-641: The historic and the semi-current records of the parent body. They usually also preserve written materials from a great variety of independent local organisations, churches and schools, prominent families and their estates, businesses, solicitors' offices and ordinary private individuals. Archives may have been acquired either through donation or (more generally) by deposit on long-term loan. Local authorities in certain larger cities sometimes administer their own separate city record office , operating along similar lines. Archive repositories are frequently – but by no means exclusively – used by local and family historians for

360-472: The land register, a certificate certifying which entry can be provided by the registrar if required. In previous times title deeds were the main evidence of ownership (apart from physical possession of land, said by the old adage to form "nine tenths of the law"), and where a person owned dozens of estates, many of which he rarely or never visited, and ownership of which was frequently the subject of legal challenges, for example by distant relatives of testators, it

384-821: The local bishop as a diocesan record office , latterly operating under the terms of the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 . Such record offices are often also formally recognised by the Master of the Rolls as approved repositories for manorial and tithe records (in accordance with the Law of Property Act 1922 and the Tithe Act 1936 (as amended by the Local Government Records Act 1962 ). Many county record offices have issued printed guides to their collections, although

408-617: The modern sense was the Bedfordshire Record Office , established by George Herbert Fowler in 1913. To some extent it was operating within established traditions set by the London-based Public Record Office (now The National Archives ), which first opened in 1838, or by other repositories overseas. Although the statutory operation of such county record offices under the Local Government (Records) Act 1962

432-399: The purposes of original research, since many records can very often have a continuing administrative or legal significance. A record office will typically include public search rooms (including reference books, archive catalogues and other finding aids), environmentally controlled strongrooms, administrative offices, and quite often small exhibition areas together with a conservation room for

456-418: The recording statutes give good faith purchasers certain rights over the rights of persons claiming under unrecorded muniments of title. Muniments of title do more than merely "affect" title; they must carry title and be a vital link in the chain of title. In the medieval period substantial landowners made use of dedicated chambers known as "muniments rooms" for the secure storage of muniments of title. Before

480-582: The selection and preservation of today's records (both paper and digital) for future generations. During the 19th and 20th centuries, some older libraries had also begun to maintain archive collections from their local area, although their facilities and the scope of their collections could vary considerably – as might their official legal status. There are often overlaps between local studies and record office collections, particularly with respect to printed ephemera , maps, photographs, old newspapers and local reference books. A number of record offices now operate in

504-425: The specialist repair of documents. Search rooms are generally open at their advertised times without charge, although many offices operate a reader's ticket system. Some, but not all, operate a fee-paying postal service for those who are unable to make personal research visits. All county record offices attempt to work in accordance with the appropriate official British Standard . The earliest county record office in

SECTION 20

#1732855164888

528-593: Was Dorothy Owen ; she was succeeded as Varley's deputy by Mary Finch, who would herself become County Archivist in 1982. The service is now part of the Culture department of Lincolnshire County Council and is housed in modern offices in St Rumbold Street, Lincoln . This article about an organisation in England is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . County record office Such repositories employ specialist staff to administer and conserve

552-426: Was essential to safeguard title deeds. Security needed to provide not only against theft, but also against destruction of the parchment (i.e. animal skin) and ink by fire, excessive heat, sunlight, water, mould, insects and rodents. Thus in certain monasteries the muniments room was often situated above the warming house . Special chests were used, designed specifically to aid preservation. Rapid portability of muniments

576-415: Was permissive rather than mandatory, the network has gradually expanded. Bristol Record Office (now Bristol Archives ), opened in 1924, has been identified as the second local office to become established. The whole network now includes repositories – which operate largely independently of each other – throughout the whole of England and Wales (the most recent being Powys Archives, opened in the 1980s). Often

#887112