The Town Clerk of London is an important position that has existed since the 13th century in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

, England. Originally the role was to take the minutes of London council meetings, but over the years the holder's role has gathered responsibility, including staff and executive powers. Historically the incumbent received an annual fee of £10. This has risen to £244,000 in 2016/17, with 55% coming from the City Fund and 40% coming from the

City's Cash City's Cash is an endowment fund, overseen by the City of London Corporation, built up over 800 years and passed from generation to generation to fund services that the Corporation claims benefit London and the nation as a whole. It is one of th ...

Responsibilities

The Town Clerk of London has been responsible for recording the minutes of the council of the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

and its committees since 1274. But historically, the Town Clerk of London's role was also one of a legal advisor and recorder of city law. The Town Clerk has worked at the

Guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

in London since 1411. Today the Guildhall is still used for official functions. The elected City of London council assumed legislative functions and adopted financial powers as confirmed by charters of 1377 and 1383 and as written by a series of Town Clerk of London with the council approval. The council, with the Town Clerk, has amended the civic constitution, regulated the election of Lord Mayor and other officials, and amended the functions of the

courts via

writs In common law, a writ (Anglo-Saxon ''gewrit'', Latin ''breve'') is a formal written order issued by a body with administrative or judicial jurisdiction; in modern usage, this body is generally a court. Warrants, prerogative writs, subpoenas, an ...

. These series of changes were successful in expanding the duties of the Town clerk position and leading to the similar expansion of the City of London courts which had jurisdiction outside London as a type of

county court A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions (subnational entities) within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of ''county courts'' held by the high ...

. This gradually took over from the now obsolete circuit criminal court called the

Assize Court The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

. The format strongly influenced the development of the High

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

and

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

's jurisdiction based in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

. During the early 17th century, before and after the 1666

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

, the Town Clerk's function began to evolve into more complex and multiple roles. The more modern era of the Town Clerk as an executive requires more assistants. Today the

Lord Mayor of the City of London Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are ...

is assisted in his or her day-to-day work by three leading personnel whose titles are the Town Clerk and Chief Executive, the

Chamberlain Chamberlain may refer to: Profession *Chamberlain (office), the officer in charge of managing the household of a sovereign or other noble figure People *Chamberlain (surname) **Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927), German-British philosop ...

and the

Remembrancer The Remembrancer was originally a subordinate officer of the English Exchequer. The office is of great antiquity, the holder having been termed remembrancer, memorator, rememorator, registrar, keeper of the register, despatcher of business. The R ...

Town Clerk and Chief Executive

By 2009 the actual title of Town Clerk had resolved into its combined Town Clerk and Chief Executive type position, which is much more than a recorder of minutes of the city council. As at 2012, The Town Clerk and Chief Executive of the City of London was John Barradell. The Town Clerk's Department manages hundreds of officers and employees of the Corporation. He will end his service to the City of London on 31 December 2022 and be replaced by Ian Thomas in February 2023.https://www.citymatters.london/city-corporation-appoints-new-town-clerk-and-chief-executive/, retrieved 27 November 2022, City Matters - London, dated 18 November 2022. Duties include: *Efficient management and execution of City functions. *Primary advisor on policy and resources. *Servicing meetings of the

Court of Common Council The Court of Common Council is the primary decision-making body of the City of London Corporation. It meets nine times per year. Most of its work is carried out by committees. Elections are held at least every four years. It is largely composed o ...

and designated committees. *Servicing meetings of the

Court of Aldermen The Court of Aldermen forms part of the senior governance of the City of London Corporation. It comprises twenty-five aldermen of the City of London, presided over by the Lord Mayor (becoming senior alderman during his year of office). The Co ...

and designated committees. *Investigating complaints against the City. *Electoral Registration Officer. *Overseer of public relations. *Overseer of economic development. *Overseer of human resources.

The noted Town Clerk of London

John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American filmmaker, actor, and composer. Although he worked in various film genres, he is most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s. He ...

was one of the most famous of London's town clerks, and was the author of the first book of English Common Law called "Liber Albus" (the White Book). The statue of John Carpenter, now residing within the City of London School, shows him holding this book. Riley, Henry T., and John Carpenter, eds. Munimenta Gildhallae Londoniensis; Liber Albus, Liber Custumarum, Et Liber Horn. 3 Vols. in 4. Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores (Rolls Series), 12. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859–1862. City of London (England), Henry T. Riley, and John Carpenter. Munimenta Gildhallæ Londoniensis: Liber albus, Liber custumarum, et Liber Horn. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859. John Carpenter (1372–1442) also in 1442 bequeathed land to the Corporation of London intended to fund the maintenance and education of four boys born within the City, who would be called 'Carpenter's children'. This later became the

City of London School , established = , closed = , type = Public school Boys' independent day school , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Alan Bird , chair_label = Chair of Governors , chair = Ian Seaton , founder = John Carpenter , special ...

Town Clerks of London

List of the known Town Clerks of London from 1274 to 2023, covering 749 yearsLibraries, Archives and Guildhall Art Gallery, "The Town Clerk" – Pages 71–74, from the London Metropolitan Archives, City of London, 40 Northampton Road, London EC 1R 0HB – www.cityoflondon.gov.uk – www.lma.gov.uk – additional information supplied by the Director of Libraries, Archives and Guildhall Gallery, David Bradbury, BA, MA, DipLib, MCLIP. ‡ ''Date of election''

References

External links

City of London website

City of London School web site
* City of London Corporation – Town Clerk & Chief Executive picture at: https://web.archive.org/web/20101225080704/http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Council_and_democracy/Council_departments/ * Guildhall – https://web.archive.org/web/20080513213124/http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Leisure_and_culture/Local_history_and_heritage/Buildings_within_the_City/guildhall.htm City of London Corporation homepage on the Guildhall. {{DEFAULTSORT:Town Clerk Of London City and town clerks City of London History of the City of London