The Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and later of Great Britain, was formerly an officer of the English Crown charged with

physical custody Child custody is a legal term regarding '' guardianship'' which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of ''legal custody'', which is the righ ...

of the Great Seal of England. This position evolved into that of one of the Great Officers of State.

History

The seal was adopted by Edward the Confessor, and its custody was at first entrusted to a

chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

. The office of chancellor from the time of

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and the ...

onwards varied much in importance. The holder being a churchman, he was not only engaged in the business of his

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

, but was sometimes away from England. Consequently, it became not unusual to place the personal custody of the great seal in the hands of a ''vice-chancellor'' or ''keeper''; this was also the practice followed during a temporary vacancy in the chancellorship. This office gradually developed into a permanent appointment, and the lord keeper acquired the right of discharging all the duties connected with the great seal. He was usually, though not necessarily, a

peer Peer may refer to: Sociology * Peer, an equal in age, education or social class; see Peer group * Peer, a member of the peerage; related to the term "peer of the realm" Computing * Peer, one of several functional units in the same layer of a ne ...

, and held office during the king's pleasure. He was appointed merely by delivery of the seal, and not, like the chancellor, by

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

. His status was definitely fixed (in the case of lord keeper Sir Nicholas Bacon) by the

Lord Keeper Act 1562 The Lord Keeper Act 1562 (5 Eliz 1 c 18) was an Act of the Parliament of England. It made the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal "entitled to like place, pre-eminence, jurisdiction, execution of laws, and all other customs, commodities, and advantage ...

(5 Eliz 1 c. 18), which declared him entitled to ''like place, pre-eminence,

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

, execution of laws, and all other customs, commodities, and advantages'' as the

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. Th ...

. In subsequent reigns the lord keeper was generally raised to the chancellorship, and retained the custody of the seal. The last lord keeper was Robert Henley, afterwards Earl of Northington, who was made chancellor on the accession of

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

Curiosity

A pub-restaurant in the town of Oadby, Leicestershire is named the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal to honour Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal from 1700 to 1705, who was later lord of the manor of Oadby.

References

{{reflist Political history of England Constitution of the United Kingdom

History

Curiosity

See also

References