Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
The Irish record commission of 1810-30 is of interest as being the first determined effort on the part of government to deal in a thorough manner with the problem of the Irish public records, giving due consideration to the requirements of historical scholars as well as of lawyers and litigants. Attention had previously been directed on several occasions to the deterioration of the records owing to the lack of proper storage, and to the difficulty of Consulting them owing to the almost entire absence of guides and indexes, and efforts had been made by various individuals to remedy this State of affairs, but the interest of government had been spasmodic, and the recommendations of the several committees of inquiry appointed during the eighteenth Century had remained unimplemented.
1 See Wood, H., ‘ The public records of Ireland before and after 1922', in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 1930, p. 17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2 Brit. rec. comm. rep., 1800-19, p. 309.Google Scholar
3 Brit. rec. comm. rep., 1800-19, p. 302.Google Scholar
4 Ibid., p. 543.
5 Ir. rec. comm. rep., 1811-15, p. 3.
6 Ibid., p. 4.
7 H. J. Monck Mason, Essay on the history and antiquity of parliaments in Ireland (ed. of 1891), introd. by Canon O'Hanlpn, p. 13.
8 Birmingham Tower–William Warburton and William Betham; parliamentary record office–James Rafferty and Theobald Richard O'Flaherty; Rolls Office–James Mayne and Francis Nash and Richard Nash; chief remembrancer's office–William Nash and Matthew Tierney of the Rolls Office; auditor general's office–Henry Harding and John Fowler; publication of a new edition of the Statutes–William Ball, Bartholomew Thomas Duhigg, Edward Lawson, and Henry Joseph Monck Mason. Others were later appointed at various times.
9 Ir. rec. comm. rep., 1811-15, p. 483.
10 Ibid., p. 406.
11 Ibid., p. 17.
12 Ibid., p. 397
13 Ibid., p. 10.
14 Ibid., p. 22.
15 Ibid., p. 408.
16 Ibid., p. 487.
17 Ibid., p. 488.
18 Ibid., p. 469.
19 54 Geo. III, c. 113.
2O 57 Geo. III, c. 62.
21 State Paper Office, Misc. no. 50/1833.
22 H.C. 1822, (553), XVIII. 541.
23 7 Geo. IV, c. 13.
24 Ir rec. comm. rep., 1811-15, p. 19.
25 Ir rec. comm. rep., 1816–20, p. 4.
26 O.S. letters, Donegal, p. 164.
27 Ir. rec. comm. rep., 1811-15, p. 484.
28 Secretary's 18th quarterly report, P.R.O.I.
29 Reports of Hardiman, Groves and Fowler for 1815–20, passim, P.R.O.I.
30 Evidence of Lascelles before the select committee on the Irish miscellaneous estimates, p. 100, H.C. 1829, (342), iv 127, and S.P.O., Betham Papers, I.A. 8c. 5.
31 Ir. rec. comm. rep., 1816–20, p. 14.
32 H.C., 1829, (342), iv 127.
33 Ibid., p. 49.
34 Ibid., p. 3.
35 Ibid., p. 100.