§ MR. W. GORDONasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether any and what documents deposited in the Public Record Office or in any office which, by the Act 1 and 2 Vic. c. 94, has been declared a portion of that office have since the year 1841 been destroyed; whether any and what public records have been taken from the Public Record Office and sold; whether or not it is the fact that a great quantity of public records were sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby on the 10th April 1869 and the five following days; and, if so, by whose authority such sale was made; and, whether it is the fact that 693 the Trustees of the British Museum purchased any and what portion of such records or any other public records sold by, or by the authority of, the Public Record Office at any other and what time?
MR. ASSHETON CROSSSir, no papers or documents deposited in the Record Office under a warrant of the Master of the Rolls, and countersigned by the Lord Chancellor, have ever been destroyed. Until documents are brought in under such warrant they are not in the custody of the Master of the Rolls as of right. Some documents belonging to the Treasury, Admiralty, and the War Office many years ago—about 1846—were allowed, for convenience, to be deposited in the Record Office at the request of those Departments without any warrant, and form Class III. in the statement printed with the rules. Some of this class of documents (III.), by order of the Treasury, approved by the Board of Admiralty and War Office, were destroyed as useless on a Report of the Committee of the Treasury, Admiralty, and War Office in 1859. With regard to that part of the Question which relates to the sale of documents, I have a letter from Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy, which gives this explanation:—
Mr. Charles Devon, who was formerly a clerk in the Chapter House, Westminster, sold to the British Museum, on the 12th of April, 1862, a volume of original Minutes of the Record Commission from 1800 to 1830, together with a number of volumes relating to the late Record Commission. These volumes came into Mr. Devon's hands from his relative, Mr. Caley, keeper of the Records in the Chapter House, and Secretary to the Record Commission. In addition to this, the Minutes of that Commission, in 10 volumes, which were sent here by the Home Office, are still in existence in this office. With reference to the statement that Messrs. Sotheby had seen at the Record Office the papers and documents they subsequently sold by public auction on the 6th of April, 1869, I have to state that this charge is without a shadow of foundation. The papers in question belonged to the Duke of Leeds, and were sent to Messrs. Sotheby by Messrs. Guscotte, Wad ham, and Daw, solicitors, Essex Street, Strand. Messrs. Sotheby state that they 'never inspected or saw the documents' in question at the Public Record Office. The fact that the documents never were in the Record Office directly contradicts the statement made.