Baron, Hartgill 1660-1673 App. 1658 at Brussels by Charles II in exile (CSPD 1668-9, p. 208); placed in office instead of Charles Bickerstaffe 26 July 1660 (Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. Latham and W. Matthews (1970-83), i, 207, 208, 235, 236). D. by 10 Dec. 1673 (Letters of Sir Joseph Williamson 1673-4, ed. W.D. Christie (Camden Soc., 1874), ii, 93; PSO 5/11, adm. of John Richards).
"There are four of these officers, who attend the ford privy seal, or. in the absence of the lord privy seal, the principal secretary of state. Their duty is to write and make out all things that are sent by warrant from the signet to the privy seal, and which are to be passed to the great seal; and also to make out privy seals (as they are termed) upon any special occasion of his majesty’s affairs, as for the loan of money and such like purposes." (Black's Law Dictionary) http://blackslawdictionary.org/cl…
Bickerstaffe doesn't seem to have left office peacefully:
Feb. 24 [1669]. Petition of Hartgill Baron, clerk of the Privy Seal, to the King, Whitehall, to summon Charles Bickerstaff to a hearing, for interfering with the petitioner's right to his office, which was conferred on him at Brussels in 1658, and has been confirmed since the Restoration. ---Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, October 1668 to December 1669
Charles Bickerstaffe -- Clerk in the Privy Seal. Displaced in 1660 by the appointment of Hartgill Barron (a relative by marriage). [-- Does anyone know about this relationship? I can't find any documentation, and Hartgill Barron is an invisible man, except for a 1671 court case in Middlesex.]
But Bickerstaffe was admitted in 1662 to another clerkship there, only to lose it in 1669 on the resignation of Lord Robartes, the Lord Privy Seal.
Not so invisible after all: Turns out Baron Hartgill was a courier and involved in advocating for the Sealed Knot's aborted uprising in 1659. Charles II and Chancellor Hyde considered him a bit of a hothead, by the end of the mentions of him in "Travels with the King" http://archive.org/stream/travels… Index: Baron, Hartgill, 325, 390, 432, 436, 437, 446. takes marriage proposal to James, 436-437. [** this is funny **] letter of, 443. Coordinating an invasion (and life) without telephones or email was difficult.
So making Baron Hartgill one of the 4 Clerks of the Privy Seal was another of Charles II's "thank you" appointments.
The curious arrangement whereby a document is passed for authorization successively from the Signet Seal office to the Privy Seal office and then to the Chancery and the Great Seal dates from the end of the Middle Ages. The history is given in Thomas Frederick Tout's massive Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England (1920-1933), now online. At each stage fees had to be paid by the beneficiaries to multiple officials like Pepys but extending down to the person who heated the wax for the seal, not to mention the office where the recipient actually got his or her documents with all the seals (the Hanaper). These offices gradually became mostly sinecures and were abolished only in the nineteenth century.
6 Annotations
First Reading
vincent • Link
Baron, Hartgill 1660-1673
App. 1658 at Brussels by Charles II in exile (CSPD 1668-9, p. 208); placed in office instead of Charles Bickerstaffe 26 July 1660 (Diary of Samuel Pepys, ed. R. Latham and W. Matthews (1970-83), i, 207, 208, 235, 236). D. by 10 Dec. 1673 (Letters of Sir Joseph Williamson 1673-4, ed. W.D. Christie (Camden Soc., 1874), ii, 93; PSO 5/11, adm. of John Richards).
Terry Foreman • Link
Hartgill Baron was appointed Clerk of the Privy Seal at the Restoratiion. http://www.history.ac.uk/publicat…
Definition of CLERK OF THE PRIVY SEAL
"There are four of these officers, who attend the ford privy seal, or. in the absence of the lord privy seal, the principal secretary of state. Their duty is to write and make out all things that are sent by warrant from the signet to the privy seal, and which are to be passed to the great seal; and also to make out privy seals (as they are termed) upon any special occasion of his majesty’s affairs, as for the loan of money and such like purposes." (Black's Law Dictionary)
http://blackslawdictionary.org/cl…
Second Reading
Bill • Link
Bickerstaffe doesn't seem to have left office peacefully:
Feb. 24 [1669]. Petition of Hartgill Baron, clerk of the Privy Seal, to the King, Whitehall, to summon Charles Bickerstaff to a hearing, for interfering with the petitioner's right to his office, which was conferred on him at Brussels in 1658, and has been confirmed since the Restoration.
---Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, October 1668 to December 1669
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
L&M Companion clarifies Bill's misunderstanding:
Charles Bickerstaffe -- Clerk in the Privy Seal. Displaced in 1660 by the appointment of Hartgill Barron (a relative by marriage). [-- Does anyone know about this relationship? I can't find any documentation, and Hartgill Barron is an invisible man, except for a 1671 court case in Middlesex.]
But Bickerstaffe was admitted in 1662 to another clerkship there, only to lose it in 1669 on the resignation of Lord Robartes, the Lord Privy Seal.
Bickerstaffe was knighted in 1671.
San Diego Sarah • Link
Not so invisible after all:
Turns out Baron Hartgill was a courier and involved in advocating for the Sealed Knot's aborted uprising in 1659. Charles II and Chancellor Hyde considered him a bit of a hothead, by the end of the mentions of him in
"Travels with the King"
http://archive.org/stream/travels…
Index:
Baron, Hartgill, 325, 390, 432, 436, 437, 446.
takes marriage proposal to James, 436-437. [** this is funny **]
letter of, 443.
Coordinating an invasion (and life) without telephones or email was difficult.
So making Baron Hartgill one of the 4 Clerks of the Privy Seal was another of Charles II's "thank you" appointments.
Mountain Man • Link
The curious arrangement whereby a document is passed for authorization successively from the Signet Seal office to the Privy Seal office and then to the Chancery and the Great Seal dates from the end of the Middle Ages. The history is given in Thomas Frederick Tout's massive Chapters in the Administrative History of Mediaeval England (1920-1933), now online. At each stage fees had to be paid by the beneficiaries to multiple officials like Pepys but extending down to the person who heated the wax for the seal, not to mention the office where the recipient actually got his or her documents with all the seals (the Hanaper). These offices gradually became mostly sinecures and were abolished only in the nineteenth century.