Lord Clerk Register

The office of Lord Clerk Register is the oldest surviving Great Officer of State in Scotland, with origins in the 13th century.

The Clerk-Register was from ancient times the principal Clerk in the kingdom, from whom all other clerks, whatever their government positions, and who were essentially his deputies, derived their immediate authority. He acted also as Clerk to the parliament and Privy Council, where in the old registers and proceedings of parliament he is referred to as Clericus Rotulorum, because the ancient scripts were in rolls of paper (as opposed to codices). These later became termed Rotuli parliamenti, the rolls of court, but were thereafter ordered to be made up into Register books and the respective clerks instructed to transmit those books to the Clerk-Register to be preserved by him in the public archives.