Master of the Rolls

The Keeper or Master of the Rolls and Records of the Chancery of England, known as the Master of the Rolls, is the President of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and Head of Civil Justice. As a judge, the Master of the Rolls is second in seniority in England and Wales only to the Lord Chief Justice. The position dates from at least 1286, although it is believed that the office probably existed earlier than that.

The Master of the Rolls was initially a clerk responsible for keeping the "Rolls" or records of the Court of Chancery, and was known as the Keeper of the Rolls of Chancery. The Keeper was the most senior of the dozen Chancery clerks, and as such occasionally acted as keeper of the Great Seal of the Realm. The post evolved into a judicial one as the Court of Chancery did; the first reference to judicial duties dates from 1520. With the Judicature Act 1873, which merged the Court of Chancery with the other major courts, the Master of the Rolls joined the Chancery Division of the High Court and the Court of Appeal, but left the Chancery Division by the terms of the Judicature Act 1881. The Master of the Rolls had also been warden of the little-used Domus Conversorum for housing Jewish converts, which led to the house and chapel being used to store legal documents and later becoming the location of the Public Record Office. He retained his clerical functions as the nominal head of the Public Record Office until the Public Records Act 1958 transferred responsibility for it to the Lord Chancellor. One residual reminder of this role is the fact that the Master of the Rolls of the day continues to serve, ex officio, as President of the British Records Association. The Master of the Rolls was also previously responsible for registering solicitors, the officers of the Senior Courts.

One of the most prominent people to hold the position was Thomas Cromwell, a highly influential figure during the reign of Henry VIII; more recently, Lord Denning held the position for 20 years, from 1962 to 1982, and made sweeping changes in the common law. The current Master of the Rolls is Sir Geoffrey Vos, who took office in January 2021.

The Rolls Estate

The substantial estate of the Domus Conversorum, between London and Westminster, became attached to the office of Master of the Rolls, and was known as the "Rolls Estate", regarded as virtually an Inn of Court.

List of Masters of the Rolls

Gallery

File:Cromwell,Thomas(1EEssex)01.jpg|alt=A Tudor man in a large coat and hat, possibly of fur, sitting at a desk|Thomas Cromwell, a highly influential figure during the reign of Henry VIII

File:Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley from NPG.jpg|alt=An elderly gentleman dressed in a black coat and hat, with a white ruff around his neck. He has a pointed, grey beard, and is holding a red bag with a coat of arms on it.|Sir Thomas Egerton, who served as Lord Keeper and Lord Chancellor for 21 years

File:Sir John Trevor - detail.jpg|alt=A middle-aged, slightly overweight man. He has long, curled hair, possibly a wig, and a heavy, decorated robe.|Sir John Trevor, the last Speaker of the House of Commons to resign in over 300 years until the resignation of Michael Martin in 2009

File:LordLindley cropp.jpg|alt=A man sitting relaxed and facing the right. He is in full judicial dress, with a wig, suit and heavy robe.|Sir Nathaniel Lindley, who made key judgments in a variety of important cases and was the last Serjeant-at-Law appointed, the last to sit as a judge and the last surviving.

File:Lord Bingham.jpg|alt=An elderly gentleman walking along. He is wearing a suit with grey trousers, over which is draped a heavy robe and a gold change. A black hat with a large white plume sits on his head. In the background stands a police woman separated from a group of people by a white cordon.|Tom Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill, who helped establish the UK Supreme Court

</gallery>

{| class="wikitable"

! scope="col" | Portrait

! scope="col" | Name

! scope="col" colspan="2" | Term of office

! scope="col" | Other positions

! scope="col" | Notes

|||||2 September 1286 || 1 October 1295||Lord Chancellor 1292–1302, 1307–1310||

|||||1 October 1295 || 19 August 1316||||

|||||10 January 1341 || 21 February 1341||||

|||||24 October 1386 || 22 July 1394||||

|||||11 September 1397 || 24 September 1402||||

|||||2 March 1405 || 3 June 1415||Lord Privy Seal 1415–1416||

|||||3 June 1415 || 28 October 1423||||

|100x100px

||||16 March 1472 || 9 January 1479||Lord Chancellor 1487–1500, Archbishop of Canterbury 1486–1500||

|||||9 January 1479 || ||||

|||||22 September 1483 || 22 August 1485||||

|||||26 February 1487 || 5 May 1492||||

|||||1 February 1502 || 13 November 1504||||

|||||22 January 1508 || 12 May 1516||||

|85x85px

||||12 May 1516 || 20 October 1522||Lord Privy Seal 1523–1530||

|||||20 October 1522 || 9 October 1523||||

|||||10 July 1536 || 1 July 1541||Solicitor General 1525–1529, Attorney General 1529–1536||

|||||1 July 1541 || 13 December 1550||||

|109x109px

|||5 November 1557 || 30 May 1581||Solicitor General 1553–1557, Speaker of the House of Commons 1558||

|||||30 May 1581 || 10 April 1594||Attorney General 1559–1581||

|96x96px

||||10 April 1594 || 18 May 1603||Solicitor General 1581–1592, Attorney General 1592–1594, Lord Chancellor 1596–1617, First Lord of the Treasury 1613–1614||

|104x104px

||||18 May 1603 || 14 January 1611||||

|97x97px

||||1 September 1614 || 18 April 1636|| Chancellor of the Exchequer 1606–1614||

|95x95px

|| (parliamentary)||10 November 1643 || 14 May 1659||Speaker of the House of Commons 1640–1647, 1647–1653, 1654–1655, 1659–1660||

|91x91px

||||3 November 1660 || 12 January 1685||Speaker of the House of Commons 1660||

|||||12 January 1685 || 20 October 1685|| Attorney-General 1673–85

|91x91px

||||13 January 1693 || 20 May 1717||Speaker of the House of Commons 1685–1689, 1693–1717||

|93x93px

||||13 July 1717 || 19 August 1738||||

|95x95px

|||29 May 1754 || 13 November 1764||||

|||||4 December 1764 || 6 March 1784||||

|85x85px

||||14 June 1788 || 23 May 1801||Solicitor General 1782–1783, 1783–1784, Attorney General 1784–1788, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1801–1804||

|122x122px

||||27 May 1801 || 31 December 1817||Solicitor General 1799–1801||

|115x115px

||||6 January 1818 || 24 March 1824||Solicitor General 1807–1812, Attorney General 1812–1813||

|116x116px

||||5 April 1824 || 4 September 1826||Solicitor General 1817–1819, Attorney General 1819–1824, Chief Justice of the Common Pleas 1824||

|104x104px

||||14 September 1826 || 1 May 1827||Solicitor General 1819–1824, Attorney General 1824–1826, Lord Chancellor 1827–1830, 1834–1835, 1841–1846||

|99x99px

||||3 May 1827 || 14 September 1834||Vice Chancellor of England 1818–1827||

|115x115px||||29 September 1834 || 19 January 1836||Solicitor General 1834, Lord Chancellor 1836–1841, 1846–1850||

|96x96px||||19 January 1836 || 28 March 1851||||

|90x90px||||28 March 1851 || 29 August 1873||Solicitor General 1848, Attorney General 1850||

|99x99px||||3 April 1883 || 18 October 1897||Solicitor General 1868||

|105x105px

||||25 October 1897 || 10 May 1900||||

|112x112px

||||10 May 1900 || 22 October 1900||Lord Chief Justice 1900–1913||

|103x103px

||||23 October 1900 || 19 October 1901||||

|108x108px

|| (The Lord Cozens-Hardy from 1914)||6 March 1907 || 30 April 1918||||

|101x101px

|| (The Lord Hanworth from 1926)||12 October 1923 || 7 October 1935||Solicitor General 1919–1922, Attorney General 1922.||

||||7 October 1935 || 27 April 1937||||

|75x75px

||||4 June 1996 || 6 June 2000||Lord Chief Justice 2000–2005||

|100x100px

|||6 June 2000 || 3 October 2005||Lord Chief Justice 2005–2008, President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom 2009–2012||

|75x75px

| (The Lord Clarke of Stone-cum-Ebony from May 2009) ||3 October 2005 || 30 September 2009||Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, 2009–2017||

|85x85px

||||1 October 2009 ||30 September 2012||President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, 2012–2017||

|85x85px

|||1 October 2012 ||2 October 2016||Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, 2010–2012||

|85x85px

|Sir Terence Etherton (The Lord Etherton from December 2020)

|3 October 2016

|11 January 2021

|Chancellor of the High Court, 2013–2016

|85x85px

|Sir Geoffrey Vos

|11 January 2021

|Incumbent

|Chancellor of the High Court, 2016–2021