UK Parliamentary Archives

• Held At: Parliamentary Archives: GB-061
• Catalogue Reference: HC/SO
• Ref No: HC/SO
• Date: 1745-2013
• Level: Sub fonds
• Extent: 8 series
• Creator Name: House of Commons, Speaker's Department 16th Century-1978
• Creator Name: House of Commons, Office of the Speaker 1978-
• Administrative or Biographical History: The Speaker is the principal officer of the House of Commons. He or she is also an MP and unless he or she wishes to retire, must stand for re-election at a general election like any other Member. He or she is elected to office by the other Members of the House from among their own number. The Speaker acts as Chairman during debates, and sees that the rules laid down by the House for the carrying on of its business are observed. It is the Speaker who selects (or calls) Members to speak. He or she acts as the House's representative in its corporate relations with outside bodies and the other elements of Parliament: the House of Lords and the Crown. The Speaker is also responsible for protecting the interests of minorities in the House.
  
  The Speaker has three deputies. The Chairman of Ways and Means takes the Chair when the House is in Committee or discussing ways and means resolutions, such as those in the Budget, and there is a First Deputy Chairman and a Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means. The Speaker and three deputies do not vote in Divisions of the House. If, however, there is a tied vote, the occupant of the Chair must exercise a casting vote.
  
  Speakers are elected at the beginning of each new Parliament (i.e. after every General Election) or when previous the Speaker dies or retires. New procedures for the election of the Speaker were agreed by the House on 22 March 2001 (Standing Order Nos. 1, 1A and 1B).
  
  The Speaker also has an administrative role, as ex-officio Chairman of the House of Commons Commission. The Commission is the employer of all permanent staff of the House. The various domestic committees of the House make recommendations to the Commission on matters concerning the control of accommodation services and facilities to Members, including their financial implications.
  
  The Speaker is paid a salary on a par with Cabinet Ministers. Pensions for former Speakers used to be fixed by a special Bill (Mr Speaker 's Retirement Act) after they resigned, but are now calculated according to the Parliamentary and Other Salaries and Pensions Acts.
  
  The first known person to act as Speaker of the House of Commons was Sir Peter de la Mare, Knight of the Shire for Herefordshire, elected in the 1376 'Good Parliament'. to represent the views of the House of Commons when answering John of Gaunt's financial demands. The Speakership under its present title dates back to 1377 when Sir Thomas Hungerford was appointed. Equivalent presiding officers before this time were called 'parlour' or 'prolocutor' and have been identified as far back as 1258 when Peter de Montfort is said to have presided over the "Mad Parliament" held at Oxford that year.
  
  The Speaker's function in those early days was not to preside over debates with a view to keeping order, but to listen to all that was said and to collect the views of the House as a whole. It is not even certain that he sat as chairman, he may well have taken his place with the other members. Sir Arnold Savage, appointed Speaker in 1401, was the first to introduce a speech delivered to the Sovereign, reviewing the work of the session. Speakers in the Tudor era reflected the subservience of Parliament to the Crown, their election being nothing more than a Royal appointment.
  
  Up to the seventeenth century, the Speaker was often an agent of the King, though some Speakers encountered difficulties when reporting the view of the Commons to the Monarch. During the Civil War in the 1640s, however, the struggle between Crown and Parliament was reflected in the attitude of Speakers to the House in relation to the King. It is often said the Speaker Lenthall's celebrated reply in the House to King Charles I in 1642, when he had come to arrest five Members for treason, sums up the then new philosophy of the Speaker's duty to the House:-
  
  'May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me'.
  
  After the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Speakers were usually associated politically with Governments and often held an office in Government. Arthur Onslow (Speaker 1728-1761) was responsible for slackening these ties and establishing many of the practices associated with the Speaker today. By the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of the Speaker being above party was the norm.
  
  In 1689, the first year of the reign of William and Mary, one of the first Acts to be passed through Parliament was the establishment of the Speaker as the first commoner in the land. He ranked immediately after the Peers in the order of precedence and this remained unchanged until 1919.
  
  In 1728, Arthur Onslow was appointed Speaker and for thirty three years he maintained a strict and impartial control over the proceedings of the House of Commons. He also preserved the independence and impartiality of the Chair, setting the high standards for which it is renowned today. However, speakers even in the early 19th century failed to detach themselves completely from party loyalty and it was not until the appointment of Charles Shaw-Lefevre in 1839, a man of moderate political attachments, that the office of Speaker became more independent from political involvement. Speakers in the House of Commons since 1895:-
  
  1895-1905 W C Gully
  1905-1921 J W Lowther
  1921-1928 J H Whitley
  1928-1943 E A Fitzroy (Died in office)
  1943-1951 D Clifton Brown
  1951-1959 W S Morrison
  1959-1965 Sir H Hylton-Foster
  1965-1971 Dr Horace Maybury King
  1971-1976 J Selwyn Lloyd
  1976-1983 George Thomas
  1983-1992 Bernard Weatherill
  1992-2000 Miss Betty Boothroyd
  2000-2009 Michael J Martin
  2009-2019 John Bercow
  2019- Lindsay Hoyle
  
  The Speaker takes part in several ceremonies, and certain rituals are observed on every day that Parliament is in session. The most frequently performed is the Speaker's procession, preceding each sitting of the House. The procession consists of a Badge Messenger, the Serjeant at Arms bearing the Mace, symbol of the Speaker's authority, the Speaker himself, his train-bearer, his Chaplain and his Secretary. No records survive explaining the origin of this procession. It is possible that in earlier, more violent times, the Speaker used a bodyguard for security, hence the presence of the Serjeant at Arms with the Mace. It appears that the Serjeant at Arms had a close relationship with the Speaker as early as 1415, as the former was granted by letters patent "to wait upon the Speaker" for the enforcement of Parliamentary privilege, but only when the House was sitting. The presence of a law enforcement officer with the royal insignia reinforced the authority of the Speaker amongst Members. Today, the Serjeant at Arms still attends to the Speaker as well as to the House of Commons.
  
  The Speaker is also the administrative head of a department. In a Select Committee which took place in 1833, it is mentioned that the Speaker's Department consisted of the Speaker himself, his Secretary and his Chaplain, and he was also responsible for the Library. His responsibilities increased over the years, and the Speaker's department expanded to include the House of Commons Library from 1818 until 1967 when the Library became an independent department, the Office of Collector of Fees also known as the Accountant's Office, the Vote Office, the Sale Office and the shorthand writers of Hansard. The heads of all departments were appointed by the Speaker. This changed in 1978 with the House of Commons Administration Act when the Speaker ceased to have responsibility for other House of Commons departments and became the Speaker's Office. From this date, the Speaker's office has consisted of a Secretary, an Assistant to the Secretary, Chaplain, Trainbearer, Counsel, Diary Secretary and two Administrators. The Trainbearer's post was created in 1730 and his main responsibility is to carry the Speaker's train during official ceremonies; he also cares for the Speaker's robe and wig and carries out some administrative duties. The office of Speaker's Counsel was created in 1838. His duty is to provide legal advice to the Speaker, the Chairman of Ways and Means and other Officers of the House.
  
  The Speaker's Secretary is the head of the office of the Speaker and a senior Officer of the House of Commons. He helps the Speaker in his formal duties in and out of the Chamber and deals with social and official relations with Members and outside bodies and persons. H was a member of the Staff Board concerned with appointments, rates of pay, promotions, retirements and other such matters, from 1945, date of creation of the Board, until 1978, when the Staff Board was disbanded. The origin of this office may lie in the provision of simple clerical help to the Speaker by a member of his own private household. It seems that the office rose in status from the sixteenth century and that the early "Secretaries" turned themselves into officers of the House as well as servants of the Speaker. A Secretary is known to have existed just after the Restoration in the middle of the seventeenth century. However, evidence suggests that an Assistant to the Speaker was drawing an income from fees from the latter part of the sixteenth century. Secretaries to the Speaker in the House of Commons since the 1860s:-
  
  1860s-1872 Robert Alfred Denison
  1872-1884 Charles Walter Campion
  1884-1895 Edward Ponsonby
  1895-1910 Hon E W K Gully
  1910-1914 Hon Sir Edward Cadogan
  1914-1915 V W D Fox
  1915-1919 F C Bramwell
  1919-1921 Hon Sir Edward Cadogan
  1921-1955 Sir Ralph Verney
  1955-1970 Sir Francis Reid
  1970-1982 Sir Noel Short
  1982-1986 W A Beaumont
  1986-1993 Sir P Kitkat
  1993- Sir Nicholas Bevan
  
  The post of Speaker's Chaplain is also referred to as Chaplain to the House, even though he has long been regarded as part of the Speaker's staff. The office officially originated in 1660, when the first person to be appointed as Chaplain was Edward Voyce, although the presence of a clergyman to conduct prayers in the House is recorded in the Cromwellian Parliament of 1659. The Chaplain did not receive an official salary until 1835, consisting then of £200 a year. He is appointed by the Speaker and accepted by the House, and, as well as his obligations towards Members, he provides a pastoral ministry when required by the staff of the Palace of Westminster. Since 1972, the Speaker's Chaplain has also been the Rector of St Margaret's Church situated next to Westminster Abbey and which is used regularly by the House of Commons. The Chaplain can also perform baptisms and marriages in the Crypt or Chapel of St Mary Undercroft situated within the Palace of Westminster.
• Administrative or Biographical History: The Speaker is the principal officer of the House of Commons. He or she is also an MP and unless he or she wishes to retire, must stand for re-election at a general election like any other Member. He or she is elected to office by the other Members of the House from among their own number. The Speaker acts as Chairman during debates, and sees that the rules laid down by the House for the carrying on of its business are observed. It is the Speaker who selects (or calls) Members to speak. He or she acts as the House's representative in its corporate relations with outside bodies and the other elements of Parliament: the House of Lords and the Crown. The Speaker is also responsible for protecting the interests of minorities in the House.
  
  The Speaker has three deputies. The Chairman of Ways and Means takes the Chair when the House is in Committee or discussing ways and means resolutions, such as those in the Budget, and there is a First Deputy Chairman and a Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means. The Speaker and three deputies do not vote in Divisions of the House. If, however, there is a tied vote, the occupant of the Chair must exercise a casting vote.
  
  Speakers are elected at the beginning of each new Parliament (i.e. after every General Election) or when previous the Speaker dies or retires. New procedures for the election of the Speaker were agreed by the House on 22 March 2001 (Standing Order Nos. 1, 1A and 1B).
  
  The Speaker also has an administrative role, as ex-officio Chairman of the House of Commons Commission. The Commission is the employer of all permanent staff of the House. The various domestic committees of the House make recommendations to the Commission on matters concerning the control of accommodation services and facilities to Members, including their financial implications.
  
  The Speaker is paid a salary on a par with Cabinet Ministers. Pensions for former Speakers used to be fixed by a special Bill (Mr Speaker 's Retirement Act) after they resigned, but are now calculated according to the Parliamentary and Other Salaries and Pensions Acts.
  
  The first known person to act as Speaker of the House of Commons was Sir Peter de la Mare, Knight of the Shire for Herefordshire, elected in the 1376 'Good Parliament'. to represent the views of the House of Commons when answering John of Gaunt's financial demands. The Speakership under its present title dates back to 1377 when Sir Thomas Hungerford was appointed. Equivalent presiding officers before this time were called 'parlour' or 'prolocutor' and have been identified as far back as 1258 when Peter de Montfort is said to have presided over the "Mad Parliament" held at Oxford that year.
  
  The Speaker's function in those early days was not to preside over debates with a view to keeping order, but to listen to all that was said and to collect the views of the House as a whole. It is not even certain that he sat as chairman, he may well have taken his place with the other members. Sir Arnold Savage, appointed Speaker in 1401, was the first to introduce a speech delivered to the Sovereign, reviewing the work of the session. Speakers in the Tudor era reflected the subservience of Parliament to the Crown, their election being nothing more than a Royal appointment.
  
  Up to the seventeenth century, the Speaker was often an agent of the King, though some Speakers encountered difficulties when reporting the view of the Commons to the Monarch. During the Civil War in the 1640s, however, the struggle between Crown and Parliament was reflected in the attitude of Speakers to the House in relation to the King. It is often said the Speaker Lenthall's celebrated reply in the House to King Charles I in 1642, when he had come to arrest five Members for treason, sums up the then new philosophy of the Speaker's duty to the House:-
  
  'May it please Your Majesty, I have neither eyes to see, nor tongue to speak in this place, but as the House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here, and I humbly beg Your Majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what Your Majesty is pleased to demand of me'.
  
  After the restoration of the Monarchy in 1660, Speakers were usually associated politically with Governments and often held an office in Government. Arthur Onslow (Speaker 1728-1761) was responsible for slackening these ties and establishing many of the practices associated with the Speaker today. By the mid-nineteenth century, the concept of the Speaker being above party was the norm.
  
  In 1689, the first year of the reign of William and Mary, one of the first Acts to be passed through Parliament was the establishment of the Speaker as the first commoner in the land. He ranked immediately after the Peers in the order of precedence and this remained unchanged until 1919.
  
  In 1728, Arthur Onslow was appointed Speaker and for thirty three years he maintained a strict and impartial control over the proceedings of the House of Commons. He also preserved the independence and impartiality of the Chair, setting the high standards for which it is renowned today. However, speakers even in the early 19th century failed to detach themselves completely from party loyalty and it was not until the appointment of Charles Shaw-Lefevre in 1839, a man of moderate political attachments, that the office of Speaker became more independent from political involvement. Speakers in the House of Commons since 1895:-
  
  1895-1905 W C Gully
  1905-1921 J W Lowther
  1921-1928 J H Whitley
  1928-1943 E A Fitzroy (Died in office)
  1943-1951 D Clifton Brown
  1951-1959 W S Morrison
  1959-1965 Sir H Hylton-Foster
  1965-1971 Dr Horace Maybury King
  1971-1976 J Selwyn Lloyd
  1976-1983 George Thomas
  1983-1992 Bernard Weatherill
  1992-2000 Miss Betty Boothroyd
  2000-2009 Michael J Martin
  2009-2019 John Bercow
  2019- Lindsay Hoyle
  
  The Speaker takes part in several ceremonies, and certain rituals are observed on every day that Parliament is in session. The most frequently performed is the Speaker's procession, preceding each sitting of the House. The procession consists of a Badge Messenger, the Serjeant at Arms bearing the Mace, symbol of the Speaker's authority, the Speaker himself, his train-bearer, his Chaplain and his Secretary. No records survive explaining the origin of this procession. It is possible that in earlier, more violent times, the Speaker used a bodyguard for security, hence the presence of the Serjeant at Arms with the Mace. It appears that the Serjeant at Arms had a close relationship with the Speaker as early as 1415, as the former was granted by letters patent "to wait upon the Speaker" for the enforcement of Parliamentary privilege, but only when the House was sitting. The presence of a law enforcement officer with the royal insignia reinforced the authority of the Speaker amongst Members. Today, the Serjeant at Arms still attends to the Speaker as well as to the House of Commons.
  
  The Speaker is also the administrative head of a department. In a Select Committee which took place in 1833, it is mentioned that the Speaker's Department consisted of the Speaker himself, his Secretary and his Chaplain, and he was also responsible for the Library. His responsibilities increased over the years, and the Speaker's department expanded to include the House of Commons Library from 1818 until 1967 when the Library became an independent department, the Office of Collector of Fees also known as the Accountant's Office, the Vote Office, the Sale Office and the shorthand writers of Hansard. The heads of all departments were appointed by the Speaker. This changed in 1978 with the House of Commons Administration Act when the Speaker ceased to have responsibility for other House of Commons departments and became the Speaker's Office. From this date, the Speaker's office has consisted of a Secretary, an Assistant to the Secretary, Chaplain, Trainbearer, Counsel, Diary Secretary and two Administrators. The Trainbearer's post was created in 1730 and his main responsibility is to carry the Speaker's train during official ceremonies; he also cares for the Speaker's robe and wig and carries out some administrative duties. The office of Speaker's Counsel was created in 1838. His duty is to provide legal advice to the Speaker, the Chairman of Ways and Means and other Officers of the House.
  
  The Speaker's Secretary is the head of the office of the Speaker and a senior Officer of the House of Commons. He helps the Speaker in his formal duties in and out of the Chamber and deals with social and official relations with Members and outside bodies and persons. H was a member of the Staff Board concerned with appointments, rates of pay, promotions, retirements and other such matters, from 1945, date of creation of the Board, until 1978, when the Staff Board was disbanded. The origin of this office may lie in the provision of simple clerical help to the Speaker by a member of his own private household. It seems that the office rose in status from the sixteenth century and that the early "Secretaries" turned themselves into officers of the House as well as servants of the Speaker. A Secretary is known to have existed just after the Restoration in the middle of the seventeenth century. However, evidence suggests that an Assistant to the Speaker was drawing an income from fees from the latter part of the sixteenth century. Secretaries to the Speaker in the House of Commons since the 1860s:-
  
  1860s-1872 Robert Alfred Denison
  1872-1884 Charles Walter Campion
  1884-1895 Edward Ponsonby
  1895-1910 Hon E W K Gully
  1910-1914 Hon Sir Edward Cadogan
  1914-1915 V W D Fox
  1915-1919 F C Bramwell
  1919-1921 Hon Sir Edward Cadogan
  1921-1955 Sir Ralph Verney
  1955-1970 Sir Francis Reid
  1970-1982 Sir Noel Short
  1982-1986 W A Beaumont
  1986-1993 Sir P Kitkat
  1993- Sir Nicholas Bevan
  
  The post of Speaker's Chaplain is also referred to as Chaplain to the House, even though he has long been regarded as part of the Speaker's staff. The office officially originated in 1660, when the first person to be appointed as Chaplain was Edward Voyce, although the presence of a clergyman to conduct prayers in the House is recorded in the Cromwellian Parliament of 1659. The Chaplain did not receive an official salary until 1835, consisting then of £200 a year. He is appointed by the Speaker and accepted by the House, and, as well as his obligations towards Members, he provides a pastoral ministry when required by the staff of the Palace of Westminster. Since 1972, the Speaker's Chaplain has also been the Rector of St Margaret's Church situated next to Westminster Abbey and which is used regularly by the House of Commons. The Chaplain can also perform baptisms and marriages in the Crypt or Chapel of St Mary Undercroft situated within the Palace of Westminster.
• Description: The Speaker's papers comprise 8 series. HC/SO/1 consists of a collection of various historical records, HC/SO/2 contains the Speaker's office files, HC/SO/3 consists of the volumes of Speaker Arthur Onslow, HC/SO/4 contains the Speaker's Papers and Proceedings on the Conference on Electoral Reform, HC/SO/5 consists of the papers of D Scott, Secretary to the Speaker's Committee, on the "700th Anniversary of Simon de Montfort's Parliament 1265-1965", HC/SO/6 comprises photographs and prints of Speakers and of the Speaker's Coach, HC/SO/7 contains the Speaker's Office Registers and Volumes and HC/SO/8 consists of the Speaker's Certificates for Appointment of the Chairmen of Committees.
• Language: English, French, Spanish, Italian
• Related Material: There are several files in ARC, including drawings and photographs, relating to the Speaker's House. Papers relating to individual Speakers include: BRA (Speaker Henry Bouverie William Brand 1872-1884), ONS (Speaker Arthur Onslow 1728-1761) and other records can be found by performing an authority search on the House of Commons, Speaker, 1316-.
• Access Status: Open
• Access Conditions: Open after 30 years unless otherwise stated. HC/SO/6/18 recorded as missing January 2024
• Physical Description: Typescript, manuscript and printed
• Publication Notes: "The Office of the Speaker" Philip Laundy, London (1964). See also the Information Sheet published by the House of Commons Information Office on "The Speaker" ref. M2. There are also four House of Commons Library publications : "Document No 19 Chaplain to Mr Speaker" David Gray (HMSO, 1990) and "Document No 22 Secretary to the Speaker, Ralph Verney's Correspondence" Ed. Sir Robin Maxwell-Hyslop (HMSO, 1999), "Document No. 14 Secretaries to Mr Speaker" W R McKay (HMSO, 186) and a booklet produced by the Library's Education Officer "The Speaker of the House of Commons". For a modern history of the Speaker's office prior to 1978, see "The Officers of the Commons 1363-1965" P Marsden, London 1966, pp 176-195.

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