The Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper was a civil servant within the Irish Chancery in the Dublin Castle administration. His duties corresponded to the offices of Clerk of the Crown and Clerk of the Hanaper in the English Chancery. Latterly, the office's most important functions were to issue writs of election to the Westminster Parliament, both for the House of Commons and for Irish representative peers in the House of Lords.
Functions
In 1859 commissioners investigating the Irish Chancery described the duties of the office thus:
Prior to the acts, enumerated thus in 1817 by commissioners into legal costs: As clerk of the Crown, it is his duty, as appears by his patent, to make out and engross all letters patent for the appointment of sheriffs; all commissions of the peace and gaol delivery, and all process in recognizances of the staple; with some other duties, not now of frequent recurrence. As clerk of the Hanaper, he makes out all letters patent for lands granted by the Crown; all patents of nobility, spiritual and temporal; all presentations by the Crown, to ecclesiastical dignities, and benefices; he is also to prepare and engross all charters of incorporation, grants of fairs, markets, letters of denization, pensions, offices, &c.; and all injunctions, and writs of execution of decrees in Chancery, writs of attachment, and commissions of rebellion, with other Chancery writs.
Until 1836, the Clerk was appointed by letters patent, and could himself appoint a deputy. There were no statutory qualifications required for the post.
In 1868 the Public Record Office of Ireland catalogued the older records it archived from the Hanaper office thus: Writs of Election and Returns of Members of Parliament. Writs and Returns electing Temporal Peers Commissions of Lunacy, Idiocy, &c, and Returns. Writs of Ad quod Damnum. Commissions of Inquiry, and Inquisitions thereunder. Writs to elect Coroners, and Returns. Significavit and Warrants for Writs of Excommunicate Capiendo Apostles and Warrants for Commissions of Delegates Dedimuses to swear in Justices of the Peace, and a number of Six Clerk dockets Fiants Proclamations and Warrants for sealing them. Commissions of Valuation. Warrants for Pardons Commissions to examine Witnesses before Lords Deputy and Council Writs of Ease. Sheriffs' Patents. Warrants for superseding Magistrates. Warrants of Appointment to the office of Custos Rotulorum. Warrants appointing Masters Extraordinary. Commissions of Array. Commissions of Perambulation relating to ecclesiastical matters. Commissions of Assize and Association. Writs of Summons to Parliament (Irish) Rolls of Allegiance Roll of Oaths of Roman Catholic and Assistant Barristers Writs of Scire Facias.
A mandate from Edward IV enumerates "that the Clerc of the Hanapier continuelly receive the fees of the sele of writts, comisssions, and patents, and also all suche fynes as shall be made in the Chaunsery, and thereupon pay the Chaunsellor his fees, wages and rewardes accustomed, and deliver the remnant unto the Kyng's Ex[checquer]. upon his accomptes, which he shall make yerly therof". It also mandates the clerk to appoint deputies in the King's Bench and Common Pleas to collect the fees and fines from those courts.
History
James Roderick O'Flanagan states: The office of Clerk of the Hanaper is of old date in Ireland. In this office the writs relating to the suits of the subject, and the return thereon, were anciently kept in hanaperio, a hamper; while those relating to the crown were placed in parva baga, a little bag; whereon arose the names Hanaper and Petty Bag Offices.
The offices of Clerk of the Hanaper and Clerk of the Crown in Chancery were originally separate but came to be held by the same person in the seventeenth century and were later formally merged. From 1888 the holder was ex officio secretary to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
In the early centuries, the Clerk was often a qualified lawyer. He might reasonably hope for promotion to the office of Attorney-General for Ireland, or to the Bench. At least five Clerks in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries achieved judicial office, or the Attorney-Generalship. The office was an onerous one: in 1427 Stephen Roche, later Attorney-General, petitioned the Privy Council complaining of the great labours he had endured in the King's business, without reward "to his great impoverishment". The Council granted his petition and awarded him 10 marks.