Bath Town Clerks' letter books

Reference Number
BC/3/4
Level of Description
Section
Title
Bath Town Clerks' letter books
Date
1860-1967
Extent
Extent: 672 vols
Description
From the mid nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, the Town Clerk or his staff made copies of all the letters they sent out; these were then bound into volumes called 'letter books' or 'out-letter books'. Different methods of making copies were used at different periods, and some pages are very fragile and faded, although others have survived well. Many of the letters deal with only very trivial matters.

Letters received by the Town Clerk were also bound into 'In-letter books'. It is not clear for how long this practice was carried out, but in-letter books have only survived for the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Several different, sometimes partially overlapping, series of out- and in-letter books were kept. In some cases the different series relate to different functions of the Town Clerk, but in others it is not possible to discover why different series were kept.
Contents
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