The Recorder of London is an ancient legal office in the City of London. The Recorder of London is appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the City of London Corporation with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor. The Recorder is the senior Circuit Judge at the Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey), hearing trials of criminal offences. The Recorder's deputy is the Common Serjeant of London, appointed by the Crown on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor. The current Recorder of London is Nicholas Hilliard QC.
The Central Criminal Court, commonly called the Old Bailey after the street on which it is located.
The first Recorder of London was appointed in 1298. Originally it seems likely that the Recorder would have recorded pleas in the court of the Lord Mayor and the aldermen and delivered their judgments. A charter granted by Henry VI in 1444 appointed the Recorder ex officio a conservator of the peace. The Recorder increasingly exercised judicial functions in the following years, eventually becoming the principal judge in the City of London.
The Recorder of London became a judge at the Central Criminal Court when it was created by Parliament in 1834. The Central Criminal Court became a Crown Court under the Courts Act 1971, but the Recorder maintained his position when the office of recorder in other cities became honorary positions.
Functions
In addition to hearing criminal trials at the Central Criminal Court, the Recorder of London is responsible for managing the court lists and allocation of cases to the court's judges. He also provides legal advice to the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen.
The Recorder takes charge of the election of the Lord Mayor of London, declares the result, and presents the new Lord Mayor for the monarch's approval, first to the Lord Chancellor, and then to the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls (at the Royal Courts of Justice on the day of the Lord Mayor's Show). On the occasion of a state visit, the Recorder usually presents an Address of Welcome on behalf of the City.
The Recorder of London is the returning officer at the election of the Verderers of Epping Forest, and is usually appointed high steward of Southwark, holding the sitting of the three courts leet there each year.
The Recorder can act as the deputy of the Common Serjeant in the election of the Sheriff and their presentation to the Queen's Remembrancer at the Quit Rent ceremony.
The current Recorder is Nicholas Hilliard, QC, who succeeded Brian Barker QC in January 2015.
List of Recorders of London
(before 1495 may not be complete)
1298 – (or John) Geoffrey de Norton
1303 – John de Wengrave (later Lord Mayor)
1321 – Jeffrey de Hertpoll (or Hertpole)
1321 – Robert de Swalchyne (or Robert de Swalclyve)
1329 – Gregory de Norton
1339 – Roger de Depham
1353 – Thomas Ludlow (later Chief Baron)
1365 – William de Halden
1377 – William Cheyne (perhaps later Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1389 – John Tremayne
1392 – William Makenade
1394 – John Cokayne
1398 – Matthew de Sulhworth
1403 – Thomas Thornburgh
1405 – John Preston
1415 – John Barton
1422 – John Fray (later Chief Baron)
1426 – John Simonds
1435 – Alexander Anne
1440 – Thomas Cockayn
1440 – William (alias John) Bowes (also Speaker)
1442 – Robert Danvers
1451 – Thomas Billing (later Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1455 – Thomas Urswick (later Chief Baron)
1471 – Sir Humphrey Starkey (later Chief Baron)
1483 – Thomas Fitzwilliam (later Speaker of the House of Commons)
1495–1508 – Sir Robert Sheffield
1508–18 – John Chalyner
1518–20 – Richard Broke (later also Justice of Common Pleas and Chief Baron)
1520–26 – William Shelley (later Justice of Common Pleas)
1526–36 – John Baker
1536–46 – Sir Roger Cholmeley (later Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1546–53 – Robert Broke (later Justice of the Common Pleas, also Speaker)
1553–63 – Ranulph Cholmley (later Chief Justice of the Common Pleas[1])
1563–66 – Richard Onslow
1566–69 – Sir Thomas Bromley (later Lord Chancellor)
1569–71 – Thomas Wilbraham (later a judge of the Court of Wards and Liveries)
1571–91 – William Fleetwood
1591–92 – Edward Coke (later Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and then Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1592–94 – Edward Drew
1594–95 – Thomas Fleming
1595–1603 – John Croke (also Speaker of the House of Commons in 1601)
1603–16 – Henry Montagu (later Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1616 – Thomas Coventry
1616–18 – Sir Anthony Benn
1618 – Richard Martin
1618–20 – Robert Heath
1620 – Robert Shute
1620–31 – Sir Heneage Finch (also Speaker of the House of Commons)
1631–34 – Edward Littleton
1634–35 – Robert Mason
1635 – Sir Henry Calthorpe
1635–43 – Thomas Gardiner
1643 – Peter Phesant
1643–49 – Sir John Glynn (previously Recorder of Westminster)
1649–55 – William Steele (later Chief Baron of the Exchequer and then Lord Chancellor of Ireland)
1655–58 – Lislebone Long
1658–59 – John Green
1659–68 – William Wilde (later Justice of the Common Pleas and then Justice of the King's Bench)
1668–76 – John Howell
1676–78 – Sir William Dolben (later Justice of the King's Bench)
1678–80 – Sir George Jeffreys (later Chief Justice of the King's Bench)
1680–83 – George Treby (displaced after the City of London's charters were suspended in 1683 under the Quo Warranto proceedings; restored in 1692, but then Chief Justice of the Common Pleas)
1683–85 – Sir Thomas Jenner (later Baron of the Exchequer)
1685–87 – Sir John Holt (later Lord Chief Justice)
↑According to Henry Machyn, Cholmley's funeral (as Recorder) was in 1563. See J.G. Nichols (ed.), The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London, Camden Society (London 1848), Original Series Vol. XLII, p. 307.
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