The Clerks of the Signet were English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 officials who played an intermediate role in the passage of letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

 through the seals

Seal (device)

A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...

. For most of the history of the position, four clerks were in office simultaneously.

Letters patent prepared by the Clerk of the Patents were engrossed at the Patent Office and then sent by the Secretary of State

Secretary of State (United Kingdom)

In the United Kingdom, a Secretary of State is a Cabinet Minister in charge of a Government Department ....

 to receive the royal sign-manual

Royal sign-manual

The royal sign manual is the formal name given in the Commonwealth realms to the autograph signature of the sovereign, by the affixing of which the monarch expresses his or her pleasure either by order, commission, or warrant. A sign-manual warrant may be either an executive actfor example, an...

. The duty of the Clerks of the Signet was to compare the signed bills with a transcript prepared by the Clerk of the Patents, and then to rewrite the transcript as a bill of privy signet, which was returned to the Secretary of State to be signed with that instrument.

By the end of the seventeenth centuries, many of the Clerks of the Signet performed their work through deputies, with the office itself becoming a sinecure

Sinecure

A sinecure means an office that requires or involves little or no responsibility, labour, or active service...

. The Treasury

HM Treasury

HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...

 was given the authority to reduce the number of clerkships in 1832, abolishing one in 1833 and another in 1846. The two remaining posts were done away with in 1851.

List of Clerks of the Signet

• 1509–1523: Brian Tuke
  Brian Tuke
  Sir Brian Tuke , was the secretary of Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey. He became treasurer of the household.-Life:He may have been son of Richard Tuke and Agnes his wife, daughter of John Bland of Nottinghamshire...
  
  

Date	One	Two	Three	Four
1523	Thomas Derbye	Unknown	Unknown	Unknown
1530		Thomas Wriothesley Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton Thomas Wriothesley, 1st Earl of Southampton, KG , known as The Lord Wriothesley between 1544 and 1547, was a politician of the Tudor period born in London to William Wrythe and Agnes Drayton....
1532			William Paget William Paget, 1st Baron Paget William Paget, 1st Baron Paget of Beaudesert , was an English statesman and accountant who held prominent positions in the service of Henry VIII, Edward VI and Mary I.-Early life:...
bef. 1537				John Godsalve
2 October 1539	John Huttoft
14 April 1540		Thomas Knight
1541	Richard Taverner
bef. 1544			William Honing William Honnyng William Honnyng was an English Member of Parliament and Tudor Court official who served as Clerk of the Signet and Clerk of the Privy Council under Henry VIII and Edward VI.-Early life:...
bef. 1545		William Railton
1547/55	Nicasius Yetsweirt			John Cliffe
30 October 1561		John Somer
December 1569			Sir Thomas Windebank
1578/89	Sir John Wood	Charles Yetsweirt
9 March 1589				Sir Thomas Lake Thomas Lake Sir Thomas Lake was Secretary of State to James I of England. He was a Member of Parliament in 1604, 1614, 1625 and 1626....
23 December 1595		Nicholas Faunt
24 October 1607			Levinus Munck
1608		Francis Gall
5 September 1610	Francis Windebank Francis Windebank Sir Francis Windebank was an English politician who was Secretary of State under Charles I.The only son of Sir Thomas Windebank of Hougham, Lincolnshire, who owed his advancement to the Cecil family, Francis entered St John's College, Oxford, in 1599, coming there under the influence of the...
13 January 1616				Robert Kirkham
27 May 1623			Sir Humphrey May
9 June 1630			John More
15 June 1632	Sir Abraham Williams
1638			Edward Norgate	Philip Warwick
1641/5		Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640. He supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War.Windebanke was the son of Sir Francis Windebanke Secretary of State to King Charles I...

Appointments were not made under the Commonwealth of England

Commonwealth of England

The Commonwealth of England was the republic which ruled first England, and then Ireland and Scotland from 1649 to 1660. Between 1653–1659 it was known as the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland...

 until 1655.

• 16 June 1655: James Nutley
• 20 March 1656: Samuel Morland

Appointments resumed upon the Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 in 1660, including two of the former officeholders, Warwick and Windebanke.

Date	One	Two	Three	Four
1660	Sir Philip Warwick Philip Warwick Sir Philip Warwick , English writer and politician, born in Westminster, was the son of Thomas Warwick, or Warrick, a musician....	Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet Sir Thomas Windebanke, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640. He supported the Royalist side in the English Civil War.Windebanke was the son of Sir Francis Windebanke Secretary of State to King Charles I...	William Trumbull	Sir John Nicholas
bet. 1674–1678		Sidney Bere
1678			Nicholas Morice
15 January 1683	Sir William Trumbull William Trumbull Sir William Trumbull was an English statesman who held high office as a member of the First Whig Junto.-Biography:...
1684		John Gauntlett
9 February 1705				William Cooke
25 August 1708			Joseph Moyle
18 February 1716	Hon. Peter Alexander
2 October 1716		Gauntlet Fry
28 May 1728				Charles Delafaye Thomas Delafaye
13 November 1729	Edward Weston Edward Weston (politician) - Early life and education :He was the second son of Stephen Weston [q. v.], bishop of Exeter. He was born at Eton in 1703, and was educated at Eton College and at King's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1719, graduating B.A. in 1723 and M.A...
7 May 1736			Sir Joseph Copley, 1st Baronet
22 May 1746		William Blair
1747				Charles Delafaye
22 December 1762				James Rivers
15 July 1770	Montagu Wilkinson
16 April 1781			John Tirel Morin
4 March 1782		William Fraser
June 1797	Eardley Wilmot
24 January 1801	Sir Brook Taylor
11 December 1802		William Harry Edward Bentinck
19 March 1807			John Gage
30 October 1807				Thomas Norton Powlett
26 February 1825				Alexander Cockburn
8 May 1826				Augustus Granville Stapleton
1831				abolished
15 October 1846	abolished
26 January 1847			Charles Samuel Grey
7 August 1851		Office abolished