Register of Inwards and Outwards Correspondence (also known as Inwards and Outwards Letter Book)

Full description

Successive Instructions to Clerks of Courts specified the creation of Registers of letters and other communications, both inwards and outwards to be kept according to a specified format. By the issue of the 1939 Instructions, these registers were referred to as Letter Books.

For inwards correspondence, these instructions specified that unless the item was marked to be returned, it should be endorsed, after registration, with the date and the name of the writer, and numbered with a current number (to be recorded also in the register) and filed in consecutive order, a short prcis of the subject matter having been first endorsed therein.

Inwards registers recorded the date of receipt, from whom, the date and subject of the letter and how the letter was disposed of (ie dealt with).

The Instructions also specified that in cases of importance (a term which was not defined), copies of communications outwards should be written in the (outward) letter register. By 1939 this instruction had been refined to read that all outwards correspondence should be entered in the outward letter books and that copies of communications outwards should be kept in the Office for cases of importance.

Outwards registers recorded the date of despatch, to whom sent, subject detail and postage costs.