Passport Records

Domestic Records Information 60

1. Introduction

Before the First World War it was not compulsory for someone travelling abroad to apply for a passport. The monarch had, until the seventeenth century, the prerogative right to control the movement of his subjects overseas, and records of applications for and grants of permission to leave the kingdom are to be found among the records of Chancery and the Exchequer. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, passports were issued more frequently, although it was only in 1846 that regulations relating to applications for passports were first formulated. Passports were issued to British-born subjects for a single journey and could be used for any subsequent journey only if countersigned afresh by the ministers or consuls of the countries which the holder intended to visit. Possession of a passport, however, was confined largely to merchants and diplomats, and the vast majority of those travelling overseas had no formal document.

On 30 November 1915 an Order in Council was issued to amend the Defence of the Realm (Consolidation) Regulations of 1914. Among the amendments was the addition of a new regulation, no. 14c, requiring that 'A person coming from or intending to proceed to any place out of the United Kingdom as a passenger shall not, without the special permission of a Secretary of State, land or embark at any port in the United Kingdom unless he has in his possession a valid passport issued to him not more than two years previously, by or on behalf of the Government of the country of which he is a subject or a citizen ...'.

Information held in The National Archives on individual passport-holders is scanty; the Office does not hold completed application forms, except for a small sample illustrating the treatment accorded to applications of various types.

2. Licences to Pass Beyond the Seas

E 157 consists of two boxes of registers of soldiers taking the oath of allegiance before going to serve in the low countries, 1613-24, and of licences to persons going abroad, chiefly to Holland, 1624-32. Also included are a list of licences to pass beyond the seas, 1572-78, and several registers of passengers to New England, Barbados and other colonies, 1634-9, with one of 1677. The registers have been printed in J C Hotten Original Lists of Persons Emigrating to America, 1600-1700 (London, 1874).

3. Entry Books and Registers

Entry Books of passes issued by the Secretaries of State between 1674 and 1784 are in the State Papers, SP 44/334-413 . A further entry book of passes, some signed by the King, between 1748 and 1794 is FO 366/544 . Earlier entries usually give an abstract or copy of the pass, but from January 1793 there is merely a name and a date. There is no index.

Registers from 1795 to 1948 are in FO 610 . The entries are chronological and show merely the date, the number of the passport issued and the name of the applicant. Early registers also show where the applicant was going and by whom he was recommended. A fresh series was started on the appointment of a new Foreign Secretary. For March to May 1915 the register is FO 613/2 .

4. Indexes

Indexes of names of passport applicants are in FO 611 . These cover the years 1851-1862 and 1874-1916. For the latter period the index is not strictly alphabetical. There is a cut for the initial letter of each surname. Within the cut the names are listed chronologically. The indexes record solely the name, the number of the passport and the date of issue.

5. Correspondence

Volumes of the correspondence of the Passport Office were kept in rough chronological order from 1815 to 1905 (FO 612/1-71 ). There is no subject index. From 1906 representative subject files are preserved, illustrating the work of the Office. Reference to such files from 1906 to 1920 is by means of the Foreign Office card index in The National Archives; the files selected for permanent preservation are mostly among the records of the Treaty Department (FO 372 ). From 1921 such files are to be found in FO 612/72-267 . There are registers of correspondence for the years 1868-1893 and 1898-1905 (FO 613/1-4 ). Two volumes of correspondence relating to the issuing of passports by British embassies and consulates and dating from 1886 and 1897-1900, respectively, are in FO 614/1-2 .

6. Representative Case Papers

A small selection of papers illustrating the treatment accorded to applications for various types of passports, visas and certificates, and dating from 1920 to date is preserved in FO 737/1-109 .

7. Representative Examples of Passports Issued

A highly miscellaneous sample of passports is kept in FO 655 . It includes some passports issued in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by foreign missions in Great Britain to British subjects wishing to travel abroad. This practice ceased in 1858. There is also a large selection of passports issued from British embassies, consulates and high commissions. There are also some foreign passports which, for some reason or another (usually cases of dual nationality), have ended up in the hands of the Passport Office. The passports are listed haphazardly, giving date and place of issue. For the early accretions to the series (up to piece 1839) there is a separate index available listing the passports alphabetically by place of issue.

8. Colonial and Consular Issues

Apart from material in the representative series mentioned above, there is information (and on occasion an entry book) which can be found in the records of the relevant consulate, or embassy or colony.

(ri2167) Last updated: 28 June 2004 | © Crown Copyright 2000