VPRS 11528 Outward Letter Books

Copies of outward correspondence written by the Town Clerk, often in response to letters received, form the contents of this series.Letter books were the means by which copies of correspondence despatched from the office were retained for future reference. Town Clerks outward letter books formed an integral part of the Town Clerks record-keeping system in relation to official correspondence until well into the twentieth century.When letter books were in use inward correspondence was filed separately from the replies. The Inward Correspondence Files for the same period have been registered as VPRS 11387. By 1920, subject filing of inward, and copies of outward, correspondence was operating (see VPRS 11387).During 1909 the letter copies began to include a numerical reference consisting of a numerator/denominator. There are no control records for the period to indicate how the system worked.There is no inward correspondence prior to 1915 in PROV custody. There is no correspondence register in custody for the period covered by these records. If there were a correspondence register, it is probably no longer extant.