The Chancellor of the Exchequer

Offices of State

by David Kynaston

Throughout our history the contribution of the Offices of State within the framework of the English Constitution has played a vital part. In this fourth book of the series, The Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Kynaston describes the development of that office.

The title itself has its source in the King's chequer-board accounting tables and it was the Lord Chancellor's clerk, keeper of the Exchequer's seal, who in the thirteenth century first became known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

But it was from the accession of Walpole to the Chancellorship in 1715 that the office finally emerged from its secretarial origins, although even as late as 1809 it was not obligatory for the Chancellor to be a member of the Cabinet.

In this detailed study of the office the author includes such eminent names as William Pitt, Palmerston, Gladstone, Lloyd George and Winston Churchill amongst a host of notable Chancellors.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. He has been a professional historian since 1973 and has written eighteen books, including The City of London (1994-2001), a widely acclaimed four-volume history, and W.G.'s Birthday Party, an account of the Gentleman vs. the Players at Lord's in July 1898. He is the author of Austerity Britain, 1945-51, the first title in a series of books covering the history of post-war Britain (1945-1979) under the collective title "Tales of a New Jerusalem".