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Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ7245053 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary is the clerk of court responsible for the administration of the Supreme Courts of Scotland and their associated staff. The Keeper of the Signet grants a commission to the Principal Clerk of Session to allow His Majesty's Signet to be used.

Gillian Prentice was the first woman to hold the post. The Principal Clerk as of February 2024 is Yvonne Taylor.

The modern office unites the originally separate offices of Principal Clerk of Session (of the Court of Session) and Principal Clerk of Justiciary (of the High Court of Justiciary).

The Crown Agent takes directions from the Principal Clerk of Justiciary when arranging sittings of the High Court of Justiciary.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary” as open-knowledge reference entry. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Principal, Clerk and Session.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2024—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Principal, Clerk and Session providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary”, the useful work is to connect “open-knowledge reference entry” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7245053. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary primary sources, Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary archive and Principal research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Principal Clerk of Session and Justiciary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.