Surrey Record Society

The Society was established in 1912, largely on the initiative of Hilary Jenkinson (1882–1961), then an archivist at the Public Record Office and also honorary secretary of the Surrey Archaeological Society. It had become clear that the Archaeological Society was unable or unwilling to commit itself to a sustained programme of publication of archival sources for the county's history, and Jenkinson believed that an entirely new body was necessary. He became its secretary, and his Record Office colleague M. S. Giuseppi its general editor. Giuseppi stood down in 1924 to be succeeded by Jenkinson, who held the positions of secretary and general editor jointly until 1950. In that year he was elected president of the Society. In these roles, Jenkinson established many of the principles of record editing and publication which were subsequently adhered to not only by the Surrey Record Society itself, but also more widely.

In the interest of speedy publication, it was the Society's practice in its early decades to issue its texts in serial form, as editing work progressed, in "parts" (or fascicles), with card covers. The intention was that, once all the parts comprising a volume had appeared, members could bind them together. Some volumes were issued in parts irregularly over several years, interspersed with parts of other volumes. Publications were generally issued with two separate numerical identifiers, a volume number and a "number" (i.e. a part number), but the details supplied on the covers and title-pages were not always complete or consistent. The practice led to bibliographical confusion for librarians and readers, and was abandoned after the Second World War. Beginning with volume 22 (published in 1955), all volumes were issued complete. From volume 25 (1964) onwards, all volumes have been published in a uniform burnt sienna hardback binding.