9. The term 'letters patent' is derived from the Latin term 'literae patentes' meaning "open letters". Primarily, a letters patent would denote a public grant from the sovereign to a subject, conferring the right to land, a franchise, a title, liberty, or some other endowment. These were letters addressed by the sovereign 'to all whom these presents shall come', reciting a grant of some dignity, office, franchise, or other privilege that has been given by the sovereign to the patentee.' The historical perspective of this is available in the National Archives of the United Kingdom, which is a Government Department and an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice. It sets out that 'Letters Patent' were letters issued 'open' or 'patent' expressing the sovereign's will on a variety of matters of public interest, sealed with the sovereign's great seal pendent. The patent rolls record the issue of letters patent from the reign of King John. The entries on the rolls are of a very diverse nature referring to the royal prerogative, revenue, the differential negotiations with foreign princes and states, letters of protection, of credence and of safe-conduct and the appointments and powers of ambassadors. There are also grants and confirmations of liberties, offices, privileges, lands and wardships, both to public bodies and to private individuals, charters of incorporation and so on. Letters patent are stated to have been much reduced in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries, as the kinds of
