When the trustee had realised as much of the bankrupt's assets as possible to pay his debts, he could apply for a release, discharging his responsibility. Official Assignees' accounts, before 1884, are in BT 40 . These case files, dating from 1879, may also deal with audits and official releases - there is a card index of names for the official release files on open access. The pre-1914 cases are indexed by name in a card index also on open access. Thereafter, the indexes are in BT 293 .
Most cases are personal bankruptcies, ranging from comedians to stock-brokers.
Petitions to the High Court Registers of petitions to the High Court, by or against debtors, chronologically arranged by initial letter of surname from 1884, which record the names, addresses and occupations of the debtors and petitioning creditors, the name and address of the solicitor, and the alleged act of bankruptcy committed, are in B 11 . The actual petition will only have survived if there is a case file in B 9 on which it has been filed. Names of trustees may also be given, although not if the official receiver was acting as trustee. These files may be one or more substantial volumes - those for A W Carpenter, trading as the Charing Cross Bank, run to 152 volumes. An incomplete series of registers of petitions for protection from process in county court cases, covering the period 1854-1964, is in LCO 28 .