England Court Records: Difference between revisions

''[[England]] [[Image:Gotoarrow.png|go to]] [[England_Court_Records|Court Records]]''  

Most researchers use court records after they have investigated other records. Court records tend to be difficult to use since few are indexed, the handwriting is hard to read, and they include unfamiliar legal terms. To interpret court records, you may need to consult a dictionary.  

There are many English courts. Those described here (except for the Chancery Court and the Court of the Exchequer) generally pertain to the poorer classes. If your ancestor was wealthy, search the records described in the "[[England Land and Property|Land and Property]]" article.  

==== Quarter Session Courts  ====

'''Chart: Survival of Manorial Documents (data from Travers)'''  

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! scope="col" | Surviving manorial documents  

'''Chart: Format of a Court Roll or Record'''<br>There is some variation in the order of items after the first two.  

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| Name of manor, lord and steward.<br>Place and date of court.<br>Essoins (excuses).<br>List of homage (jury) of 12 or more men.<br>Appointment of officers.<br>Presentments.  

*www.ancestry.com ($) [http://search.ancestryinstitution.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1590 England &amp; Wales Criminal Registers, 1791-1892] (Quarter Sessions &amp; Assize Courts).

*[http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk]- Nearly 200,000 criminal trials at London’s central criminal court.

Calendars to Close Rolls from 1227 to 1468 are available online, see [http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/sources/rolls.shtml Some Notes on English Medieval Genealogy].  

==== Patent Rolls  ====

These are public documents which are not closed, having their great seals appended (for example dangling by a strip of ribbon or vellum at the bottom). Patent Rolls date from 3 John to 9 George VI, and are the longest unbroken set of archives extant in the world, over 740 years! They deal with national affairs such as treaties; grants and confirmations of liberties, offices, privileges, lands and wardships to private persons and public bodies; charters of incorporation; licences for the election of bishops; and creations of nobility (Fitzhugh). In addition, denization was recorded on the patent rolls prior to 1844. Patent Rolls are at TNA in class C 66. An example from patent rolls follows:  

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| '''Patent Rolls 2 Dec 1301''' [from Peen]<br>Complaint by John de Bello Compo about 30 named men who cut his corn at night at Chepstode, Surrey while he was away in Scotland on the King’s Service and carried it away. They also took and drove 200 sheep from his fold and took two of his servants and imprisoned them <br>

Calendars have been printed for the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, Edward III, Richard II, Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Edward IV, Henry VII, Philip and Mary, Elizabeth I, and James I.  

==== Charter Rolls  ====

The fine rolls were originally known as ''oblata rolls'', and run from 1199 to 1641. They record moneys received by the king for grants, charters, writs, privileges and pardons given; these include permission to allow an heir to come into his or her inheritance, letters of protection for those travelling abroad, grants of wardship and marriage. Unett remarks that fines, essentially fees or taxes, constituted a large part of the monarch’s income and are the equivalent of today’s dog, television and gun licences. They also record the appointment of royal officials and all orders sent to sheriffs, escheators and exchequer officers. Some early ones have been published by the Record Commission, and TNA has calendars for the later periods.  

==== Parliament Rolls  ====

The records from 5 Richard I to 56 Henry III, that is 1194-1272, are at TNA in class KB 26. Plaintiffs often submitted their pedigrees to the court in order to establish their right as free subjects to plead. An introduction to the ''curia regis rolls'' 1199-1230 was written by Flower (''Introduction to the Curia Regis Rolls'' ''1199-1230 AD''. Selden Society volume 62. {{FHL|599447|item|disp=FHL film 1414824}}, who transcribed and indexed many of them—two examples are shown in the reference section. All sorts and conditions of men, and women, appear in these rolls as they were caught in the meshes of the law.  

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| ''A certain Richard who lost money playing dice with Henry II and had to mortgage his manor in Northamptonshire to pay him. ''<br>

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| ''The defendant in a case of an alleged stolen mare claimed he was given it and some pigs in exchange for teaching him fencing.''

*''Writ of certiorari'' for a disputed administrative order, especially the removal of a pauper.

===== Online  =====

Some examples of cases from King’s Bench include:  

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| ''The Selden Society has published a translation of select cases in the court of King’s Bench 1290-1300 in their volumes 55, 57 and 58 {{FHL|601163|item|disp=FHL film 1414823}} and volume 88 contains selected cases 1377-1422'' {{FHL|674302|item|disp=FHL book 942 p3ss v.80}}.

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| ''Titford has details of Burrow’s rare book on settlement cases at King’s Bench 1732-1776, with many examples.''

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| ''A Richard Jupp was challenged as a juror in the trial of William Stone for High Treason at King’s Bench in January 1796 as he was not a freeholder. (From Thomson Gale website).''

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| ''Newspapers reported the activities of the court with a great deal of relish, for example in The Times 26 Feb 1816 there is a long report of a smuggling case (The King v. Jupp) that took place near Brighthelmstone (now Brighton), Sussex involving 500 half ankers of spirits!''

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| ''Dodgy horse-trading in Clapham came before King’s Bench in 1817 - this case is described in East Surrey FHS Journal vol 25 #1, page xv.''

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| ''A nice example of a case heard at King’s Bench for grave robbery in 1828 in Yarmouth is given in Family Tree Magazine volume 8 #9, page 8.''

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| ''Another Queen’s Bench case reported in The Times in Nov 1841 and Jan 1842 concerns a libel suit against Thomas Topping, publisher of The Hull Packet for some nasty remarks about his local magistrates!''

The ''court of common pleas;'' also known as the ''court of common bench'', was one of the three courts of common law. It developed from the 12^th century as a subdivision of the ''curia regis'' (king’s court), remaining in London while the king and his ''curia regis'' travelled around the country. It sat in a certain spot in Westminster Hall and decided controversies concerning civil cases between the king’s subjects, cases involving claims to land, trespass and debt. It was the busiest of the common law courts in the Middle Ages and its earlier records are called the ''de banco'' rolls after the bench of judges. The later records are called ''common rolls'' and all are in TNA in class CP. There does not seem to be much on film, except some translated and published Northumbrian ones 1273-1280 on {{FHL|274206|item|disp=FHL fiche 6073440-1(4)}}. Below you can see how detailed the newspaper reports can be.  

'''Chart: Newspaper Report of Case at Court of Common Pleas 1823<br>The Times 28 Jun 1823 (pg 6, issue 11910, col D)'''<br>  

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| One of my (thankfully distant) relatives appeared at the '''''Court of Common Pleas''''' on 27 Jun 1823 in the case of ''Dashwood (clerk) v. Garnham''. Mr. Dashwood, a Church of England clergyman from Suffolk, was the plaintiff and the defendant was a shopkeeper at Beccles, who was sued for damages for malicious arrest. The report begins by explaining how Mr Dashwood confiscated his wife’s private income, then gave her an allowance which had not been paid for three years.<br>It appeared that Mr Dashwood ''was a man of a very strange and parsimonious disposition, and in the beginning of 1819 he forbade the defendant to give his wife credit. He and his wife did not separate, however, and are still living together, but not on the most agreeable terms. She was in the habit of dealing at the defendant’s shop, and between December 1819 and December 1821 she purchased various articles of dress for herself and her daughter (the latter a young lady of eighteen) which amounted to £54. Mrs Dashwood having no means of paying this, in consequence of the stoppage of her annual allowance, the defendant sent his bill to the plaintiff, who declined paying it.''<br>The defendant sued out a writ against him and Mr Dashwood was put in gaol for two hours, the time it took to procure bail. This information was collected from Mr Dashwood’s own brother-in-law, Mr Farre, who stated that ''he was a disgrace to his family''. After further details, ''the jury, without hesitation, found'' ''a verdict for the defendant''.<br>Annoyingly, ''The Times'' does not give first names anywhere in the article, and the Norfolk branch of the Dashwoods has several clergymen. From other studies I know this is Rev Jarrett Dashwood who married Harriott Burton in 1802. They had three sons and a daughter, Harriet born 1804, and both parents died in Beccles in the 1850s. Such fascinating material for a life-history! <br>

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==== Star Chamber  ====

'''Chart: Some Cases in Star Chamber'''  

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! scope="col" | Parties<br>  

''The Pipe Roll Society'' is devoted to publishing the pipe rolls and has been active since 1883 with about 100 volumes.  

===== Exchequer Equity Proceedings  =====

===== '''Lincoln’s Inn, London&nbsp;'''  =====

*''The Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn; vol. 1 from 1420 to 1799, vol. II admissions from 1800 to 1893 and chapel registers''. London: Lincoln’s Inn, 1896-1902. (FHL film numbers {{FHL|118002|title-id|disp=845175 and 845176}}.)

'''Chart: Kent Sheriff’s Cravings for Gibbeting a Smuggler 1749<br>(TNA T 64/262)'''  

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! scope="col" | Item<br>  

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