Assize Court Records: Difference between revisions

=== Availability  ===

The absence of continuity and the decentralization of the itinerant court reflected in the compilation and custody of its records. As early as 1325, it was necessary to order that the rolls of the circuit judges be submitted to the Exchequer. Ten years later, it was law to surrender the records of each Michaelmas Term. Strict observance of these laws is doubtful. In the fifteenth century, it appeared that circuit records were handed from one presiding judge of the circuit to the next judge. However, gaol delivery records are numerous in the fourteenth and some of the fifteenth century. But in 1470, the records cease. It appears that the circuit rolls remained in the custody of the clerks of assize, and their survival became hazardous. Many clerks seemed to have adopted a radical solution: circuit records should be retained no longer than was required for current business. Most of the Midland Circuit records have virtually been exterminated. Almost all of the Elizabethan assize records for all circuits have been destroyed by accident and clerical weeding, except for the Home Circuit. There are not enough extant records between 1600‑1650 to give a clear idea of the working of assizes. Even after that date, when indictment files and related documents begin in series, all classes are broken or riddled with gaps.  

=== Definitions  ===