England Court Records

England Court Records

Court records will probably mention some of your ancestors as defendants, plaintiffs, jurors, or witnesses. Court records can establish family relationships and places of residence. They often provide occupations, descriptions of individuals, and other family information. They seldom provide birth, marriage, or death information.

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 "Land and Property" article.

Quarter Session Courts

Main article: England Quarter Session Records

From the 16th century on, and in some cases from the 13th century, Quarter Session courts dealt with many issues, including crime, land, licensing, oaths of denization, militia, county rates, roads and bridges, taxes, religion, social welfare, lunatics, and so on. Many middle class and poor people are mentioned.

A more detailed discussion of these records is in:

• Emmison, F. G., and Irvine Gray. County Records. Revised Edition. London, England: The Historical Association, 1973. (Family History Library book 942 H2ha no. 62 1973.)
• Emmison, F. G and Irvine Gray. County records: Quarter Sessions, Petty Sessions, Clerk of the Peace and Lieutenancy. London: Historical Association, 1987. In series "Helps for the Student of History", no. 62. (Family History Library 942 H2ha no. 62 1987)
  

A list of available records is in:

• Gibson, J. S. W. Quarter Session Records for Family Historians: A Select List. 4th ed. Birmingham, England: Federation of Family History Societies Publications, Ltd., 1995. (Family History Library book 942 P23gjs 1995).

The original records are in the respective county or council archives. Copies of some quarter session records are in the Family History Library. Use the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under:

ENGLAND - [COUNTY NAME] - COURT RECORDS

A wiki article describing an online collection is found at:

England, Kent, Quarter Sessions and Court Files (FamilySearch Historical Records)

Manorial Courts

A manor is a property for which the owner held a court for his copyhold tenants. Manors were often farms or multiple farms and could include other rural lands, but could also comprise a group of town houses (see Gibbens’ English Magistrates. Metropolitan (London and North Middlesex Family History Society) Vol 18 #3, page 137-143). The land of a given manor was rarely coterminous with parish boundaries, either ecclesiastical or civil, and frequently contained a part of one parish, or parts of two or more parishes, not always contiguous to one another. One land owner might hold several manors and tenants might therefore transfer from one part of his estate to another—a point to remember when an ancestor suddenly appears in or disappears from a certain parish. A land owner could also hold freehold properties with tenants which were not part of any manor and hence held no court. Some manors were small and the lord could be the occupier farming his own land, living in the home or barton farm or desmesne land. Other manors were much larger, up to 150 square miles, and here the land was leased out except for the lord’s demesne lands which he farmed himself, or let out at fixed rent to a bailiff, the latter being the commonest situation from the 17th century.

Records of these courts give information about the day-to-day life on a manor (an estate held by a lord), including petty crimes, land transfers, manorial appointments, customs, rental fees, and so on. The court regulated the responsibilities and interrelationship of the manorial lord, his steward and bailiff (law officer), and the village people. Manorial court records began in 1066 and ended in the early 1900s.

The Victoria County Histories, which can be found in larger libraries and online, normally trace the ownership of manors but the series is not yet complete. A list of currently available VCH volumes is given in the course English: Education, Health and Contemporary Documents. TNA research guides L1 and L9 have good background information and help access what is available there, much of which is also available on film, of-course. Estimates of the number of manors vary between 25,000 and 65,000 (Travers) whereas there are about 12,300 ancient parishes (Humphery-Smith 1995).

To find the name of the manor, or if there was a manor for the locality where your ancestor lived, use a gazetteer such as The Imperial Gazetteer on Vision of Britain (see also the England Gazetteers article).

Manorial court records in England can be found in many different repositories. For more information on the location of manor records in the following counties, consult the Manorial Documents Register:

• Cumberland
• Hampshire (and the Isle of Wight)
• Lancashire (north of Furness)
• Norfolk
• Surrey
• Middlesex
• Westmorland
• Yorkshire (all three Ridings)

Additional counties are being added as resources permit.

Travers estimated the amounts of surviving manorial documents from samples from five counties (see chart below). From this it can be seen that there is a greater chance of being able to use them for confirming, or replacing missing, parish register information as only a lucky few will be able to use them to continue a pedigree prior to 1538. Manorial records are the most reliable statements of ancestry (Humphery-Smith 1997) and should be sought out if at all possible.

Chart: Survival of Manorial Documents (data from Travers)

Surviving manorial documents	% of manors
Name only, no records	34%
A few of different dates	44%
Good run from 16th or17th century	18%
Good run from before 16th century	4%

The lord of the manor could hold two main courts:

Court Baron

This was obligatory and dealt with transference of copyhold land, enforcing local customs and agricultural practice and settling minor disputes and debts involving less than 40 shillings. It was held by the lord of the manor or his legally-trained steward at least once a year or as often as its business demanded. The court baron often included the old court customary of the bond or villein tenants, and there were other minor courts in some places. The records of courts baron which deal with inheritance, sale and transfer of land are discussed in the National Institute for Genealogical Studies course English: Land and Property Records Including Manorial Documents and Maps. Other court baron records are covered here.

Court Leet

There may also have been a court leet (including, and also alternatively called, the view of frankpledge) which was essentially a subsidiary hundred court. The view of frankpledge was a method of checking to which tithing each man belonged, and it records the names of the most substantial men, usually the freeholders, who do not appear, of-course, as copyhold tenants in the court baron records (Cox). The court leet dealt with criminal offences such as murder, treason, rape, arson, counterfeiting and burglary, which it then referred on to the county assizes, as well as common law offences for which it levied punishments, and it also appointed some local officials.

Procedures and Practices

In practice the two courts were usually held on the same day, one after the other, and recorded separately but often in the same manor court roll or book. All tenants of the manor had to attend, this duty being called suit of court. Absentees had to provide excuses (essoins) and those who didn’t were fined (amerced) as defaulters. Local practice determined whether freeholders attended the manor court; in some all freeholders attended, in others only some did so (Hey) and custom varied over time and from one part of the country to another.
It has been estimated that at least three-quarters of the adult male population appear in manor court records (Hey). Tenants of the smallest holdings, women, children, servants and the poor are the least likely to be recorded although some are.

Although customs (the customs of the manor) varied greatly from manor to manor there were uniform standards of procedure and practice of record keeping, which simplifies their use by the researcher. The records, (the court roll or book), was typically in Latin from feudal times, (the earliest extant is from 1246), until the end of 1732, except for ten years in the Commonwealth period but from 1733 they will be in English. They may have a contemporary index at the beginning, end or at the side of the text. The lord of the manor’s steward (seneschal) was a lawyer who presided over the court, and may have supervised several manor courts in his area. He conducted the proceedings and wrote up the court book or roll.

Juries

A manor court usually had 12 homagers, selected from the chief tenants of the manor, forming its jury. It was the jury which made the decisions, not the lord or the steward; and freeholders played little part in manorial administration. The jury attended to the following duties:

• The lord’s financial interests in his manor.
• Appointing of officers within the manor.

• Reeve or local manager particularly concerned with weights and measures at the market.
• Hayward who looked after hedges, fences and straying cattle.
• Beadle who acted as a court summoner, kept order and headed processions.
• Constables acted as the policemen, placing offenders in the local lock-up until tried, and had many other duties.
• Aletasters (aleconners) determined the quality of beverages.
• Affeerors who assessed the value of penalties imposed by the court.

• Judging pleas brought by individuals, there being over 60 offences liable to be dealt with by the Court Leet and more than 40 by the Court Baron, including:

• Petty theft, especially of farm implements and produce.
• Failing to do their allotted duties in respect to communal facilities such as Streams, hedges, paths, bridges, harvest, carting stones for highway etc.
• Obstruction of roads and watercourses, like digging a hole in the road or damming a stream to make a mill pond.
• Allowing buildings to decay or having dangerous chimneys.
• Grazing too many animals.
• Letting their animals stray.
• Cutting wood to which they were not entitled.
• Domestic violence or desertion.
• Drunkenness, fighting and quarrels, even youths loitering on street corners in the evenings (so what else is new!)
• Building on the manor wastes.
• Bawdiness.
• Eavesdropping.
• Gossiping.
• Failing to maintain the watch or the hue-and-cry (to catch offenders).
• Breaking the assize of bread by selling underweight loaves.
• Breaking the assize of ale be selling weak beer, short measure, adding salt to the liquid to increase the thirst of drinkers, selling on Sundays or by unlicensed people.
• Butchers were fined for blowing air into the arteries of venison to give a plumper look.

• Laying pains or ordinances (setting regulations) and fixing penalties for breaching them. Pains included:

• Organization of communal agriculture.
• Scouring of ditches.
• Use of public wells.
• Muzzling of mastiffs (large dogs).
  

Penalties could be fines (amercements) perhaps recorded in a separate heriot or estreat book, or custodial sentences (poena).

Changes to Customs

Breach or change in custom of the manor. The custumal of the manor was the written document outlining the customs of that manor, but any breaches or new variations were noted at court. A new lord might try to assert himself by claiming new rights, and these were rebutted by elderly tenants who remembered past usage, or claimed it was so from time immemorial (legally 1189) or at least before the memory of man (113 years).

Announcements of Coming Courts

A precept, or announcement of a forthcoming manor court is shown below, the format of a court roll or record and a transcription of a whole court beneath that. .

Precept for a Manor Court

The Family History Library has some manorial court records. To find the records that are in the library, look in the Place Search of the FamilySearch Catalog under :

ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

[COUNTY NAME] - COURT RECORDS

[PARISH NAME] - COURT RECORDS

[MANOR NAME] - COURT RECORDS

Bibliography

More detail is given in:

• “Manor and Other Local Court Rolls, 13th Century-1922”. London: The National Archives, 2004. Legal Records Information no. 9.
• “The Manorial Documents Register and Manorial Lordships”. London: The National Archives, 2004. Legal Records Information no. 25.
• “Manorial Records in The National Archives”. London: The National Archives, 2008. Legal Records Information no. 1.
  
• Park, Peter B. My Ancestors Were Manorial Tenants: How Can I Find Out More About Them? London, England: Society of Genealogists, 1994. (Family History Library book 942 D27pp.)
• Ellis, Mary. Using Manorial Records. London, England: PRO Publications in association with The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1994. (Family History Library book 942 J77e.)
• Cheyney, E.P, translator. "English Manorial Documents," Translations and Reprints from the original Sources of European History. Vol. 3 no. 5, pp. 3-32. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1907.
  

Assize Courts

Main article: Assize Court Records

These circuit courts usually dealt with the more serious criminal cases from the 13th century to 1971. The records mention many middle class and poor people.

• www.ancestry.com ($) England & Wales Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 (Quarter Sessions & Assize Courts). 
• www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk- Almost 200,000 criminal trials at London’s central criminal court.

Chancery Court

Main article: England Chancery Court Records

What is a Chancery? A simple definition says "Chancery Proceedings record disputes over inheritance, land, debts, etc., from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries" (Gibbons). FitzHugh states, "Chancery as a court of law dates from about 1348. It was a court of equity based on Roman Law to deal with cases for which the Common Law made no provision, and later with cases remediable under Common Law but in which the plaintiff would have found himself under a legal disadvantage. It was absorbed into the Supreme Court of Judicature in 1873" (FitzHugh, 65)

• www.ancestry.com ($) England & Wales Criminal Registers, 1791-1892. Includes indexes to Chancery records, 1386-1558.

Court of the Exchequer

This court also dealt with matters of the wealthy. Beginning early in the 12th twelfth century, it became an administrative body for collecting the royal revenue and performing the accompanying judicial business. As time went by, the court gained jurisdiction over suits between two individuals. The National Archives houses the records from the Court of the Exchequer for people who lived in England and Wales. The Family History Library has a film copy of an index to 127,628 Exchequer depositions between 1559 and 1695 (FHL film 104399 Items 3-6).

The National Archives in England published “Taxation Records Before 1689” in 2004 about tax records in the Exchequer court. (Domestic Records Information 10). It includes a link to a searchable database for the E179 records.

Ecclesiastical Courts

These courts helped regulate a variety of affairs. See the separate article Church Courts in England and Wales.

Other court records are:

• Probate records, discussed in England Probate Records.
• Inquisition post mortem records, discussed in England Land and Property.

Inns of Court

The Inns of Court served as the place for educating those who were to become barristers, solicitors, lawyers, attorneys, proctors or Serjeants-at-law. With the exception of King’s Inn located in Dublin, Ireland (see Ireland Court Records), all were located in London and have admission records dating well into the sixteenth century or earlier.

The Middle Temple, London

 “Although no exact date can be given, it is believed that the Middle Temple and the remaining three Inns of Court were established by the middle of the 14th Century. The Inn's name derives from the Knights Templar who were in the possession of the Temple site for some 150 years. The origins of the Inn can be traced from two roots: the occupation of the Knights Templar and the replacement of the priestly lawyers by a lay profession.”

For a list of admissions to the Middle Temple, London, see:

• Sturgess, H. A. C. Register of admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, from the fifteenth century to the year 1944. 3 volumes. London: Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, 1949. Volume 1, 1501-1781; volume 2, 1782-1909; volume 3, 1910-1944. (FHL book number 942.1/L1 C4st vol. 1-3; film numbers 873850 vol.1-2 and 873851 vol. 3.)

Source: Middle Temple

Lincoln’s Inn, London 

Lincoln's Inn. London.jpg

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is said to take its name from Henry de Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1311. His own great house was adjacent and he is credited with being the Society's patron. Although the other three Inns of Court are of comparable antiquity, having evolved from uncertain origins in the fourteenth century, Lincoln's Inn can claim the oldest extant records, the Black Books, which record its principal activities from 1422 to this day.[[|]]

• 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 845175 and 845176.)

Gray’s Inn, London 

It is clear that Gray’s Inn was in existence as early as 1388 since that is the first record of members graduating as Serjeants-at-law. “Between 1680 and 1687 there were three disastrous fires in Gray's Inn. That of 1684 was particularly grievous for it burnt the Library, which was then on the present site of No 1 Gray's Inn Square, and that is probably when [the] ancient records were lost.”

For a list of admissions to Gray’s Inn, see:

• Foster, J. The Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn 1521-1889 together with the marriages in Gray’s Inn Chapel 1695-1754. London: Hansard Publishing Union, 1889. (FHL book number 942.1/G1 K29f; also on film 844906, item 1; another film copy 1696584, item 3.)

Source: Gray’s Inn

The Inner Temple, London

“The history of the Temple begins soon after the middle of the twelfth century, when a contingent of knights of the Military Order of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem moved from the Old Temple in Holborn (later Southampton House) to a larger site between Fleet Street and the banks of the River Thames. The new site originally included much of what is now Lincoln's Inn, and the knights were probably responsible for establishing New Street (later Chancery Lane), which led from Holborn down to their new quarters.”

• Students admitted to the Inner Temple 1547-1660. London: Inner Temple, 1877. The registers for the later years are only available at the Inner Temple. The FHL does not have a copy of this book.
  

Source: Inner Temple History Library

Inns of Chancery

There were a number of Inns of Chancery associated with the principle inns named above. Students admitted to these Inns might become solicitors or proctors, however, many may also be found in the records of the Inns of Court where they were trained to become barristers. By the year 1900, the last of these Inns, i.e. Clement’s Inn, had closed. Admission registers are available for some of the Inns.

Associated with Lincoln’s Inn were Thavy’s Inn and Furnivall’s Inn; Inner Temple were Clifford’s Inn, Clement’s Inn, and Lyon’s Inn; Middle Temple were New Inn and Strand Inn; and Gray’s Inn were Staple Inn and Barnard’s Inn.

Source: Holdsworth, Sir William, A History of English Law, 3 volumes. (London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., Sweet and Maxwell). Vol. 2, p. 498.(FHL book number 942 P3h. BYU Howard W. Hunter Law Library bookKD 532 .H6 1936- 17 volumes.)

Court of Hustings

Courts of Hustings were established before 1066 to register deeds and wills, and are in no way related to the modern hustings meetings leading up to parliamentary elections. Sheriff’s cravings are the annual accounts submitted by each county to the Exchequer for repayment of expenses; an example is shown below.

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

Item	Amount claimed	Amount allowed
Charges and expences in removing and conveying in carriages the body of Fairall, a very notorious smugler under a strong guard after he was executed in Middlesex, but ordered to be hung in chains in this county, from New Cross turnpike to a place called Horsmonden Heath being upwards of fifty miles	£5.0.0	£10.0.0
Chains and harness of iron being very strong to hang him up in	£6.0.0	£5.0.0
Wooden case to put him in to prevent his being exposed to publick view as he was conveyed	£1.1.0
Erecting a strong and high gibbett for that purpose and riveting it with iron to prevent the smugglers cutting him down	£7.0.0	£5.0.0

Resources

	Genealogy courses: Learn how to research from an expert in In the High Court of Justice.

• 1800-1827 Public Executions
• Church Courts in England and Wales
• Records of the Old Bailey in London, England
• Lawyers in England and Wales