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" section of this outline.

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Quarter Session Courts

From the 16th century on, 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. (FHL book 942 H2ha no. 62 1973.)

A list of available records is in:

Gibson, J. S. W. Quarter Session Records for Family Historians: A Select List. Third Edition. Birmingham, England: Federation of Family History Societies Publications, Ltd., 1992. (FHL book 942 P23gjs 1992.)

The original records are in the respective county record offices. Copies of some Quarter Session records are in the Family History Library. They are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

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Manorial Courts

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.

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 (see England Gazetteers).

Manorial court records in England can be found in many different repositories. For more information on the location of manor records in:

Cumberland

Hampshire

Isle of Wight

Lancashire (north of Furness)

Norfolk

Surrey

Middlesex

Westmoreland

Yorkshire (all three Ridings)

consult the Manorial Documents Register.

Information is also accessible through the GENUKI Web site at: www.genuki.org.uk

If you do not have access to the Internet, or for counties other than those listed above you may write to the National Archives which maintains the register.

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 Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

ENGLAND, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

ENGLAND, [COUNTY], [PARISH] - COURT RECORDS

ENGLAND, [COUNTY], [MANOR] - COURT RECORDS

More detail is given in:

Park, Peter B. My Ancestors Were Manorial Tenants: How Can I Find Out More About Them? London, England: Society of Genealogists, 1990. (FHL book 942 D27pp.)

Ellis, Mary. Using Manorial Records. London, England: PRO Publications in association with The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1994. (FHL book 942 J77e.)

Assize Courts

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. Assize court records can be found at the National Archives (see the "Archives and Libraries" section of this outline for the address).

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Chancery Court

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)

Garrett explains, "Originally, all cases were oral. . . [the] plaintiff and the defendant appeared before the Judge, and indulged in an altercation on the spot. Later, however, the practice grew up of setting down the initial proceedings in writing"(Garrett, 1). Garrett continues by explaining the different types of documents and the general order in which they were made.

There are two divisions in the Court of Chancery, being the court of Common Law and the court of Equity. This paper discusses only the court of Equity. The primary documents are of two kinds: a) Proceedings; and b) Registers.

Proceedings consist of the following documents:

1) Bill of Complaint
2) Writ of Subpoena
3) Answer by the defendant, or Plea to reject the Bill
4) Replication, or Exception, by the plaintiff
5) Rejoinder by the defendant
6) Rebuttal by the plaintiff (sometimes)
7) Surebuttal by the defendant (sometimes)
8) Interrogatories
9) Depositions by witnesses
10) Bill of Revival

Registers consist of the following types of documents:

1) Orders and Decrees
2) Awards and Agreements

The Family History Library has no original records from the court of Chancery. The collection consists of calendars, abstracts, and indexes. To find Chancery Court records, look in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

Chancery Court records are held at The National Archives.

Chancery Calendars, Indexes and Abstracts

Some of the Chancery court records have been indexed. See the article by Ron Hill in the “Helpful Guides” section below to see a list of indexes for different time periods. Also, two of The National Archives Research Guides “Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits from 1558" and “Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits before 1558” list the records and what records have been indexed.

The National Archives website has available the “Equity Pleadings Database”, which includes part of the C6 class of records and is searchable by name or place. Also, some of these records have been indexed in The National Archives Catalogue. Search the Catalogue on the National Archives website with an ancestor's surname in the "Word or Phrase" field and the letter C in the "Department or Series code" field.

Two men, Charles Allen Bernau and George Frederick Tudor Sherwood, have both complied calendars and indexes to chancery material. Family History Library has the Bernau Collection and Sherwood Collection. You may search the Family History Library Catalog by Place under England - Court Records - Indexes or England - Court Records or do a Keyword search for Bernau and Sherwood.

'Helpful Guides'''

In addition to the brief bibliography listed below, several volumes in the List and Index Society series, and in The National Archives Lists and Indexes series contain information about Chancery court records. Also, the publications of the Harleian Society include several volumes.

Bevan, Amanda and Andrea Duncan. Tracing Your Ancestors in the Public Record Office. 4th ed. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1990. Sections 47.5-7.
Bernau, Charles Allen. Records of the Chancery Court, London. Salt Lake City: Family History Library, 1974. Introduction by David E. Gardner.
FitzHugh, Terrick V.H. The Dictionary of Genealogy. Totowa, New Jersey: Barnes & Noble, 1895. Pages 65-8.
Garrett, R.E.F. Chancery and Other Legal Proceedings, 1714-1758. Isle of Wight: Pinhorns, 1968. See especially introduction pages.
Gibbens, Lillian. "Researching English Ancestry," International Society for British Genealogy and Family History, 14 (July-September 1992); 44.
Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office (HMSO 1963) vol. 1, pp 32-33. FHL British book 942 A2pg 1963.
Hill, Ronald A. “English Genealogical Research: Using Chancery Court Proceedings”. National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Volume 91, No. 2, June 2007. pp. 111-138. FHL US/CAN book 973 B2ng
Hunter, Dean J. Chancery Court Records, (manuscript, 1992), p. 2-16.
Lawton, Guy. "Using Bernau's Index." Family Tree Magazine, December 1991, January-February 1992. One article in three parts. FHL British book 942 D25f
Staff. The Sherwood Research Collection: Register of Contents. Salt Lake City: Family History Library, 1966-8. FHL Reg 942 D2sh.

The National Archives. Research Guide: Early Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits before 1558. Legal Records Information 42 www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=19

The National Archives. Research Guide: Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits from 1558. Legal Records Information 22

www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp

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 Public Record Office keeps the records from the Court of the Exchequer. The Family History Library has an index to 43,635 "Exchequer Depositions" on: FHL BRITISH Film
104399 Items 3-6.

The National Archives in England has a Research Guide to some of the tax records from the Exchequer court, which includes links to a searchable database to locate some tax records.

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Ecclesiastical Courts

These courts helped regulate religious affairs. The records are in the respective county record office or diocesan archive in England.

Other court records are:

- Probate records, discussed in the "Probate Records" section of this outline.
- Inquisition post mortem records, discussed in the "Land and Property" section of this outline.