Catalogue description PETTY SESSIONAL MALLING DIVISION

Records for the following Petty Sessions divisions of the county are deposited at the Centre for Kentish Studies:

Ashford Division PS/A

Bearsted Division PS/B

Cranbrook Division Uncatalogued

Dartford Division PS/D

Faversham Division See PS/US

Malling Division (pre-1974) PS/Ma

Lathe of St Augustine, Home or West Division PS/SA

Sevenoaks Division (Sutton-at-Hone Lower Division) PS/Se

Sheemess Police Court PS/Sh

Sittingbourne Division PS/Si

Lathe of Aylesford, Southern Division, Lower part PS/T

Tonbridge Division (pre-1974) PS/To

Tonbridge and Malling Division (1974-) PS/TM

Tunbridge Wells Division Uncatalogued

Lathe of Scray, Upper Division PS/US

Wingham Division (Lathe of St Augustine, Eastern Division) PS/W

The following Petty Sessions records have been deposited for borough jurisdictions, separately from the other records of those boroughs. (For further borough petty sessions records, see the lists under the respective boroughs.)

Gravesend Borough (Gravesend & Milton parishes) PS/Gr

Maidstone Borough PS/Md

The records of the following Petty Sessions divisions of the county are deposited elsewhere:

Blackheath Division (Lewisham, Greenwich & Woolwich benches) (Copies of some of these records are held at the Centre for Kentish Studies. Blackheath Division records have the reference TR 1758/22/1-10.) Greenwich Local Studies Library

Bromley Division (PS/By) (Copies of some of these records are held at the Centre for Kentish Studies. Blackheath Division records have the reference TR 1758/22/1-10.) Bromley Library

Penge Division (PS/P) Bromley Library

North Aylesford or Rochester Division (excludes City of Rochester) (PS/NA) Medway Archives & Local Studies Centre

The various classes of petty sessional records are catalogued as follows:-

Adoption A or Sa

Correspondence C or Sc

Licences L or Sl

Orders O or So

(May be subdivided into: Probation Op

Lunacy Ol

Warrants Ow)

Miscellaneous Z or Sz

Bail Register Sb

Convictions Sc

Depositions Sd

Examinations Sc

Accounts Sf

("Sa" may be used instead if "Sf" is used for Sessions files, as in PS/SA)

Juvenile Court Sj

Court Minutes Sm

Court Notebooks Sn

Case Papers Sp

Court Registers Sr

Sessions volumes Sv

Means Enquiry Registers Sx

Malling Petty Sessional Division, c 1576-1974

RECORDS LESS THAN THIRTY YEARS OLD ARE NOT AVAILABLE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

Note on adoption records

By law (the Adoption Act 1980) adoption records are closed to public access for 75 years from date of adoption. Persons wishing to trace details of their own adoption should be directed to apply to the relevant magistrates' court and any records or information from records should be released to court officials only.

Beside the registers recording the fact of the adoption, there are individual case papers for some petty sessional divisions. These include application and court order forms, references and reports, correspondence and birth certificates etc, and are highly confidential.

Although the registers should be considered permanent records, it may be advisable in view of their bulk to sample the adoption papers (once the 75 year retention period has elapsed). For further information, consult Records Centre procedure with regard to adoption files held on behalf of Kent County Council's Social Services Department.

• Malling, Kent
• Administration of justice

COURTS OF PETTY SESSIONS

Meetings of local justices of the peace in monthly or petty sessions were established on a regular footing at a particularly early date in Kent. Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent (1576) (W. Lambarde, A Perambulation of Kent, reprinted by W. Burrill (1826), pp.22-26) gives the 'Distribution of the Shyre for Execution of Justice', and the lathe and division of the lathe as there described remained the basis for such meetings. Sutton at Hone and St Augustine were each divided into two Divisions and Aylesford into three. The only exception to this rule occurred in the lathe of Scray, where a group of hundreds in the middle of the lathe were conveniently linked with the lathe of Shepway, Ashford being the natural centre. Also the Corporation of Romney Marsh in this Lathe possessed its own Quarter and Petty Sessions (these records are held at East Kent Archives Centre). Kilburne, A Survey of Kent (1659), pp. 304-18, gives a list of the Divisions at that time with the parishes in each division and also any exempt Corporations.

From time to time existing divisions were split for sake of convenience and in 1857 the provisions of the Act of 9 Geo. IV were invoked to examine the whole structure, when the details of revised divisions were entered in the Quarter Sessions Order books for East and West Kent.

Several personal notebooks kept by justices in the seventeenth century which have been deposited in private collections have references to these monthly meetings; Sir Edward Filmer mentions a meeting at Bearsted in 1616 and Sir Thomas Walsingham one at Foots Cray in 1636.

Existing records begin at a comparatively early date and eighteenth-century minute books have survived for ten divisions. During this period administrative business overshadowed the judicial side and licensing, settlement, relief and the control of all forms of local government were the main concern of the justices acting in petty sessions. (D.M.M. Shorrocks, "Eighteenth Century Petty Sessions Records in Kent", Bulletin of the Society of Local Archivists No 14 (Oct. 1954)) Some clerks also recorded the activities of the justices under their other Commissions, such as land tax or recruiting.

At some date between 1659 and 1747 the southern division of the lathe of Aylesford was divided into upper and lower parts (see Tonbridge Division below). The Justices of the Peace for the Upper part met in Special Sessions on the first Saturday (up to 1782) and thereafter on the first Monday in each month. Meetings were sometimes missed when the gentlemen were 'not in the country' and on the other hand additional meetings were recorded in the summer months until 1757 when the Justices also acted as Commissioners for the Land Tax and the Duty upon houses, lights and windows and when assessors and collectors in turn were appointed.

The number of Justices present fluctuated considerably, as many as 14 being present on one occasion. One or more members of the Twisden family were generally present and the Earl of Westmorland attended occasionally between 1752 and 1762. Lord George Murray was usually present between 1793 and 1800. Francis Moyse of West Malling was probably Clerk to the Justices from 1747 to 1760. W. Baker and Andrew Dyne shared the office of Clerk to the Justices for an unspecified period before 1793 and on the death of the former his partner continued to act alone.

The general nature of their business can best be understood from the regulations governing their meetings laid down in August, 1793; the chair was taken at 12 and the first item was to deal with those who were required to attend by Act of Parliament on fixed days for particular business, such as militia, land tax or other taxes, licensing, appointment of overseers and surveyors (and the supervision of their work), and the quarterly appearance of surveyors. Next the examination of paupers as to their settlement and of women in cases of bastardy were taken. Finally the few cases of summary jurisdiction were dealt with.

The problems of poor relief and the supervision of parish officers figured largely in the 4th volume (1791-1800) and during the same period the attendance of surveyors was more strictly enforced. An assize of bread was laid down in 1794 and for a period was confirmed or amended at each monthly meeting. In 1795 the Justices recommended the curtailment of the many unnecessary and expensive removals of paupers and urged the vestries to relieve all industrious poor whatever the parish of their settlement. In 1799 Lord George Murray suggested a plan for estimating the amount of relief to be allowed, and an estimate (possibly based on this) was entered at the front of the 5th volume giving minimum maintenance rates.

The Justices met at Wateringbury, 1747-1752, and thereafter at West Mailling, mainly at the 'Swan'.

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