Catalogue description DENBIGHSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS
This record is held by North East Wales Archives (NEWA), Ruthin (formerly Denbighshire Archives)
Reference: | QS |
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Title: | DENBIGHSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS |
Description: |
COURT IN SESSION QSD/SR SESSIONS ROLLS QSD/SD DEPOSITIONS QSD/SF SESSIONS FILES Appeals committee case files Chairman's and clerk's case files QSD/SP PROCESS AND COGNATE RECORDS Process book Insolvent debtors SESSIONS BOOKS QSD/SB Recognizance book QSD/SO/1 Order books: first series QSD/SM Minute books QSD/SO/2 Order books: second series QSD/SO/3 Draft orders QSD/SC Money orders QSD/SS Prosecution books QSD/SE Prisoners books QSD/SA Agendas QSD/SG Chairman's notebooks QSD/SH Clerk's notebooks QSD/SJ Justices' attendance books SESSIONS PAPERS QSD/SK Memoranda QSD/SL Rules and regulations QSD/SN Adjournment papers QSD/SQ Conviction papers ADMINISTRATION QSD/AA ASSESSMENTS Rates of land carriage Rates for conveyance of vagrants QSD/AB BRIDGES Contracts, articles, bonds, specifications, copy orders, plans Returns and lists Reports Overton bridge papers Chirk bridge papers Miscellaneous QSD/AG COUNTY GAOL AND HOUSE OF CORRECTION County gaol: Additions and alterations Appointments Order books Admission and discharge registers Inventories Dietaries Plans General administration Reports Rules and regulations Miscellaneous Houses of correction: Denbigh, Wrexham Reformatory schools QSD/AE COUNTY BUILDINGS General County Hall, Denbigh Town Hall, Denbigh County Hall, Ruthin Shire Hall, Ruthin Court House, Ruthin Record Office, Ruthin Town Hall, Wrexham County Buildings, Wrexham Parish lock-ups QSD/AP POLICE General administration Reports, lists and returns Petitions Certificates Clothing Rules and regulations Miscellaneous QSD/AL LUNACY Returns North Wales Lunatic Asylum Miscellaneous QSD/AH HIGHWAYS Repair and maintenance Formation of highway districts Miscellaneous QSD/AW WEIGHTS AND MEASURES QSD/AM MILITIA ARMOURIES AND DEPOTS QSD/AD DISEASES OF ANIMALS QSD/AS SALMON FISHERY QSD/AI INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SHIP 'CLIO' QSD/AF POLLING DISTRICTS AND PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS QSD/AJ PETTY SESSIONAL DIVISIONS: General Justices' clerks' fees, salaries, etc. QSD/AC COMMITTEES Overton Bridge Contagious Diseases (Animals) General Purposes Magistrates' Courts Finance Licensing QSD/AX MISCELLANEOUS FINANCE QSD/FA GENERAL ACCOUNTS Treasurer's accounts Annual abstracts Quarterly accounts and abstracts Bank passbooks Bills and vouchers QSD/FS SPECIAL ACCOUNTS Roads Bridges County buildings County gaol Militia Diseases of animals Constabulary County lunatic asylum Coroner Prosecution allowances Mortgages Vagrants Miscellaneous QSD/FR COUNTY RATES Particulars of rates Assessment of rate Rate accounts Miscellaneous QSD/FT TREASURER The records of Denbighshire Quarter Sessions have survived in great quantity, and are earlier in date than those of any other Welsh county, apart from Caernarfonshire. See other Finding Aids, 2. Most of the court's records for the period 1647-90, including two order books, are among the Chirk Castle MSS and Documents in the National Library of Wales, and a third order book is in the British Library. The explanation for this is that successive agents at Chirk Castle were also clerks of the peace at this period. These records are described briefly in Appendix I. The county records include only a recognizance book for the years 1649-95 (Vol. I, p.24). From the 1690s there is a gap in the records until the county series of sessions rolls begins in 1706, and the order books in 1714, although there are a few loose pages from order books of the mid-1690s (Vol. I, p.26). Few other items in the county records are earlier than 1700. As well as the extensive series of enclosure awards and deposited plans of public undertakings (Vol. II, pp.1-68), there are major classes of records, such as land-tax assessments (Vol. II, pp. 108-14), and many minor series, which have not survived in Flintshire. The numerous county bridges are well documented in the long series of contracts, articles, etc., which run from 1696 to about 1900 (Vol. I, pp.41-100). The records relating to the joint county bridges at Overton and Chirk, and to the county gaol (Vol. I, pp.102-18), reflect the activities of the architects Thomas Penson the elder (c.1760-1824), county surveyor of Flintshire, and his son, Thomas Penson the younger (1790-1859), county surveyor of Denbighshire; the great engineer, Thomas Telford; and the architect, Joseph Turner of Chester. There are records relating to the building and repair of county buildings (Vol. I, pp. 119-22), and to the establishment and administration of the police force (Vol. I, pp.123-5). The records of the county treasurer have been well preserved, with long runs of account books from 1698 and separate bills and vouchers from 1747 (Vol. I, pp.160-85), as well as early records of county rates (Vol. I, pp.186-90). The survival of so many of the court's records may be due to the fact that in 1785-90 a purpose-built record office was constructed by the Denbighshire justices in Record Street, Ruthin, to house the county's Great Sessions records. These were removed to the Public Record Office in 1854, but as early as 1800 some of the Quarter Sessions records were housed in the building. They were transferred in 1972 to their present home in the newly-established record office in the old gaol. See other Finding Aids, 3. Also in the record office are the records of the Denbigh borough court of Quarter Sessions; these are described in Appendix II. The county council, formed under the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict., c.41), took over many of the administrative duties of Quarter Sessions, notably those relating to roads and bridges, county properties, county rates, licensing, lunatic asylums, diseases of animals and parliamentary elections. On 1 January 1972, under the Courts Act, 1971, both Quarter Sessions and Assizes were replaced by Crown Courts, administered by central government. Acknowledgements The work of listing the records described in this volume has been carried out by many archivists, both past and present, on the staff of the record office-D.C. Castledine, R.K. Matthias, R.G. Thomas, C.J. Williams, J. Williams, and R.C. Williams-assisted by Carol Evans and Gwennan Williams, archive assistants. The final arrangement of the records was done by R.C. Williams, and the index compiled by C.J. Williams. The lists were typed over nearly two decades (beginning with a manual typewriter and ending with a word processor) by Ann Edwards. APPENDIX I DENBIGHSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS NOT IN THE RECORD OFFICE RECORDS IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES The record office has few quarter sessions records earlier in date than the first order book (1714) and sessions roll (1706). Most of the surviving seventeenth-century records are among the Chirk Castle MSS and Documents deposited in the National Library of Wales in 1932, and subsequently purchased by the library. They are described briefly in the library's Annual Report, 1931-2, p.54, and in more detail in the 'Schedule of Chirk Castle Manuscripts and Documents', Vol. 1 (1939). These records include: Order books 1647-62, 1662-75 [for 1675-88 see below] Indictment book 1670-90 Precedent book 1661 Sessions rolls 1643-99 Estreats of fines and amercements 1641-97 Test Act registers and certificates 1673-90 Hearth tax returns 1662-71 Accounts of overseers of bridges 1665-78 Accounts and papers relating to maimed soldiers 1662-7 The presence of the records in the collection is explained by the fact that successive agents at Chirk Castle between 1625 and 1690 were also clerks of the peace; see D.L. Davies, 'County Bridge Building in Denbighshire in the mid-Seventeenth Century', Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions, Vol. 13 (1964), and J.S. Gardner, 'The Justices of the Peace in Denbighshire 1660-1699' (unpublished L1.M. thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth), 1985. Also in NLW are two volumes of memoranda of proceedings at quarter sessions, 1855-9, 1865-73; see Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions, Vol. 10 (1961), pp.226-30, Vol. 11 (1962), pp.120-1. RECORDS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY A third order book, 1675-88, was presented to the British Library by Sir H. Lloyd Verney in 1926 (Add. MS 40, 175). See the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, Vol. 5 Part 1 (1929), pp.45-54. There is a photocopy in the record office, NTD/17. APPENDIX II DENBIGH BOROUGH QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS The charter granted to the borough of Denbigh in 1662 gave its aldermen power to act as justices of the peace within the borough. The county justices were not to concern themselves with matters belonging to the office of justice within the borough, 'excepting in plaints and actions of appeal, felonies or murders and such like... which cannot be determined by the aldermen of the borough...' The borough lost its court of quarter sessions under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, but continued to have its own commission of the peace. The court's surviving records are among the Denbigh borough records in the record office. Fuller details of these (apart from minute books, 1769-1834, received from private custody), will be found in the Handlist of the Denbigh Borough Records (Clwyd Record Office, 1975), pp.18-21. The records include: Minute books 1769-1834 (DD/DM/382/1-2) Draft minute books 1806-35 Recognizance books 1812-35 Sessions papers incl. indictments, presentments, depositions, convictions, alehouse recognizances, bastardy bonds, sacrament certificates, etc. 1790-1835 ENROLMENT, REGISTRATION AND DEPOSIT QSD/DE ENCLOSURE: AWARDS, PLANS AND AGREEMENTS QSD/DS ENCLOSURE: RELATED PAPERS Road certificates Ruthin award PUBLIC UNDERTAKINGS: PLANS QSD/DT Turnpike roads QSD/DC Canals QSD/DR Railways QSD/DD River Dee QSD/DG Gas and water QSD/DI Improvement QSD/DP Piers and docks QSD/DM Mines QSD/DB Bridges QSD/DL Electricity QSD/DU PUBLIC UNDERTAKINGS: PAPERS Bills, Acts and Orders Company accounts Turnpike trust accounts QSD/DA RELIGION Oaths and declarations: Sacrament certificates Oaths of allegiance Miscellaneous Papists: Registers of estates Enrolled deeds Miscellaneous QSD/DF TAXATION Game duty QSD/DH HIGHWAYS Diversion, closure and widening QSD/DJ JURORS Books and lists Certificates of exemption Returns Miscellaneous QSD/DK PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS Land tax assessments Electoral lists and registers Elections QSD/DN CRIME, POVERTY AND PHILANTHROPY Deputations to gamekeepers Summary jurisdiction Transportation bonds Bastardy returns Workhouses Charities Friendly societies Savings banks Other societies and associations Freemasons QSD/DO OFFICERS' APPOINTMENTS Sheriff Returning officer Keeper of the rolls Deputy coroner Treasurer Analyst Chief Constable Militia officers Constables and overseers QSD/DV LICENSED TRADESMEN Victuallers and alehousekeepers Corndealers QSD/DX MISCELLANEOUS PLANS CLERK OF THE PEACE QSD/CO OFFICE, SALARY AND FEES QSD/CA ACCOUNTS QSD/CP PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS QSD/CB COUNTY RETURNS QSD/CS SMALL DEBTS RECOVERY COURTS QSD/CD DIARIES QSD/CC CORRESPONDENCE QSD/CE CASE PAPERS QSD/CF PRECEDENTS AND PROCEDURE QSD/CG DISTRIBUTION OF STATUTES QSD/CR RECORDS QSD/CX MISCELLANEOUS JUSTICES OF THE PEACE QSD/JC COMMISSIONS OF THE PEACE QSD/JQ QUALIFICATIONS RECORDS QSD/JL LISTS QSD/JX MISCELLANEOUS |
Held by: | North East Wales Archives (NEWA), Ruthin (formerly Denbighshire Archives), not available at The National Archives |
Language: | English |
Creator: |
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Access conditions: |
Under the terms of the Public Records Act, 1967, records less than thirty years old are closed to public inspection. |
Subjects: |
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Unpublished finding aids: |
1. On the introduction of Quarter Sessions records into Wales, see W. Ogwen Williams, Calendar of the Caernarvonshire Quarter Sessions Records, Vol. I (1956), pp. xxvii-lix. 2. F.G. Emmison & I. Gray, County Records (Historical Association, 1967), p.31. 3. R.G. Thomas, 'Denbighshire's First Record Office', Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions, Vol. 26 (1977), pp.84-94. |
Administrative / biographical background: |
Justices of the peace were first introduced into the then existing eight counties of Wales, including Flintshire, by the Act of 27 Hen. VIII, c.5 (1536). Subsequent legislation, including the Acts of 27 Hen. VIII, c.26 (the Act of Union, 1536), and 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c.26 (1543), completed the introduction of local government on the English model. The Act of Union created Denbighshire and four other new counties, and the Act of 1543 introduced justices of the peace and courts of Quarter Session into them. The 1543 Act also established courts of Great Sessions, which had civil and criminal jurisdiction similar to the English Assizes. These courts, peculiar to Wales, were abolished and the Assize system substituted by an Act of 1830 (1 Wm. IV, c.70). See other Finding Aids 1. |
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