Assizes: Criminal Trials

Legal Records Information 13

1. Introduction

The assizes were held twice each year from the 13th century to 1971 in each county, grouped into a number of circuits. In 1971 they were abolished (in 1956 for Liverpool and Manchester) and replaced by the crown courts.

2. Early Assize Records

From the 13th century, judges and senior lawyers were commissioned as justices to ride off and hold the king's courts. A pair of judges would cover a circuit, each circuit covering a group of counties. (London, Middlesex and the palatinates were not included). Originally they mainly tried property disputes, but they came to try criminal cases also, including those sent out for trial from the central courts to assizes under the nisi prius system. Their records are in JUST 1-JUST 4. From 1482 to 1559 there is a gap in the surviving records of the assizes, although quite a lot can be discovered from the indictments in KB 9 returned from lower courts, often via the assizes, into King's Bench, and a considerable number of letters from the assize judges, reporting back to the centre on the political condition of the country, start to survive (in SP 1 , and after throughout the State Papers, Domestic). Calendars of documents in SP 1 can be searched using State Papers Online and British History Online, available on the public computers at The National Archives.

3. Assize Records, 1559-1971

By 1559, from when the records of the Home Circuit only start to survive in quantity, the assize judges mainly dealt with the more serious criminal offences not normally handled by the local courts of Quarter Sessions. Offences dealt with range from homicide, infanticide, theft (stolen goods were often under-valued as worth less than 12d to avoid making it a capital offence), highway robbery, rape, assault, coining, forgery and witchcraft, to trespass, vagrancy, and recusancy.

Before 1733 most Assize records are in Latin. They do not normally give the age of the accused or details of family. Aliases were common, and occupations and place of abode are not trustworthy. J S Cockburn's A History of English Assizes, 1558-1714 (1972) and his Calendars of Assize Records for the Home Circuit (Essex, Herts, Kent, Surrey and Sussex) for 1558-1625, continued to 1684. for Kent, are an invaluable guide to assize records. The introductory volume is particularly valuable in pointing out the pitfalls in taking the records at face value. See also L Knafla, Kent at Law, 1602 (1994). Criminal Ancestors by D T Hawkings (1992) also covers assizes and related records.

4. Finding Out Where a Trial Took Place

The assize records are not indexed by personal name: instead, they are arranged by assize circuit, and then by record type To find a particular case, you must know the name of accused; the county or circuit where he/she was tried and the approximate date of the trial. For the nineteenth century, if you do not know where or when the accused was tried, you can look at the Criminal Registers, for England and Wales 1805-1892 in HO 27 . These list those charged with indictable offences, giving place of trial, verdict and sentence. From 1868 (subject to 75-100 year closure), there are also the Calendars of prisoners tried at assizes and quarter sessions in HO 140 .

Once you have a reference to a date and place of trial, check in Assizes: English: Key for Criminal Trials, 1559-1971, or Assizes: Welsh, 1831-1971: Key to Classes for Criminal and Civil Trials under the county you are interested in, to find out what records survive. Survival of assize records is patchy, as the clerks of assize, who kept them, tended to destroy them when their bulk became too much. Few counties other than those in the North have surviving depositions before the 19th century and few Midland Circuit records survive before 1818. If a suitable record exists for the year and place in question, go to the class list of the class indicated.

5. Where to Start in the Assize Records

The best place to begin a search in the assize records themselves is with the Crown Minute Book, Gaol Book or Agenda Book if one survives - these list the accused and summarise cases heard, or about to be heard, often noting the plea, verdict and sentence. There may be a separate series of minute books for offences, such as the failure of local communities to keep local roads and bridges in a good state of repair. The indictments are the formal statement of the charge against the accused, usually annotated with plea, verdict and sentence and filed in large unwieldy bundles together with other miscellaneous records such as jury panels, coroner's inquests, commissions and presentments of non-criminal offences. Further information about indictments is given in the series description to ASSI 5 . Depositions and Examinations can be full of personal details but have mostly not survived - there is a good series from 1613 on in ASSI 45 which have been listed in detail to 1800 and indexed by type of offence.

Transcripts of proceedings or shorthand notes of what was actually said in court do not normally survive with the records held here, although contemporary newspapers or pamphlets often reported local cases in much detail. Local newspapers may be consulted at the British Library's Newspaper Library at Colindale or sometimes at the appropriate local county record office or library.

6. No Surviving Assize Records?

If no records appear to have survived for your county, for 1714-1832 you should look at the incomplete series of sheriffs' assize vouchers in E 389/241 . They can include lists of prisoners tried or transported, accounts for maintenance in prison or carrying out an execution. For example, for Northampton, no assize records survive for 1776, but E 389/245 lists the names, offences and verdicts of those tried at Northampton at the Lent Assizes of 1776. Copies of indictments removed to the Court of King's Bench by writs of certiorari and returns in KB 9 of those granted benefit of clergy (before 1660) can also help to fill gaps.

7. Latin Abbreviations (Still Used After 1733)

8. London and Middlesex

London and Middlesex sessions before 1834 were held before the lord mayor - records relating to the City are now in the Corporation of London Record Office and those for the rest of London and Middlesex are with the London Metropolitan Archives. After 1834, the Central Criminal Court acted as the assize court for London, Middlesex and parts of Essex, Kent and Surrey - see Old Bailey and the Central Criminal Court : Criminal Trials. There are printed proceedings for London and Middlesex cases 1801-1834 in PCOM 1 and for Central Criminal Court cases in CRIM 10 (1834-1912)and some shorthand notes in cases where the Director of Public Prosecutions or Treasury Solicitor had an interest in DPP 4 (after 1846) and TS 36 (unlisted) and in cases that were referred to the Court of Criminal Appeal in J 82 (after 1945).

9. Bristol, Wales, Chester, Durham and Lancaster

Bristol sessions records before 1832 are held by Bristol Record Office. Wales came under the Court of Great Sessions, 1543-1830, the records of which are held by the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, Dyfed SY23 3BU. From 1830, the Welsh records are held here. Chester, Durham and Lancaster were palatinates with their own assize jurisdiction until 1830 for Chester and 1876 for Durham and Lancaster.

(ri2231) Last updated: 15 May 2009 | © Crown Copyright 2002