Source document description
Hertford County Records: Calendar to the Sessions Books, Sessions Minute Books and other Sessions Records Volume 7, part B
Period covered: from 1719 to 1752
World location: UK & Ireland
Country location(s): England
'Region' and/or city location(s): Hertfordshire
Town/locale:
This 'calendar' is not a verbatim transcript of every case dealt with at the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions of the period. Many of the cases were very similar so the editors have instead written highly condensed entries from the various Sesson Books, endeavouring however to mention, if briefly, every person, place or subject that appears in the original documents.
For example:
Maintenance order against John Smith and Jane Ellis of Ashwell, in respect of their bastard son John.
Order allowing the appeal of William Brandon, gentleman, against his assessment to rates at Hoddeston.
Indictment: Michael Watts of Standon, shoemaker, for assaulting Elizabeth Jones. [discharged].
[Note - these examples are for illustration only, names are not genuine].
The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were periodic courts held in each county and county borough in England and Wales until 1972. The name derives from the fact that they were held at least four times a year.
They dealt with crimes which could not be tried by a Justice of the Peace in petty sessions, and so were sent up by the process of indictment to be heard in Quarter Sessions.
The Quarter Sessions did not however hear more serious crimes, such as those which could be punished by capital punishment or later life imprisonment - those were sent for trial at the periodic Assizes.
Until 1888 the Quarter sessions also had an important administrative functions for the county including:
Repair of roads and bridges
Construction and maintenance of county buildings
Administration of the county gaol
Supervision of petty sessions
Licensing of public houses
Supervision of the Poor Law (pre-1834)
The county militia
The police
Setting county rates
Timing of sessions:
Midsummer - mid July - Mid August
Michaelmas - beginning of October
Christmas - beginning of January
Easter - end of April
Edited by William Le Hardy, M.C., F.S.A., of the firm of Hardy and Page.
Merchant: Genhound
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