Bootle Petty Sessions Court Sitting at Millom Division

Deposited by the Clerk to the Justices, Magistrates court, Barrow.

Justices of the Peace developed from the Keepers of the Peace who were appointed by a commission under the Great Seal in 1277 and 1287. They had acquired their name by 1361, when a statute gave them the power to try minor offenders. Their duties were greatly extended under the Tudors." [Oxford Companion to Local and Family History].

Most of the more important work of the justices was conducted at the Quarter Sessions for each county. But informal meetings of a few local justices gradually developed into the Petty Sessions, which dealt with minor criminal proceedings. These early meetings were generally not well recorded, and the borderline between Quarter and Petty Sessions was not always clear-cut. But during 1828 Petty Sessions were first formally recognised within parliamentary legislation: the county justices were authorised to divide their areas into petty sessional districts and to appoint a local attorney to act as clerk.

BOOTLE

19th Century up to 1987: Official name of a separate division, which subsequently met at varying hours in both Bootle and Millom. Might be referred to colloquially - particularly in latter years - as "Millom Magistrates", but Millom was never formally separated. Merged with Barrow after 1987.

The majority of registers are now in Cumbria Record Office, Barrow.

First surviving Magistrates' Minute Book (1858-1861): "9 October 1858 entered new Magistrates' office" ... (at Bootle?)

Kelly's Directory of Cumberland & Westmorland, 1894: "Petty sessions are held at the Magistrates' Court room, Bootle & Millom every alternate saturday at 12.30."

Kelly 1938: "Petty Sessions are held at Millom on alternate tuesdays at 11.45 a.m. & at Bootle every fourth saturday at 12.30 p.m."