LANCASHIRE COUNTY QUARTER SESSIONS

Alphabetical list of references

AE Enclosure Awards

AT Tithe Commutation

AV Awards: Various

CP Clerk of the Peace

CT County Treasurer

MA Manchester Assize Courts

EL Electrical Registers

PD Deposited Plans

PM Militia Storehouse Plans

PP Prison Plans

QAA Lancashire County Probation Committee

QAB Reformatory and Industrial Schools Committee

QAC Cattle Plague Committee

QAD Licensing Committee

QAF Finance

QAG General Purposes Committee

QAH Provisional Courts Committee

QAL Lancaster Castle Committee

QAM Lunacy

QAP Parliamentary Committee

QAR Roads and Bridges

QAS Standing Militia Storehouse Committee

QAV Various

QDB Bills, Acts and Orders

QDC Charities

QDD Enrolled Deeds and Other Documents

QDE Disputed Elections

QDF Freeholders or Jury Lists

QDG Gamekeepers

QDH Hair Powder Tax

QDL Land Tax

QDP Papists' Estates

QDR Register of Vagrants Deported from Liverpool to Ireland

QDS Societies

QDT Turnpike Trusts

QDV Various

QEC Constabulary Committee

QEV Various - Constabulary

QGB Gaol Sites and Buildings

QGC Convictions

QGG Visiting Committees

QGL Lancaster Prison

QGP Preston Prison

QGR Gaol Reports

QGT Transportation

QGV Various - Gaols

QJA Orders made under Summary Jurisdiction Appeals Act 1933 and National Parks Act 1949

QJB Insolvent Debtors

QJC Calendars of Prisoners

QJD Riot Depositions

QJE Estreats

QJI Indictments

QJS Cases Committed for Sentence to the Appeal Committee of Quarter Sessions

QJV Various

QJX Appeals, Arbitrations, Civil Suits, etc.

QSA Attendance Books

QSB Recognizances

QSC Commissions of the Peace

QSD Highway Diversion Orders

QSG Annual General Sessions

QSJ Oaths and Sacrament Certificates

QSL Lists of Magistrates

QSM Sessions Minute Rolls

QSO Order Books

QSP Petitions

QSQ Property Qualifications

QSR Sessions Rolls

QSV Various

QSZ Annual Sessions Proceedings and Reports

The law required the Justices of each county to meet at Quarter Sessions four times yearly. Quarter Sessions had a considerable criminal jurisdiction exercised by the Justices sitting with juries; but their other functions were of a very different character. At these sessions were present a grand jury of the county, the hundred juries, and also the several Petty Constables and High Constables. All these were bound to present those seemingly guilty of such breaches of the law, including nuisances, as came within their cognizance. Further, each Justice could himself present on his 'own view'. Thus Quarter Sessions were supposed to punish not only ordinary crimes, but also omission to perform the various duties imposed on parishes and counties; in this way their task was one of supervising administration. A great part of it had to be discharged in open court, but there was nothing to prevent the Justices from deciding at private meetings upon certain general principles to be applied by them. The Justices tended therefore more and more to use Quarter Sessions as a means of forming and executing a policy. Nor was this strange, for there was a need of policies, and they could only be devised by the Justices. After 1700 the hundred juries gradually disappeared, and the High Constables usually made only such presentments as the Justices desired; further presentments by individual Justices increased in frequency. Hence the Justices were able to make a growing use of judicial machinery in order to carry out an administrative policy. For instance, the Justices had been given power by an Act of 1691 to levy a rate not exceeding 6d. in the pount upon a parish for the upkeep of a highway. But when a sum exceeding that thereby obtainable was desired, they often raised it by imposing a fine upon a parish for not discharging its highway obligations.

Only a fraction of the Justices' duties were performed at Quarter Sessions. They are also found acting alone, in pairs and at Special and Petty Sessions. In each of these capacities their functions were equally mixed. According to the law, some things could be done by a single Justice, others by any two Justices, and others, again - such as the enforcement of various statutes relating to highways and liquor licensing - by the Justices of a division meeting at Special Sessions. In the eighteenth century the Justices in each division took, to meeting together for other purposes at regular intervals, and these meetings became known as Petty Sessions. The Justices there assembled had a certain criminal jurisdiction - such as was assigned by statute, to any two Justices sitting together - and also exercised some quasi-administrative functions.

As the eighteenth century advanced the Justices made alterations in the methods of local government. In many counties they began to employ a small salaried staff; much business was referred by Quarter Sessions to committees; at the same time Quarter Sessions themselves tended to become a court of appeal from the Justices sitting alone or in Divisional Sessions. Many of the new developments were extra-legal and the virtual assumption of power by the Justices at Quarter Sessions, to act as a subordinate law-making body was definitely illegal. But Parliament encouraged the Justices to ignore the letter of the law by continually adding to their functions and by increasing the number of purposes for which they could levy rates.