Court of King's Bench: Crown Side: Precedents and Miscellanea

KB 33

c1600-1907

Principally records and copies of records of the Crown Side of the Court of King's Bench brought together, probably over a long period, to provide precedent material for the use of the chief official of the Crown Side, known by the early nineteenth century as the master of the Crown Office, and his subordinate officers.

The earliest original records are of the mid seventeenth century, but most belong to the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth; the items dated before 1650 are apparently all copies.

The precedents consist of records of various major cases involving serious offences, especially treason, felonies and libel, and material relating to the use and form of the prerogative writs. There are also some accounts of masters of the Crown Office for the first half of the nineteenth century.

Until the collection is catalogued in greater detail it is difficult to say what proportion of the material consists of other records removed from other series, but that proportion is certainly significant.

When the current list of KB 33/1-25 was compiled in 1993 a small number of documents were moved from one box to another in order to bring cognate documents together. They were taken particularly from KB 33/25/10-11, which were far more miscellaneous in content than the others, and had been separately transferred to the PRO at a later date than the rest.

KB 33/26-50 consist of a collection of miscellaneous documents transferred from the Central Office of the High Court in 1986. They ought more properly to have been placed with other miscellanea rather than added to this collection. They include drafts of various forms of pardons for treason, sign manuals and warrants.

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

50 bundles and papers

Topics

Treason and rebellion

Crime