Palatinate of Chester: Sheriffs of Cheshire's' Tourn Rolls and Files

CHES 19

c1342-c1538

This series contains rolls of indictments of felony and trespass made by local juries at the Sheriff of Cheshire tourns on his visits to the various hundreds of the county. There is also a single Flint roll compiled for the sheriff of Flintshire on his visits to the commotes into which the county was divided. Some of the earlier rolls are more akin to files in form, and the series includes a file of fiats and mainprises of the county court from the 1530s, a stray item; the latest tourn roll dates from the reign of Edward IV.

The rolls contain the names of the sworn jurors and the details of the indictments they made. Sometimes the date of the county court at which they were returned is endorsed on the membrane. Later rolls in the series are in regular plea roll form, with rotuli of consistent width and with standardised headings beginning 'Tourn held at...', followed by paragraphed entries.

Public Record(s)

English

8 files and rolls

Topics

Crime

In English counties the sheriff's tourn was by the fourteenth century a twice-yearly special session of the hundred court, Willaston in Wirral held after Easter and Michaelmas by the sheriff to make a view of frankpledge and to receive presentments and indictments. The indictments were then transferred to the county court for determination.

The sheriff of Chesire probably at least intended to visit each hundred to hold his tourn once every year. It was usually held in the places where the justice of Chester's eyres were held. By the reign of Edward IV it resembled the justice of Chester's eyre in respect of criminal cases, with juries in every hundred except Macclesfield making indictments for felony and trespass. The tourn was introduced into Flintshire by the Statute of Wales in 1284.