Court of Common Pleas: Entry Books of Records of Nisi Prius

CP 36

1644-1837

Volumes recording the engrossment of records of cases before the Court of Common Pleas which were to be decided by a jury at nisi prius in the next assizes.

Each record had to be approved by one of the prothonotaries, and the books record their fees for that service from 1693 onwards. Until 1770 each volume was kept for an individual prothonotary, so there were three separate series, including major gaps until that date; thereafter, there is an unbroken series to 1837.

Each entry gives the names of the parties, the attorney for the plaintiff, and the county. Cross-references to the appropriate plea roll entries are also sometimes given.

Public Record(s)

English and Latin

22 volume(s)

Each record had to be approved by one of the three prothonotaries of the court. It is uncertain when the prothonotaries began to exact a fee for this service, and therefore uncertain whether the volumes began to be kept to ensure that they received the fees due to them. They begin to record fees only in 1693.

Until Trinity 1770 the volumes were kept in three separate series, one for each of the three prothonotaries. The earliest volume was formerly not attributed to one of the prothonotaries' offices, but a heading at the beginning of the section for one term gives the surname of John Pynsent, who was second prothonotary from May 1644. The volume begins with Trinity term 1644, so it is possibly the first to have been compiled. The attribution of some of the later volumes to particular prothonotaries often owes more to tradition than firm evidence, although some have an indication on the cover of which officer it was, and one, CP 36/11, is specifically attributed to third prothonotary Wyrley. Each office-holder presumably passed it on to his successor in the same office, since particular volumes do not begin at dates when there was a change of office-holder.

The series compiled for the first and second prothonotaries is complete from 1671 to 1770, there being a gap from 1662 to 1671 following the earliest volume made for John Pynsent. The series of the third prothonotary begins in 1668 but ends in Trinity 1749; one or two subsequent volumes seem to have been lost.