Court of Common Pleas: Posteas Files, George IV - Victoria

CP 42

1830-1852

Later files of posteas recording the outcome of cases initiated in Common Pleas but decided at Nisi Prius by a jury at the assizes.

The posteas end in 1852, probably because the Common Law Procedure Act of that year (15 & 16 Vict c 76) removed the necessity of returning them to the court at Westminster. There are usually two files for each term, the posteas being filed by the date on which judgment was signed. Each filing contains the same elements as in the earlier files, the writ summoning the jury and the jury panels now largly being on printed forms. Most of the posteas constitute the only record of pleading in the particular cases they cover, since the postea itself was not by this date normally entered on the plea roll after judgment.

The records are in files by term, without covers but with term labels, usually two files for each term. In the list, where there is an apparent overlap between pieces, it simply means that one file for a term is in one piece and the other is in the next. The posteas were filed by the date on which judgment was signed, as the file labels confirm.

Earlier posteas files are in CP 57

Later posteas files are in CP 41

For an index to Posteas and Inquisitions for 1834-1838 see IND 1/1274

Some nineteenth century Common Pleas posteas formerly in private custody are in

PRO 30/44

Public Record(s)

English

45 file(s)

These files came to the Public Record Office as a separate tranche in 1859-1861, an earlier series running to 1829 having come into the Carlton Ride branch of the office in 1841, and this explains why they have always been separate.