Barrow Petty Sessions Court Division

<p>The earliest Millom registers were deposited and have been listed separately. Early North Lonsdale (Ulverston) records 1857-1937 transferred from Preston have also been listed separately.</p>

Records may be subject to restricted access

"Justices of the Peace developed from the Keepers of the Peace who were appointed by a commission under the Great Seal in 1277 and 1287. They had acquired their name by 1361, when a statute gave them the power to try minor offenders. Their duties were greatly extended under the Tudors." [Oxford Companion to Local and Family History].

Most of the more important work of the justices was conducted at the Quarter Sessions for each county. But informal meetings of a few local justices gradually developed into the Petty Sessions, which dealt with minor criminal proceedings. These early meetings were generally not well recorded, and the borderline between Quarter and Petty Sessions was not always clear-cut. But during 1828 Petty Sessions were first formally recognised within parliamentary legislation: the county justices were authorised to divide their areas into petty sessional districts and to appoint a local attorney to act as clerk.

BARROW-IN-FURNESS

1873-1987

Barnes: Barrow and District

"Only minor cases were heard at an Occasional Court in Barrow until 1873, all indictable offences being dealt with at the North Lonsdale Court in Ulverston."

"On 3 March 1873 Barrow became a Petty Sessional Division of the County of Lancaster ..." [although the early records have not survived] "... and in 1890 ..." [i.e. after achieving County Borough status in 1889] ... "Barrow was granted its own separate Commission of the Peace with 15 Borough Justices of the Peace served by a part-time clerk."

"The Police Headquarters and Magistrates' Court remained in the old pre-charter buildings built by the Furness Railway until 1958, when the present Headquarters and Court were opened by the Rt. Hon. R. A. Butler, Secretary of State." [Barnes writing in 1968. The original buildings were in Lawson Street; the subsequent building in Market Street.]

The first register after the appointment of the separate commission in 1890 is preserved in the present court house in Barrow. But a number of subsequent volumes are missing. Almost all non-current registers after 1912 are now in Cumbria Record Office, Barrow. A few registers from 1922-1940 and licensing registers 1874-1949, formerly at the Lancashire Record Office in Preston, were transferred to Barrow in 1999.

Note: The separate Barrow Quarter Sessions operated between 1962 and 1971.

BARROW-IN-FURNESS WITH BOOTLE

1988-1993: Official name for two combined divisions; meeting in Barrow from 1st January 1988. Subsequently merged into Furness & District.