MINUTE BOOKS

Although the first minute book which has survived starts in 1781, no doubt minutes of court proceedings were kept in some form at a much earlier date. In these volumes the clerk of the peace or his deputy made his rough notes during the sitting of the court; apparently all business is recorded, though often very briefly and not always very legibly.

Activity over prison reform led in Michaelmas, 1790, to the establishment of a committee for the audit of accounts. This committee lasted only a year and its minutes are succeeded from Michaelmas, 1791, by those of the whole court, sitting for administrative and financial business. From 1815, the court after its formal opening adjourned to a room at the King's Head Inn for such business, which normally occupied the first day of the sessions. Prison affairs continued to be prominent, and the fourth volume is still entitled 'Gaol Minute Book', but the title from 1842 onwards is 'Minute Book for the General Business of the County'. Meanwhile the original series of general minute books continued as a record of the purely judicial proceedings, mainly criminal. A separate parallel series of these is kept for the 'second court' from Michaelmas, 1819, an Act of that year (59 Geo. III, c.28) having empowered the justices to divide their numbers and sit simultaneously in two courts, to speed up business.

Trinity 1794 to Trinity 1797 missing

<p>See QS vol. pp.13-14, (on the Search Room shelves) for details of the history and procedure of these courts</p>