ASSEMBLY BOOKS

1. Assembly book with contemporary index 1539-1624 calendared

2. Assembly book with contemporary index 1624-1684 calendared

3. Assembly book with contemporary index 1684-1724 calendared

4. Assembly book with contemporary index 1725-1785 calendared

5. Assembly book with contemporary index 1785-1825 calendared

6. Assembly book with contemporary index 1825-1835 calendared

Includes Council Minutes for the period 1836-1849.

7. Index to Assembly books 1685-1798 letters A-T compiled c.1800, watermark 1798.

8. Index to Assembly book 1540-1624 letters A-W.

9. Index to Assembly books 1624-1798 letters A-Y.

Note: 8 and 9 compiled ?early 19th century, with same paper and handwriting.

The first of these Assembly Books was started on the initiative of Henry Gee during his second mayoral year in 1539-40. Initially it seems to have been intended to contain general information about the city for use by city officials, and so the early pages contain much miscellaneous material, some copied from earlier records, including a list of mayors and sheriffs from 1326, a description of the city boundaries and streets, a list of officers' fees and a list of corporation property. Then follow copies of city orders dating from 1530, and it is only from about 1588 that Assembly orders begin to be entered regularly, and other records, such as accounts etc., continued to be entered until the end of the sixteenth century.

The last of the Assembly Books for the period 1825-1835 also includes the minutes of Chester Council for 1836-1849, contrary to the practice in many Boroughs, where a new minute book was started following the Corporations Act of 1835.