DENBIGHSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS

COURT IN SESSION

QSD/SR SESSIONS ROLLS

QSD/SD DEPOSITIONS

QSD/SF SESSIONS FILES

Appeals committee case files

Chairman's and clerk's case files

QSD/SP PROCESS AND COGNATE RECORDS

Process book

Insolvent debtors

SESSIONS BOOKS

QSD/SB Recognizance book

QSD/SO/1 Order books: first series

QSD/SM Minute books

QSD/SO/2 Order books: second series

QSD/SO/3 Draft orders

QSD/SC Money orders

QSD/SS Prosecution books

QSD/SE Prisoners books

QSD/SA Agendas

QSD/SG Chairman's notebooks

QSD/SH Clerk's notebooks

QSD/SJ Justices' attendance books

SESSIONS PAPERS

QSD/SK Memoranda

QSD/SL Rules and regulations

QSD/SN Adjournment papers

QSD/SQ Conviction papers

ADMINISTRATION

QSD/AA ASSESSMENTS

Rates of land carriage

Rates for conveyance of vagrants

QSD/AB BRIDGES

Contracts, articles, bonds, specifications, copy orders, plans

Returns and lists

Reports

Overton bridge papers

Chirk bridge papers

Miscellaneous

QSD/AG COUNTY GAOL AND HOUSE OF CORRECTION

County gaol:

Additions and alterations

Appointments

Order books

Admission and discharge registers

Inventories

Dietaries

Plans

General administration

Reports

Rules and regulations

Miscellaneous

Houses of correction: Denbigh, Wrexham

Reformatory schools

QSD/AE COUNTY BUILDINGS

General

County Hall, Denbigh

Town Hall, Denbigh

County Hall, Ruthin

Shire Hall, Ruthin

Court House, Ruthin

Record Office, Ruthin

Town Hall, Wrexham

County Buildings, Wrexham

Parish lock-ups

QSD/AP POLICE

General administration

Reports, lists and returns

Petitions

Certificates

Clothing

Rules and regulations

Miscellaneous

QSD/AL LUNACY

Returns

North Wales Lunatic Asylum

Miscellaneous

QSD/AH HIGHWAYS

Repair and maintenance

Formation of highway districts

Miscellaneous

QSD/AW WEIGHTS AND MEASURES

QSD/AM MILITIA ARMOURIES AND DEPOTS

QSD/AD DISEASES OF ANIMALS

QSD/AS SALMON FISHERY

QSD/AI INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SHIP 'CLIO'

QSD/AF POLLING DISTRICTS AND PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS

QSD/AJ PETTY SESSIONAL DIVISIONS:

General

Justices' clerks' fees, salaries, etc.

QSD/AC COMMITTEES

Overton Bridge

Contagious Diseases (Animals)

General Purposes

Magistrates' Courts

Finance

Licensing

QSD/AX MISCELLANEOUS

FINANCE

QSD/FA GENERAL ACCOUNTS

Treasurer's accounts

Annual abstracts

Quarterly accounts and abstracts

Bank passbooks

Bills and vouchers

QSD/FS SPECIAL ACCOUNTS

Roads

Bridges

County buildings

County gaol

Militia

Diseases of animals

Constabulary

County lunatic asylum

Coroner

Prosecution allowances

Mortgages

Vagrants

Miscellaneous

QSD/FR COUNTY RATES

Particulars of rates

Assessment of rate

Rate accounts

Miscellaneous

QSD/FT TREASURER

The records of Denbighshire Quarter Sessions have survived in great quantity, and are earlier in date than those of any other Welsh county, apart from Caernarfonshire. See other Finding Aids, 2. Most of the court's records for the period 1647-90, including two order books, are among the Chirk Castle MSS and Documents in the National Library of Wales, and a third order book is in the British Library. The explanation for this is that successive agents at Chirk Castle were also clerks of the peace at this period. These records are described briefly in Appendix I. The county records include only a recognizance book for the years 1649-95 (Vol. I, p.24).

From the 1690s there is a gap in the records until the county series of sessions rolls begins in 1706, and the order books in 1714, although there are a few loose pages from order books of the mid-1690s (Vol. I, p.26). Few other items in the county records are earlier than 1700.

As well as the extensive series of enclosure awards and deposited plans of public undertakings (Vol. II, pp.1-68), there are major classes of records, such as land-tax assessments (Vol. II, pp. 108-14), and many minor series, which have not survived in Flintshire.

The numerous county bridges are well documented in the long series of contracts, articles, etc., which run from 1696 to about 1900 (Vol. I, pp.41-100). The records relating to the joint county bridges at Overton and Chirk, and to the county gaol (Vol. I, pp.102-18), reflect the activities of the architects Thomas Penson the elder (c.1760-1824), county surveyor of Flintshire, and his son, Thomas Penson the younger (1790-1859), county surveyor of Denbighshire; the great engineer, Thomas Telford; and the architect, Joseph Turner of Chester. There are records relating to the building and repair of county buildings (Vol. I, pp. 119-22), and to the establishment and administration of the police force (Vol. I, pp.123-5). The records of the county treasurer have been well preserved, with long runs of account books from 1698 and separate bills and vouchers from 1747 (Vol. I, pp.160-85), as well as early records of county rates (Vol. I, pp.186-90).

The survival of so many of the court's records may be due to the fact that in 1785-90 a purpose-built record office was constructed by the Denbighshire justices in Record Street, Ruthin, to house the county's Great Sessions records. These were removed to the Public Record Office in 1854, but as early as 1800 some of the Quarter Sessions records were housed in the building. They were transferred in 1972 to their present home in the newly-established record office in the old gaol. See other Finding Aids, 3.

Also in the record office are the records of the Denbigh borough court of Quarter Sessions; these are described in Appendix II.

The county council, formed under the Local Government Act, 1888 (51 & 52 Vict., c.41), took over many of the administrative duties of Quarter Sessions, notably those relating to roads and bridges, county properties, county rates, licensing, lunatic asylums, diseases of animals and parliamentary elections. On 1 January 1972, under the Courts Act, 1971, both Quarter Sessions and Assizes were replaced by Crown Courts, administered by central government.

Acknowledgements

The work of listing the records described in this volume has been carried out by many archivists, both past and present, on the staff of the record office-D.C. Castledine, R.K. Matthias, R.G. Thomas, C.J. Williams, J. Williams, and R.C. Williams-assisted by Carol Evans and Gwennan Williams, archive assistants. The final arrangement of the records was done by R.C. Williams, and the index compiled by C.J. Williams. The lists were typed over nearly two decades (beginning with a manual typewriter and ending with a word processor) by Ann Edwards.

APPENDIX I

DENBIGHSHIRE QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS NOT IN THE RECORD OFFICE

RECORDS IN THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES

The record office has few quarter sessions records earlier in date than the first order book (1714) and sessions roll (1706). Most of the surviving seventeenth-century records are among the Chirk Castle MSS and Documents deposited in the National Library of Wales in 1932, and subsequently purchased by the library. They are described briefly in the library's Annual Report, 1931-2, p.54, and in more detail in the 'Schedule of Chirk Castle Manuscripts and Documents', Vol. 1 (1939).

These records include:

Order books 1647-62, 1662-75 [for 1675-88 see below]

Indictment book 1670-90

Precedent book 1661

Sessions rolls 1643-99

Estreats of fines and amercements 1641-97

Test Act registers and certificates 1673-90

Hearth tax returns 1662-71

Accounts of overseers of bridges 1665-78

Accounts and papers relating to maimed soldiers 1662-7

The presence of the records in the collection is explained by the fact that successive agents at Chirk Castle between 1625 and 1690 were also clerks of the peace; see D.L. Davies, 'County Bridge Building in Denbighshire in the mid-Seventeenth Century', Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions, Vol. 13 (1964), and J.S. Gardner, 'The Justices of the Peace in Denbighshire 1660-1699' (unpublished L1.M. thesis, University of Wales, Aberystwyth), 1985.

Also in NLW are two volumes of memoranda of proceedings at quarter sessions, 1855-9, 1865-73; see Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions, Vol. 10 (1961), pp.226-30, Vol. 11 (1962), pp.120-1.

RECORDS IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY

A third order book, 1675-88, was presented to the British Library by Sir H. Lloyd Verney in 1926 (Add. MS 40, 175). See the Bulletin of the Board of Celtic Studies, Vol. 5 Part 1 (1929), pp.45-54. There is a photocopy in the record office, NTD/17.

APPENDIX II

DENBIGH BOROUGH QUARTER SESSIONS RECORDS

The charter granted to the borough of Denbigh in 1662 gave its aldermen power to act as justices of the peace within the borough. The county justices were not to concern themselves with matters belonging to the office of justice within the borough, 'excepting in plaints and actions of appeal, felonies or murders and such like... which cannot be determined by the aldermen of the borough...' The borough lost its court of quarter sessions under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, but continued to have its own commission of the peace.

The court's surviving records are among the Denbigh borough records in the record office. Fuller details of these (apart from minute books, 1769-1834, received from private custody), will be found in the Handlist of the Denbigh Borough Records (Clwyd Record Office, 1975), pp.18-21.

The records include:

Minute books 1769-1834 (DD/DM/382/1-2)

Draft minute books 1806-35

Recognizance books 1812-35

Sessions papers incl. indictments, presentments, depositions, convictions, alehouse recognizances, bastardy bonds, sacrament certificates, etc. 1790-1835

ENROLMENT, REGISTRATION AND DEPOSIT

QSD/DE ENCLOSURE: AWARDS, PLANS AND AGREEMENTS

QSD/DS ENCLOSURE: RELATED PAPERS

Road certificates

Ruthin award

PUBLIC UNDERTAKINGS: PLANS

QSD/DT Turnpike roads

QSD/DC Canals

QSD/DR Railways

QSD/DD River Dee

QSD/DG Gas and water

QSD/DI Improvement

QSD/DP Piers and docks

QSD/DM Mines

QSD/DB Bridges

QSD/DL Electricity

QSD/DU PUBLIC UNDERTAKINGS: PAPERS

Bills, Acts and Orders

Company accounts

Turnpike trust accounts

QSD/DA RELIGION

Oaths and declarations:

Sacrament certificates

Oaths of allegiance

Miscellaneous

Papists:

Registers of estates

Enrolled deeds

Miscellaneous

QSD/DF TAXATION

Game duty

QSD/DH HIGHWAYS

Diversion, closure and widening

QSD/DJ JURORS

Books and lists

Certificates of exemption

Returns

Miscellaneous

QSD/DK PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

Land tax assessments

Electoral lists and registers

Elections

QSD/DN CRIME, POVERTY AND PHILANTHROPY

Deputations to gamekeepers

Summary jurisdiction

Transportation bonds

Bastardy returns

Workhouses

Charities

Friendly societies

Savings banks

Other societies and associations

Freemasons

QSD/DO OFFICERS' APPOINTMENTS

Sheriff

Returning officer

Keeper of the rolls

Deputy coroner

Treasurer

Analyst

Chief Constable

Militia officers

Constables and overseers

QSD/DV LICENSED TRADESMEN

Victuallers and alehousekeepers

Corndealers

QSD/DX MISCELLANEOUS PLANS

CLERK OF THE PEACE

QSD/CO OFFICE, SALARY AND FEES

QSD/CA ACCOUNTS

QSD/CP PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS

QSD/CB COUNTY RETURNS

QSD/CS SMALL DEBTS RECOVERY COURTS

QSD/CD DIARIES

QSD/CC CORRESPONDENCE

QSD/CE CASE PAPERS

QSD/CF PRECEDENTS AND PROCEDURE

QSD/CG DISTRIBUTION OF STATUTES

QSD/CR RECORDS

QSD/CX MISCELLANEOUS

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE

QSD/JC COMMISSIONS OF THE PEACE

QSD/JQ QUALIFICATIONS RECORDS

QSD/JL LISTS

QSD/JX MISCELLANEOUS

Under the terms of the Public Records Act, 1967, records less than thirty years old are closed to public inspection.

Justices of the peace were first introduced into the then existing eight counties of Wales, including Flintshire, by the Act of 27 Hen. VIII, c.5 (1536). Subsequent legislation, including the Acts of 27 Hen. VIII, c.26 (the Act of Union, 1536), and 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c.26 (1543), completed the introduction of local government on the English model. The Act of Union created Denbighshire and four other new counties, and the Act of 1543 introduced justices of the peace and courts of Quarter Session into them. The 1543 Act also established courts of Great Sessions, which had civil and criminal jurisdiction similar to the English Assizes. These courts, peculiar to Wales, were abolished and the Assize system substituted by an Act of 1830 (1 Wm. IV, c.70). See other Finding Aids 1.