South Staffordshire Stipendiary Justice Commissioners: Court of Summary Jurisdiction

Court registers and accounts

Adoption register

Minutes

Correspondence and other files of Clerk of the Commissioners

Boundary commission files

Financial records

The South Staffordshire Stipendiary Justice Commissioners were appointed under the South Staffordshire Stipendiary Justice Act, 1899. This repealed the previous Act of 1846 to 'provide for the more effectual execution of the office of a justice of the peace and better administration of the the police with the borough of Wolverhampton and certain parishes and places in the neighborhood...'. The South Staffordshire Stipendiary district comprised: the municipal boroughs of Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, and Wednesbury; the urban districts of Bilston, Brierley Hill, Coseley, Darlaston, Heath Town, Quarry Bank, Sedgley, Short Heath, Tipton, Wednesfield and Willenhall; and the parish of Kingswinford.

The first meeting of the Commissioners was held on 27 September 1899 at the Town Hall, Wolverhampton. The Commissioners comprised the Mayors of Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, and Wednesbury Boroughs, Members of Wolverhampton, West Bomwich, and Wednesbury Borough Councils, the Chairmen of Coseley, Darlaston, Quarry Bank, Sedgley, Wednesfield, and Willenhall Urban District Councils. The purpose of the Commissioners was to appoint officers to work for the Stipendiary Magistrate and supervise the administrative side of the running of the court.

A Stipendiary Magistrate and Magistrate's Clerk had already been appointed under the 1846 Act, and continued in their positions after 1899. Under the terms of the 1899 Act, the magistrate had to be a barrister of not less than six years standing, and would also have been a justice of the peace for Staffordshire and of the borough(s) wholly or partly within the limits of the Act. Unlike other lay justices, the magistrate was paid an annual salary of £1000. The Stipendiary Magistrate was allowed to sit alone or with other justices, but for certain cases it was compulsory for the Stipendiary to sit alone. At least two of the Stipendiary Magistrate's sitting had to be in Wolverhampton each week, they were as follows:

West Bromwich and Sedgley on alternate Mondays, Bilston and Wednesbury on alternate Tuesdays, Wolverhampton on every Wednesday and Friday, and Brierley Hill on Thursday.

The Mayor of Wolverhampton, Mr Alderman Price Lewis, was elected the first Chairman of the Commissioners. Mr Arthur Nelson Brevitt of Wolverhampton, a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Judicature in England, was appointed Clerk to the Commissioners. He was salaried and responsible for providing all necessary printing and stationery. Other positions included: a treasurer who had to be from a banking company in Wolverhampton; a Clerk of Accounts, again salaried but unable to engage in other employment save that of his office and any other duties as directed by by the Commisssioners; an office clerk appointed to work at the office of the Magistrates' Clerk, again this post was salaried subject to only being engaged in employment for the Commissioners.

All fines and penalties received by the Commissioners went towards the salaries of the officers. Any surplus funds could be invested in authorised securities. The Commissioners were required to estimate the amount of money required for defraying expenses, any shortfall was to be raised through the local rates of the participating authorities.

Boundary changes in the 1960s reduced the area covered by the Stipendiary Magistrate's court. Dudley corporation declined the services of a stipendiary and so the courts at Brierley Hill and Sedgley were closed. The Stipendiary continued to sit in the enlarged West Bromwich until the corporation decided that two separate summary courts were unnecessary. From April 1969 Wolverhampton corporation opted to continue with a stipendiary who sat in the town twice a week, and once weekly at Bilston. The administration of the courts was consolidated under Wolverhampton's justices' clerk. The Stipendiary Clerk's office in Waterloo Road was transferred to Wolverhampton Corporation. The South Staffordshire Stipendiary Justices' Commissioners were officially wound up on 31 March 1969.