England Court Records

Court records will probably mention some of your ancestors as defendants, plaintiffs, jurors, or witnesses. Court records can establish family relationships and places of residence. They often provide occupations, descriptions of individuals, and other family information. They seldom provide birth, marriage, or death information.

Most researchers use court records after they have investigated other records. Court records tend to be difficult to use since few are indexed, the handwriting is hard to read, and they include unfamiliar legal terms. To interpret court records, you may need to consult a dictionary.

There are many English courts. Those described here (except for the Chancery Court and the Court of the Exchequer) generally pertain to the poorer classes. If your ancestor was wealthy, search the records described in the "Land and Property" section of this outline.

Quarter Session Courts
From the 16th century on, Quarter Session courts dealt with many issues, including crime, land, licensing, oaths of denization, militia, county rates, roads and bridges, taxes, religion, social welfare, lunatics, and so on. Many middle class and poor people are mentioned.

A more detailed discussion of these records is in:

Emmison, F. G., and Irvine Gray. County Records. Revised Edition. London, England: The Historical Association, 1973. (FHL book 942 H2ha no. 62 1973.)

A list of available records is in:

Gibson, J. S. W. Quarter Session Records for Family Historians: A Select List. Third Edition. Birmingham, England: Federation of Family History Societies Publications, Ltd., 1992. (FHL book 942 P23gjs 1992.)

The original records are in the respective county record offices. Copies of some Quarter Session records are in the Family History Library. They are listed in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND, [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

Manorial Courts
Records of these courts give information about the day-to-day life on a manor (an estate held by a lord), including petty crimes, land transfers, manorial appointments, customs, rental fees, and so on. The court regulated the responsibilities and interrelationship of the manorial lord, his steward and bailiff (law officer), and the village people. Manorial court records began in 1066 and ended in the early 1900s.

To find the name of the manor, or if there was a manor for the locality where your ancestor lived, use a gazetteer such as The Imperial Gazetteer (see England Gazetteers).

Manorial court records in England can be found in many different repositories. For more information on the location of manor records in the following counties, consult the Manorial Documents Register:


 * Cumberland
 * Hampshire (and the Isle of Wight)
 * Lancashire (north of Furness)
 * Norfolk
 * Surrey
 * Middlesex
 * Westmorland
 * Yorshire (all three Ridings)

Information is also accessible through the GENUKI Web site at: www.genuki.org.uk

If you do not have access to the Internet, or for counties other than those listed above you may write to the National Archives which maintains the register.

The Family History Library has some manorial court records. To find the records that are in the library, look in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

[COUNTY] - ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

[PARISH] - [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

[MANOR] - [COUNTY] - COURT RECORDS

Assize Courts
These circuit courts usually dealt with the more serious criminal cases from the 13th century to 1971. The records mention many middle class and poor people. For more information, read Assize Court Records.

Chancery Court
What is a Chancery? A simple definition says "Chancery Proceedings record disputes over inheritance, land, debts, etc., from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries"(Gibbons). FitzHugh states, "Chancery as a court of law dates from about 1348. It was a court of equity based on Roman Law to deal with cases for which the Common Law made no provision, and later with cases remediable under Common Law but in which the plaintiff would have found himself under a legal disadvantage. It was absorbed into the Supreme Court of Judicature in 1873"(FitzHugh, 65) Garrett explains, "Originally, all cases were oral. . . [the] plaintiff and the defendant appeared before the Judge, and indulged in an altercation on the spot. Later, however, the practice grew up of setting down the initial proceedings in writing"(Garrett, 1). Garrett continues by explaining the different types of documents and the general order in which they were made. There are two divisions in the Court of Chancery, being the court of Common Law and the court of Equity. This paper discusses only the court of Equity. The primary documents are of two kinds: a) Proceedings; and b) Registers. Proceedings consist of the following documents: 1) Bill of Complaint 2) Writ of Subpoena 3) Answer by the defendant, or Plea to reject the Bill 4) Replication, or Exception, by the plaintiff 5) Rejoinder by the defendant 6) Rebuttal by the plaintiff (sometimes) 7) Surebuttal by the defendant (sometimes) 8) Interrogatories 9) Depositions by witnesses 10) Bill of Revival  Registers consist of the following types of documents:  1) Orders and Decrees 2) Awards and Agreements  The Family History Library has no original records from the court of Chancery. The collection consists of calendars, abstracts, and indexes. To find Chancery Court records, look in the Place Search of the Family History Library Catalog under:

ENGLAND - COURT RECORDS

Chancery Court records are held at The National Archives.

Chancery Calendars, Indexes and Abstracts
Some of the Chancery court records have been indexed. See the article by Ron Hill in the “Helpful Guides” section below to see a list of indexes for different time periods. Also, two of The National Archives Research Guides “Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits from 1558" and “Chancery Proceedings: Equity Suits before 1558” list the records and what records have been indexed. The National Archives website has available the “Equity Pleadings Database”, which includes part of the C6 class of records and is searchable by name or place. Also, some of these records have been indexed in The National Archives Catalogue. Search the Catalogue on the National Archives website with an ancestor's surname in the "Word or Phrase" field and the letter C in the "Department or Series code" field.  Two men, Charles Allen Bernau and George Frederick Tudor Sherwood, have both complied calendars and indexes to chancery material. Family History Library has the Bernau Collection and Sherwood Collection. You may search the Family History Library Catalog by Place under England - Court Records - Indexes or England - Court Records or do a Keyword search for Bernau and Sherwood.

Chancery Proceedings and Depositions Indexes and Published Records
Compiled from The National Archives Research Guides to Chancery Records and Ronald A. Hill's article “English Genealogical Research: Using Chancery Court Proceedings”. National Genealogical Society Quarterly. Volume 91, No. 2, June 2007. pp. 111-138. Used with permission.


 * Miscellaneous set of answers and subsidiary documents are in C 4, which is searchable.
 * For C 6, C 7, C 8 and C 10, there are indexes to disputed wills (by the name of the testator, not of the plaintiff) available at The National Archives. P W Coldham compiled these idexes.

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Court of the Exchequer
This court also dealt with matters of the wealthy. Beginning early in the 12th twelfth century, it became an administrative body for collecting the royal revenue and performing the accompanying judicial business. As time went by, the court gained jurisdiction over suits between two individuals. The Public Record Office keeps the records from the Court of the Exchequer. The Family History Library has an index to 127,628 "Exchequer Depositions" between 1559 and 1695 on: FHL BRITISH Film 104399 Items 3-6.

The National Archives in England has a Research Guide to some of the tax records from the Exchequer court, which includes links to a searchable database to locate some tax records.

Ecclesiastical Courts
These courts helped regulate religious affairs. The records are in the respective county record office or diocesan archive in England.

Other court records are:


 * Probate records, discussed in the "Probate Records" section of this outline.
 * Inquisition post mortem records, discussed in the "Land and Property" section of this outline.

Inns of Court
The Inns of Court served as the place for educating those who were to become barristers, solicitors, lawyers, attorneys, proctors or Serjeants-at-law. With the exception of King’s Inn located in Dublin, Ireland, all were located in London and have admission records dating well into the sixteenth century or earlier.

The Middle Temple, London
 “Although no exact date can be given, it is believed that the Middle Temple and the remaining three Inns of Court were established by the middle of the 14th Century. The Inn's name derives from the Knights Templar who were in the possession of the Temple site for some 150 years. The origins of the Inn can be traced from two roots: the occupation of the Knights Templar and the replacement of the priestly lawyers by a lay profession.”

For a list of admissions to the Middle Temple, London, see: Sturgess, H. A. C. Register of admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, from the fifteenth century to the year 1944. 3 volumes. London: Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, 1949. Volume 1, 1501-1781; volume 2, 1782-1909; volume 3, 1910-1944. (FHL call no. British 942.1/L1 C4st vol. 1-3 and on FHL microfilms Vols. 1-2 on 873,850, items 1-2 and Vol. 3 on 873,851, item 1).

Source: Middle Temple History, http://www.middletemple.org.uk/the_inn/History

Lincoln’s Inn, London
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is said to take its name from Henry de Lacy, third Earl of Lincoln, who died in 1311. His own great house was adjacent and he is credited with being the Society's patron. Although the other three Inns of Court are of comparable antiquity, having evolved from uncertain origins in the fourteenth century, Lincoln's Inn can claim the oldest extant records, the Black Books, which record its principal activities from 1422 to this day.

For a list of admissions to Lincoln’s Inn, see: The Records of the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn; vol. 1 from 1420 to 1799, vol. II admissions from 1800 to 1893 and chapel registers. London: Lincoln’s Inn, 1896-1902. FHL microfilm (only) volumes 1 (1422-1586) and 2 (1586-1660) 845,175 and volumes 3 (1660-1775) and 4 (1776-1845 with calls to the bar) 845,176.

Gray’s Inn, London
It is clear that Gray’s Inn was in existence as early as 1388 since that is the first record of members graduating as Serjeants-at-law. “Between 1680 and 1687 there were three disastrous fires in Gray's Inn. That of 1684 was particularly grievous for it burnt the Library, which was then on the present site of No 1 Gray's Inn Square, and that is probably when [the] ancient records were lost.”

For a list of admissions to Gray’s Inn, see: Foster, J. The Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn 1521-1889 together with the marriages in Gray’s Inn Chapel 1695-1754. London: Hansard Publishing Union, 1889. FHL British 942.1/G1 K29f and FHL microfilm 844,906, item 1; second microfilm copy 1,696,584, item 3.

Source: Gray’s Inn, http://www.graysinn.info/index

The Inner Temple, London
 “The history of the Temple begins soon after the middle of the twelfth century, when a contingent of knights of the Military Order of the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem moved from the Old Temple in Holborn (later Southampton House) to a larger site between Fleet Street and the banks of the River Thames. The new site originally included much of what is now Lincoln's Inn, and the knights were probably responsible for establishing New Street (later Chancery Lane), which led from Holborn down to their new quarters.” For a list of admissions, see: Students admitted to the Inner Temple 1547-1660. London: Inner Temple, 1877. The registers for the later years are only available at the Inner Temple. The FHL does not have copies of the published register for 1547-1660.

Source: Inner Temple Library, http://www.innertemplelibrary.org.uk/temple-history/inner-temple-history-introduction-part-1.htm

Inns of Chancery
There were a number of Inns of Chancery associated with the principle inns named above. Students admitted to these Inns might become solicitors or proctors, however, many may also be found in the records of the Inns of Court where they were trained to become barristers. By the year 1900, the last of these Inns, i.e. Clement’s Inn, had closed. Admission registers are available for some of the Inns.

Associated with Lincoln’s Inn were Thavy’s Inn and Furnivall’s Inn; Inner Temple were Clifford’s Inn, Clement’s Inn, and Lyon’s Inn; Middle Temple were New Inn and Strand Inn; and Gray’s Inn were Staple Inn and Barnard’s Inn. Source: Holdsworth, Sir William, A History of English Law, 3 volumes. (London: Methuen &amp; Co., Ltd., Sweet and Maxwell) 2: 498.