England Borough Session Records

Borough Sessions
The equivalent of the hundreds’ petty sessions for the boroughs, which were towns administered by a corporation and having privileges confirmed by royal charter of defined by statute, were the borough sessions. The mayor of a corporation was normally the ex officio Justice of the Peace for the borough. The situation is variable in different places, though, since there may have been several courts operating within one borough, each with its limited purview, such as a manorial court leet, a mayor’s court, a court of orphans, of conscience and requests, one for gaol delivery and a pie-powder (market) court all in addition to the Sessions of the Peace.

In the borough of Great Torrington, Devon the 1769 sessions are confusingly called the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace and Leet and Law Day of our Lord the King. Presiding were John Coplestone mayor and Daniel Johnson justice, with two aldermen (John Palmer and Isaac Williams), two capital burgesses (Thomas Moore and Theophilus Heles) and the steward Thomas Bolton in attendance.

Fourteen jurors were listed and sworn and a motley assemblage of cases were heard, for example:

Borough court records
Borough court records may be found at the town hall, often with no full-time archivist in charge of them, but many have been deposited at the county record office or county library. On the FamilySearch Catalog look under COUNTY-PLACE-COURT RECORDS. Other examples of filmed borough court records include:


 * Newport, Hampshire 1518-1809 on three films starting at.
 * Lostwithiel, Cornwall 1627-1884 on

Some transcribed and indexed records are available as well, for example:


 * Depositions relating to Americans 1641-1736 in the Lord Mayor’s court of London by Coldham (1980).
 * Portsmouth Borough Session Papers 1653-1688 by Willis and Hoad.