Hide

--- TEST SYSTEM --- TEST SYSTEM --- TEST SYSTEM ---

Hide
hide

Court Records information for Berkshire and places above it in the hierarchy

Berkshire

  • General information about Court Records.  While court records can be thin, many cases were subsequently reported in local newspapers (not necessarily just in those covering the area where the inquest took place), see Newspapers.
  • Petty Sessions:
    • They were the lowest tier in the court system and developed at the beginning of the 18th century to take on some of the work previously undertaken by the Quarter Sessions. They dealt with minor criminal matters.  They were replaced by Magistrates Courts in the 1970s.  Read more ....
    • Archived court records are held by the RBA for the following : Abingdon County Division, Faringdon Division, Forest Division, Hungerford and Lambourn Division, Hungerford Division, Ilsley Division, Lambourn Division, Maidenhead Borough, Maidenhead County Division, Maidenhead Division, Moreton and Wallingford Division, Moreton Division, Newbury Borough, Newbury County Division, Reading Borough, Reading County Division, Slough Division, Wallingford Borough, Wantage Division, West Berkshire Division, Windsor Borough, Windsor County Division and may be listed on the NRA.  
  • Quarter Sessions: 
    • Justices of the Peace (JPs) presided at Quarter Sessions, where they were tasked with addressing many matters ranging from criminal offences, to questions relating to settlement rights and paternity, which affected entitlement to poor relief.  They were replaced by Crown Courts in the 1970s.  Read more ....
    • County Quarter Sessions: records held by the RBA (ref. Q/AC).
    • Reading Borough Quarter Sessions, 1682-1969 held by the RBA (ref. R/JQ), unfortunately very little from the period before 1836, when the borough was reformed. Includes calendars of  prisoners to 1969, and papers such as depositions and convictions in criminal cases to 1909. The papers also supplement the records of Reading Petty Sessions, as there are copies of summary proceedings at Reading Petty Sessions filed at the superior court, which are earlier in date than anything in the records of that court. For the earlier period, there is a sessions diary for the 1680s, and some miscellaneous but interesting survivals from the late 18th century. These include bonds and agreements relating to the transportation of convicts to America in the 1760s and 1770s.
    • The Maidenhead Quarter Sessions records are held by the RBA (ref. M/JQS).
  • Coroners' Court:
    • Inquests were carried out by the coroner in England and Wales where a sudden, accidental, suspicious or unnatural death occurred.  Read more ....
    • Berkshire Coroners' Notebook 1775-1813 has been transcribed by The Eureka Partnership.
    • Berkshire Coroners' Index 1688 - 1926 is an index to the surviving papers of coroners' inquests available on CD from Berkshire FHS shop.  This is an index only; the records themselves are only available to view in hard copy at the RBA.  
  • Historical criminal records at the TNA for England and Wales (including some for Berkshire) are available online by subscription from Find My Past containing records from 1770 to 1935. 
  • Trade directories can provide some information through the years of the courts, their location and officers, see sample pages from a 1915 directory.
  • Research Guides from TNA or search their catalogue (set Dept to "HO47").
  • See article Investigating Berkshire Crime in Berkshire Family Historian, Sep 2016, Vol 40 page 26.

England

  • There are numerous Research Guides from The National Archives dealing with the records of various "courts of law". Also look under keywords "assize courts", "chancery (court of)", "conveyance of land", "divorce", "equity courts", "exchequer", "funds in court" and more.
  • It may help in understanding the various records to read this history of the justice system (in England and Wales).

UK and Ireland

  • The TNA has numerous Research Guides pertaining to Courts of Law.
  • Many coroners' inquests were subsequently reported in local newspapers  
  • The Court of Chivalry 1634-1640 - "The aim of the site is to make available to scholars, researchers, local historians and genealogists the records of the Court of Chivalry during its heyday between 1634 and 1640. Over this period the court dealt with well over a thousand cases of which it has been possible to recover details of 738. These cover a wide variety of topics relating to the social, political and cultural history of the period, from ship money and the Bishops' Wars to pew disputes and duelling, from heralds visitations and grants of arms to brawls in the street and quarrels at race meetings."
  • An Introduction to Quarter Sessions Records (archived copy), by Richard Ratcliffe.