Tracing Your Ancestors from 1066 to 1837

by Jonathan Oates

  Other Sources

  Don’t forget that newspapers, especially towards the end of our period, carried detailed reports of crime, especially murder. Where there was a crime but no one was brought to trial, they can be the only source; thus for the unsolved highway murder of Samuel Verry in Ealing in 1747, the only existing accounts feature in The General Advertiser of 1747. Metropolitan police records can also detail criminal investigations, though only for the very end of our period. The murder of Eliza Davis in north London in 1837 is covered in TNA, MEPO3/41. These sources will deal with the crimes which never reached court because no one was ever charged with them. The murder just cited was never solved, for instance.

  Sheriffs’ papers concerning costs of imprisonment and execution can be located at E370 (1714–1832), T64 (1745–85), T90 (1733–1822) and at T207 (1823–59). Newspapers and broadsheets (a single page of information about a certain topic) often reported executions and included dying speeches (often spurious). Comments on the sympathies of the crowd are noted, because up to 1868 all executions were in public, so provided a popular spectacle. It was alleged that when the Revd William Dodd was hanged at Tyburn for forgery in 1777 half a million turned out to line the route and to see the sight. He addressed the audience, ‘which words were uttered with so moving and unaffected, emphasis, as to draw tears, apparently, from eyes unused to weep, men, women and children of all ranks, were observed to weep, a genuine evidence of gentle hearts and unutterable anguish’.

  Published sources can be useful for a relatively small number of particularly notorious crimes. The Newgate Calendar, published in numerous volumes (now available online), provided lurid or moralizing accounts of ferocious crimes carried out by highwaymen, sadistic mistresses and evil footpads.

  We should recall that others were involved in the criminal courts, too, not just those accused. There were the magistrates, law officers, witnesses and victims. The magistrates at quarter sessions were the JPs. They were not necessarily men with any legal training, and usually were not, but they were the gentry of the counties, the propertied elite. Most were well educated and many had been to university, so registers of private and public schools, as well as university registers, as noted in Chapter 4, should carry some relevant details. Collectively a county’s JPs were known as the Commission of the Peace. They were chosen from lists supplied to the Secretaries of State by the county’s Lord Lieutenant. Many did not always attend quarter sessions, but those that did should be listed in the official records of those sessions meetings. By the later eighteenth century there were an increasing number of clergymen among their ranks. The assize judges were professional lawyers and have been discussed in Chapter 4.

  Until 1829 there was no professional police force in England. Those responsible for bringing miscreants before the courts were either the parish constables, or the High Constables, or, especially around London, the Bow Street Runners. These men were a relatively small force, initially numbering a mere six men, but expanded as the eighteenth century progressed and divided into mounted and foot patrols. Records for the former can be found in TNA, MEPO2/25. A service register, unindexed, for the foot patrols, covering 1821–9, is at TNA, MEPO4/508. It gives name, address, age, place of birth, height, marital status, number of children, name of recommender, military service and date of appointment, and date and reason for discharge. In 1835 the Horse Patrol was merged with the Met; the foot patrol in 1839. The Metropolitan Police have been described in Chapter 4.

  Witnesses often appear in court records, where they can be identified together with occupation and address. However they are difficult to locate, unindexed as they are, except in rare cases, among deposition files. Even so, many of these files have been heavily weeded, so may no longer exist. Jurors are often listed in assize papers. They were taken from a locality’s male population. Court records rarely say much about the victim of crime except for a very brief description of name, occupation and address.

  Other useful indexes include British Trials, 1660–1900 (only a small minority of the whole), on microfiche and searchable by defendant, victim and location; Summary Convictions in Wiltshire, on a searchable CD-Rom, and covering 1698–1903: 26,500 convictions. Ancestors caught up in the Swing Riots in southern England in 1830–2 might turn up in the Swing Unmasked CD, which has 3,300 names. Kent at Law is an index to Kent wrongdoers in 1602.

  Most people will have an ancestor who has been caught up in the criminal system at one point in their lives. There are numerous possible sources to turn to. Some are indexed and so the routes to them are straightforward. Otherwise, you will need an approximate date, and then have to check which sources survive, and investigate them.

  Chapter 6

  THE COURTS, PART 2: CIVIL

  It was not just the criminal law which has had an impact on our ancestors’ lives, though that is certainly better known. Many people have recourse to the law by choice, over land, property and money, in dispute with a second party. There were numerous courts, mostly now long defunct, which dealt with different aspects of civil law and we shall now explore them and the archives they created. The archives below, unless stated otherwise, are held at TNA. Manorial courts are dealt with in Chapter 9.

  Medieval England developed a system of common law, unlike the Continent or Scotland, which derived from the unwritten customs of the country. They were used by the Court of Common Pleas, King’s Bench and Chancery. However, this system could not enforce judgments. Equity courts, such as the equity part of the Chancery Court and the Exchequer, could do so. The two systems of justice coexisted until 1841.

  Courts were divided not by type of case but by type of plaintiff. Thus King’s Bench dealt with actions between the Crown and its subjects, Exchequer with litigation between Crown debtors and Common Pleas between the Crown’s subjects.

  Chancery

  The Court of Chancery, overseen by the Lord Chancellor, was used by many people between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. They did so in order to settle disputes over inheritance, land, trusts, debts, apprenticeships and marriage settlements. These proceedings resulted in the creation of masses of documentation, still relatively little used by researchers.

  Those wishing to settle grievances were known as the plaintiff and would approach a lawyer for him to draw up a bill of complaint against the party they believed had wronged them, known as the defendant. This would give the plaintiff’s name, address, occupation and the cause of complaint. The defendant would then make a written reply to the points raised and this could result in rejoinders. Finally, a list of the points at law would emerge. Evidence was then gathered together to be examined by the court’s officers. Of course the dispute might well be settled out of court, in which case the documentation would cease.

  If this was not the case, then an agreed number of deponents would be examined under oath with a number of agreed questions. The answers (depositions) would be recorded and these should say a lot about the parties involved as well as about the case itself. They will also give information about the deponents, too. Finally, the court would make its decision and these are recorded in Entry Books of Decrees and Orders. There are contemporary annual indexes for 1546–1875.

  For the early centuries of the court’s existence, names appearing in pleadings before the court can be found by an online search of TNA’s catalogue. For class C6, Equity Pleas, 1625–1714, a name search will give a catalogue reference to a document with a case involving that name and so that can be seen at TNA. However, for the period 1558–1625 there is as yet no online catalogue, although there are a number of paper catalogues and indexes available at TNA, covering these years. Another source, this time to deponents, the Bernau indexes (1558–1714 for country cases and 1534–1853 for town cases), is available at the Society of Genealogists’ Library. This index also covers pleadings from 1715–58. The difficulty with this index is that it gives obsolete TNA references, but these should be copied and kept for translation into current numbering, which
should be possible at TNA. Most of the records created were written in English, too, even before 1733.

  Exchequer Equity Court Proceedings

  This court was established in the sixteenth century and became the second Exchequer Court (the other being the Exchequer Court of Pleas). It dealt with cases involving land, and rights pertaining to land, such as tithes, debts and wills, where the plaintiff could allege, usually factiously, that the Crown had an interest. Horowitz’s Exchequer Equity Records and Proceedings, 1649–1841 is the specialist guide to these records. Since the depositions in E134 are searchable online, these will bring you into a law suit in which your ancestor was involved as plaintiff, defendant or subject in dispute. Deponents are excluded from this index, but from 1559–1695 can be found in unindexed lists at TNA and the Society of Genealogists’ Library.

  One of the main classes of records produced were Bills. These were created by the plaintiff and set out the case against the defendant. They also give brief personal details of both parties. Bills from 1558–1841 are at E112, and the best way into these is by using the indexes to defendants and plaintiffs, IND1/16820–53, which are divided by reign. Records listing whether the defendant appeared in court are to be found in E107 and in Memoranda Rolls in E193.

  Following the Bills were the depositions, where witnesses were examined. Those taken in London from 1558–1841 are in E133 and can be searched online by defendant or plaintiff. Depositions taken by Commission in the country for the same dates are at E134. There may be additional information in E103 among the affidavits from 1774–1841.

  The Court of Star Chamber

  This court had a sinister reputation, which probably originated from its use by James I and Charles I against their political enemies, and so became unpopular with Parliament, and it was abolished in 1641. It had been instituted in 1485 and met in the Palace of Westminster to enforce law and order. It also handled private disputes about property rights. One case occurred in 1530 when the Rector of Hayes, the Revd Thomas Gold, brought it against his parishioners whom he claimed were denying him his full tithe income. Unfortunately, although we know much about the grievances of the parties, there is nothing to state the outcome of the case.

  Many of the case files (STAC1–8) survive and can be searched for online by name. These detail the proceedings in the court, and these are, unusually, in English. However, not all the records survive. The decree and order books, which list the court’s decisions, do not, so the outcome of cases is unknown. Star Chamber proceedings can also be read in various record society publications covering cases in Somerset, Sussex and Yorkshire.

  The Court of Requests

  This was founded by Richard III in 1483 and Ricardians (those people who are enthusiasts of the king) also refer to it as proof that the wicked king of legend was really good King Richard. It was to enable the poor to have access to royal justice. Cases handled included title to property, annuities, villeinage, forgery, perjury and marriage contracts. Records survive in far more quantity than for the Star Chamber, with the majority of order and decree books still existing, for example. Records are held in REQ1 and 2. The court records cease to exist in 1642.

  The Court of Augmentations

  This was an administrative court as well as a court of law, set up in 1536 to deal with the transfer of land from the Crown from the monasteries following their dissolution in that year. It dealt with disputes over land, rights claimed by monastic tenants and others owed money by the monasteries. Surviving records include pleadings (E321), depositions and decrees (both E315) for the entirety of its existence. The court was absorbed by the Exchequer Court in 1554. Manuscript indexes exist to plaintiffs and defendants in pleadings and depositions, but not decrees.

  The Court of Wards

  This court existed from 1540 to 1649 and handled disputes over widows’ remarriage, sale of wardships of children and the insane, and fines for leases of wards’ lands. Pleadings, decrees, depositions and evidences, among other records, exist in class WARD1–15. However, many of these are unfit for production as they are damaged, nor are there any finding aids.

  The Palatinate Courts

  Chester, Lancashire and Durham were all palatinate jurisdictions from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, so fell outside the remit of the civil courts previously listed. All possessed their own equity courts. However not all are equally accessible as the availability of finding aids and indexes varies. If you are looking for a case in Chester (CHES), paper indexes exist for 1509–58 (for series CHES15/1) and for 1760–1820 (for CHES 15/156–78) for the plaintiffs’ names in the pleadings. Although the first list only has 194 names, the second has almost 5,000. Decrees and depositions are not indexed, but exist, so if you have a date from the pleadings, these other record series could be checked by date.

  The records for Durham’s courts (DURH) exist in an equal quantity, but have not been indexed, making them more time-consuming to use. Work is taking place on Lancashire courts, on indexing of pleadings (PL6 and 7) and depositions (PL10).

  The Duchy of Lancaster Court

  Not to be confused with the palatinate court mentioned above, the duchy was created in the fourteenth century. It owned land throughout the country and tenants were able to use its court in the Savoy in London. Pleadings from 1485–1603 have been indexed in three volumes known as Ducatus Lancastriae. For later years, from 1603–1832, try the manuscript indexes at IND1/6918–22.

  High Court of the Admiralty

  As the name suggests, this court dealt with maritime matters, but it was a civil court unconnected with the Royal Navy. Cases concerning commercial disputes including salvage rights, lost cargoes and damage to ships were the principal business of the court. If your ancestors were ship owners or were involved in seaborne trade in other ways, then the archives created by these courts could be of interest to you. They are held at TNA, and there are two main classes of records. First there are the examinations and answers in HCA13, covering 1531–1768. These are all in English. They give the name, residence, age and occupation of the witnesses who gave evidence at the court. An index exists at IND1/10322. Then there are the instance papers in HCA15–18, covering 1586–1874. These include affidavits, answers, petitions, decrees, allegations and exhibits. There are also indexes to ships’ names at HCA56, for 1772–1946.

  High Court of Delegates

  Established in the early sixteenth century, it was not abolished until 1833. It heard appeals from the ecclesiastical courts, each of which required the appointment of a special commission of judges delegate appointed by the Lord Chancellor. Proceedings are to be found in TNA, DEL1–2.

  Debtors

  Imprisonment for debt was common prior to 1868 and debtors were the most common prisoners, numbering thousands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Anyone owing over £100 up to 1842 was declared a bankrupt. Courts would take the debtors’ property and distribute it to the creditors, which could prevent a debtor being gaoled. Bankrupts and insolvent debtors are usually listed in The London Gazette, from 1684 and 1712 respectively, which gives a little detail: name, address, occupation and sometimes names and details of creditors. Conviction and imprisonment might also be mentioned. These also appear in The Times online (1785–1985).

  Lincoln Castle, once home to debtors. Paul Lang’s collection.

  Prison records can be found at the appropriate county record office. A few London ones are held at TNA. These include those of the Palace Court, 1630–1849, which specialized in holding Westminster debtors, found at PALA1–9. The Fleet, King’s Bench, Marshalsea and the Queen’s prison records of 1685–1862 are at PRIS1–11. Registers for Lincoln Gaol, 1810–22, PCOM2/309 are also, oddly enough, held at TNA.

  There were also Acts passed to relieve debtors, allowing them to petition a JP for release from gaol. Quarter session records at county record offices may include these. Those for the palatine of Chester from 1760–1830 are held at TNA, CHES10. In 1813 the Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debt
ors was formed. Petitions for relief from 1813–62 are registered at TNA, B6/45–71 and indexed at B8. A small number of bankruptcy files also exist for the period after 1759 in TNA, B3, with most dating between 1780 and 1842. Another source are the registers of commissions of bankruptcy, 1710–1849, in B4, giving name and address of bankrupt, with names of creditors or solicitor acting for the bankrupt. Indexed registers of certificates of Conformity also name bankrupts, with addresses, for 1733–1817, at TNA, B6. Other papers for 1710–1846 survive at B5.

  Petitions