Introduction

The Quarter Sessions were court sittings held in January (Epiphany), April (Easter), July (Thomas a Becket) and October (Michaelmas), numbered 1-4 in the Q column below. The charges were mostly felony, poaching, keeping disorderly alehouses, wages owed, removal appeals, bad treatment of apprentices by their masters, rates disputes, blocking waterways, and failure of parishes to keep roads and bridges in good order. The Courts also set rates for wages and carriage, and details are found in the Record Books, Order Books, Minute Books and the Court Rolls, the latter being more difficult to use as they are odd sized sheets and scraps of paper and vellum all rolled up together after each court. Some may not have been unrolled since the day they were rolled up and tied round. There are many more names found in these books and rolls than I have extracted for indexing e.g. jurors, attorneys, vicars, surveyors and mere are many appeals against rates charged in some parishes, appointment of workhouse masters, vagrant carriers and tradesmen working on prisons and other county buildings, and there is much about county expenditure on prisons and the canal and highways.

This Index is to the early records, being 3 Order Books, 2 Minute Books and the first Record Book, covering 1686-1754. As the books were hard to follow I have printed out in the order of extraction, and an index to each book, with this final index to the six books of early series.

There is also an index to the Record Books for 1755-1834. Under Miscellaneous QS listings are Books of Presentments (people to be brought before the court), Badgers or Higglers licences (dealers licensed by the court), Gamekeepers appointed, and Meeting House certificates. Click on the respective links to see the indexes.