Quarter Sessions Files

Mainly indictments, but also include some minutes, calendars of prisoners, previous convictions, costs, legal aid certificates, jury lists, coroners' lists and expenses and orders re roads. Indictments include the following information: name, charge, date of offence, plea, previous offences, witnesses' and victims' names, verdict and sentence details.

The calendars of prisoners from Jun 1839-Mar 1911 have been indexed by defendents' name (we do not hold any quarter sessions files for 1840 or 1841). In the indexes, which are at item level, (2nd) denotes that the person named also appeared at the second court session that day. An asterisk (*) denotes that the person appears two times against separate indictments in the bundle.

In the bundles M116/2/4/1-187 (1839-1869) there is no calendar: the whole bundle must be checked to find the name required. The bundles M116/2/4/188-662 include a calendar listing the names, verdicts and sentences. Please note that in these later files it is this calendar which has been indexed, while the individual case sheets have only been used to check spellings.

If you find a name this does not necessarily mean the person was found guilty. Please order up the quarter sessions file in the search room (M116/2/4/1-430) to find out the charge, verdict and sentence.

Related Material:For printed calendars 1851-1852, 1882-1884, 1903-1956, see M116/2/3/2-30 (these give more information, including previous convictions, age and education). For calendars 1956-1960, see M545.