There are many courts, spread all over the country dealing with so many issues that it is impossible to cover here and you are going to have to seek out the most appropriate . We will show you links to do that. However we are fortunate because there is nothing more that our ancestors liked fighting over (except money of course) than land and property – and that leads to lots of court cases.
A wide range of interesting and fascinating cases ranging from disputes over property, or boundaries, inheritance issues and even dower lands to brides to be provide us with useful resources for our house history research.
There are many courts, spread all over the country dealing with so many issues that it is impossible to cover here and you are going to have to seek out the most appropriate . We will show you links to do that. However we are fortunate because there is nothing more that our ancestors liked fighting over (except money of course) than land and property – and that leads to lots of court cases.
A wide range of interesting and fascinating cases ranging from disputes over property, or boundaries, inheritance issues and even dower lands to brides to be provide us with useful resources for our house history research.
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What you might find
Court records may contain the names of your occupiers or ancestors as a defendant, plaintiff, juror, or witness. Court records can often help determine a place of residence and can provide occupations, descriptions of individuals, and other family information. A word of warning though Court records contain unusual legal terms, are very rarely indexed and are often handwritten so they can be hard to read. The records themselves are not always easy to locate but the National Archives has some excellent indexes to some of the records. The first port of call therefore should be to the National Archives on line catalogue (Discovery)
Guides and useful links A useful guide - Criminals and Convicts written by the National Archives is worth reading A really worthwhile article on English Court Records by Family Search sets out in more how you can discover these courts Records of criminals held at The National Archives are primarily the records of criminal courts. They hold many records of the central courts of law in England and Wales, of the county assize courts up to 1971 and of the Crown courts after that (but very little, and in some cases nothing, from the last 20 to 30 years). There are some Court Records that have been indexed and published and these can be found in the local archives. Don’t forget that many courts were established by the Church so records of these can be found in the record office (archdeaconry) belonging to the church Newspapers can be a clue to finding out more about court cases and help you to track down the approximate dates and place of any relevant hearing. The National Archives also has a link to Courts of law records held in other archives Scotland Court RecordsThe National Records of Scotland hold the records of Scottish courts of law, including the Court of Session, High Court of Justiciary, sheriff courts and commissary courts, and legal registers associated with them particularly those pertaining to registers of sasines and registers of deeds
National Records of Scotland (NRS)also receives regular deposits of records from the Scottish sheriff courts, the earliest of which is from Cupar Sheriff Court written in 1515. Family Search have a very useful guide to Scottish Court Records |
There are very many English courts. Here is a sample of some of them. Sessions Courts Quarter Session Courts Petty Session Courts Borough Session Courts Manorial Courts Court Baron Court Leet Procedures and Practices Juries Changes to Customs Assize Courts Chancery Court Close Rolls Patent Rolls Charter Rolls Fine Rolls Parliament Rolls Common Law Appellate Courts Curia Regis King's or Queen's Bench Court of Common Pleas Star Chamber Palatinate and Duchy Courts Court of the Exchequer Pipe Rolls Exchequer Equity Proceedings Explanations of Exchequer Proceedings Indexes Court of Augmentations Court of First Fruits and Tenths Court of Wards and Liveries Ecclesiastical Courts Inns of Court The Middle Temple, London Lincoln’s Inn, London Gray’s Inn, London The Inner Temple, London Inns of Chancery Court of Hustings |
Ireland Court Records
A guide to Court records held in the National Archives of Ireland helps you to discover Irish records
A further guide to Quarter Sessions, Petty Sessions and County Court records Irelands courts
A further guide to Quarter Sessions, Petty Sessions and County Court records Irelands courts