Comprises the following series:
QS2/1/ ORDER BOOKS 1659-1971
These volumes contain the formal orders of the court, for example establishing a committee, approving its report and ordering further action; authorizing the payments of bills and officers' salaries; approving local rates or setting the County rate; resolving settlement and rating appeals. The judicial side of the justices' work is only reflected in the lists of recognizances to appear to answer charges, to prosecute or to bear witness (to 1826) and in the orders to the keepers of gaols to act according to the verdict of the court (eg to send a convicted felon to transportation or detain him and release those found not guilty). Such after-trial calendars were kept separately from 1938. Orders generated by poor law, rating and licensing appeals and by appeals against convictions are recorded in separate volumes from 1847 (see QS2/3/-), together with highway proceedings from 1850. From 1938 (when the after-trial calendars cease to be transcribed) to 1962 virtually the only judicial proceedings recorded in the order books are the reports of the summary jurisdiction (appeals) committee. All order books are indexed unless otherwise stated. The order books for 1659 to 1666 have been published by the Surrey Record Society (vols XXXV, XXXVI and XXXIX, 1934-38). The order book for 1666 to 1668 has been published by the Records and Ancient Monuments Committee of Surrey County Council (vol IX, 1951). Typed transcripts of the order books for 1669 to 1672, with a manuscript index, are available in the searchroom. A card index to the order books for 1672 to 1682 is also available. Microfilms of the order books, 1659-1889, have been made which should be used in place of the originals.
QS2/1A/ ANNUAL LISTS OF SESSIONS 1858-1872
QS2/1B/ SESSIONS AGENDAS AND PAPERS INCLUDING REPORTS OF COMMITTEES 1869-1971
These volumes contain printed sessions agendas and reports of all committees. Printed reports from single committees will be found with the other records relating specifically to that function in QS5/-.
QS2/2/ MINUTE BOOKS 1694-1971
The minute books initially contain summary notes on the matters dealt with by the Sessions, made at the time. Thus they indicate the order of proceedings and decisions made and include references to areas of the business of Sessions which are not recorded in the Order Books: for example the reading of the commission, the calling and fining of officers and juries, the reading of certain Acts, the reading of the charge, the reception of certificates of dissenting chapels and gamekeepers. The plea, verdict and sentence given at a trial or an appeal are indicated and the making of an order is noted but little detail given. From some time in the 19th century it is clear the minute books were written up from rough notes, a few of which have survived loose in the volumes. The amount of detail and formality of the record increases throughout the century. From 1869 to 1889 the minutes are divided into volumes for 'County Days' (ie the first day of each Session dealing with administrative business of the county) and for the judicial business of the court (including the granting of licences and appeals). From 1876 the minute books include inserted papers pasted into the relevant section (eg reports of some committees, copies of formal letters from the Sessions, or Clerk to central government, provisional orders made under various Acts). After 1889 County business generally appears in the minute book of the first court. From c.1923 certain papers relating to criminal proceedings are also inserted, for example police lists of outstanding charges to be taken into consideration, bonds for good behaviour, extracts from calendars of prisoners and copy court orders. From 1828 to 1832 and after 1855 minute books of a second court were kept, dealing almost entirely with judicial business (some licensing and highway proceedings from c.1927). From 1947 the volume of judicial business necessitated a third court and from 1959 a fourth and fifth court. References QS2/2/105 and 106 have not been used.
QS2/3/ ORDER BOOKS RELATING TO APPEALS AND HIGHWAYS PROCEEDINGS 1843-1971 These volumes contain the orders of the court relating to appeals against convictions in petty sessions, rating, poor law (until c.1934) and licensing appeals and highway proceedings (from 1850). All volumes are indexed.
QS2/3A/ APPEAL ENTRY BOOKS 1895-1971
The first of these volumes lists appeals (eg rating, poor law, against conviction or sentence), applications for licences to keep private asylums and houses for the reception of habitual drunkards, and highway proceedings. The pages of subsequent volumes are divided into the following columns: date of entry; name of appellant; name of respondents; matter appealed against; solicitors for appellant and respondents; counsel for appellant and respondents; order of court; amount of taxed costs; and remarks. The second volume includes at the rear proceedings of the standing (rating appeals) committee, established under the Rating and Valuation Act 1925, from its first meeting, 25 Mar 1929, to its seventh meeting, 6 Oct 1930. Thereafter no rating appeals are recorded. The volumes continue also to be used to list private asylum licences until 1932 and highway proceedings until 1937. Thereafter only appeals against decisions of courts of summary jurisdiction are recorded. All volumes are indexed except where otherwise indicated.
QS2/3B/ SUMMARY JURISDICTION (APPEALS) COMMITTEE MINUTE BOOKS 1934-1962 The Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Committee was established under the Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Act of 1933. From Feb 1949 the minutes are described as those of the Appeal Committee. However the order books relating to appeals and highway proceedings continue to include pasted in orders of the Summary Jurisdiction (Appeals) Committee; a comparison of entries in the two sets of volumes reveals that many, but not all, the appeals against sentence and conviction which appear in the order books are recorded in the minutes of the Appeal Committee. However the minute books also record sentences imposed under the Criminal Justice Act 1948 (secs 20 and 29) and the Magistrates Courts Act, 1952 (secs 28 and 29), which the order books do not. The Appeal Committee ceased to exist on 30 Apr 1962 as a result of the Criminal Justice Administration Act. From May 1962 appeals against sentence and conviction are recorded in the main series of minute books and in the order books relating to appeals and highway proceedings; sentences imposed under the 1952 Magistrates Court Act only appear in the minute book.
QS2/3C/ STANDING (RATING APPEAL) COMMITTEE 1929-1950
QS2/4/ CHAIRMEN'S NOTEBOOKS 1893-1971
These notebooks were kept by the chairmen of the courts and contain their notes on the cases before them.
QS2/5/ SESSIONS ROLLS, 1661-1799, 1889-1915
The rolls to 1800 contain the formal documents relating to each session: for example lists of county officers (eg hundred bailiffs and high constables, writs to the sheriff, jury lists, indictments, presentments, recognizances (to appear to answer charges, to give evidence, to keep the peace etc), sacrament certificates, oaths of allegiance, declarations against transubstantiation, sheriffs inquisitions. From 1759 indictments are filed separately (see QS2/7/-). From 1700 sessions bundles of administrative papers were kept separately (see QS2/6/-, referred to as 'papers'); after 1800 these may include some items previously stored on rolls. The 'rolls' for 1889 to 1915 comprise bundles marked as 'recognizances' which on examination were found also to contain writs to the sheriff, jury lists and oaths of justices and mayors etc. From 1889 to 1895 these 'rolls' also contained certificates of summary convictions in petty sessions courts which had resulted in an appeal. Thus they appear to be the continuation of the earlier rolls. However similar bundles of 'recognizances' for the years 1801 to 1888, which probably also contained the additional documents described above, were destroyed before 1953. The rolls for 1661 to 1666 have been published by the Surrey Record Society (vols XXXV, XXXVI and XXXIX, 1934-38). The rolls for 1666 to 1668 have been published by the Records and Ancient Monuments Committee of Surrey County Council (vol IX, 1951). Typed transcripts of the rolls for 1669 to 1672, with a manuscript index, and for 1673 to 1691, with a manuscript card index, are available in the searchroom. A manuscript calendar of the rolls for Midsummer 1694 to Easter 1695 is also available in the searchroom. Rolls exist for all years from 1661 to 1799 and are available on microfilm. When ordering the original please quote the reference QS2/5/ followed by the year and session (Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas). For the 'rolls' for 1889 to 1915 only the reference and year are required.
QS2/6/ SESSIONS BUNDLES, 1630, 1637, 1701-1888
These, also known as 'papers', are the administrative papers relating to each session. They include printed calendars of prisoners, annotated with verdict and sentence; informations and examinations; petitions (ie of former soldiers requesting pensions); removal orders; miscellaneous correspondence; presented accounts; reports of committees and officers; nominations for high constables and constables; certificates of good repair of highways; applications for music and dancing licences; applications for badgers' (itinerant dealers in corn, fish, butter or cheese) licences; coroner's accounts. Papers survive for 1701, 1704 (entirely relating to the discharge of debtors under Act of 2&3 Ann. cap.XVI), 1705 (2 bundles), 1706 (only 2 papers), 1708, 1709, and from 1712 to 1888. Until 1716 the papers are in annual bundles, with no differentiation between sessions (with the exception of 1708 for which year there are separate bundles for Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas sessions). From 1716 there are separate bundles for each of the four annual sessions, Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas. The catalogue of the papers below is also available to 1799 on the National Archives Discovery catalogue website. The papers for 1630 to 1861 are available on microfilm. The recognizances of 1630 and 1637 are isolated papers (other recognizances will be found in -/2/5/-) and in -/2/9/-). For all other papers, if ordering the originals please quote QS2/6, the year and the session (eg QS2/6/ 1822 Epiphany), with the exception of papers for the years 1701-1706 and 1709-1715 in which the sessions are not distinguished. The sessions run Epiphany or Xmas, Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas.
QS2/7/ INDICTMENTS 1759-1971
These are the formal charges. Prior to 1759, the indictments were filed on the Sessions Rolls and are in Latin until 1733 (see QS2/5/-). They give name, occupation and parish of the persons indicted, the place where the alleged offence took place, details of the offence including a description of property stolen and the name of the person assaulted or robbed. The indictments are endorsed with the names of witnesses and with the grand jury's verdict as to whether there is a case to be heard ie 'true bill', if there is, and 'not found' otherwise. The plea (ie guilty or 'po se' for ponet se for those electing for trial by jury), verdict and sentence begin to be added from the early nineteenth century. The annual files of indictments are numbered through with the numbers used in the process books. Annual files survive for every year from 1759 to 1971. When ordering indictments please quote QS2/7/ and the year.
QS2/8/ APPEAL PAPERS 1846-1888
QS2/9/ REMOVAL ORDERS: NOTICES OF ABANDONMENT, FOLLOWING APPEAL 1849-1881 These notices were sent by the officers of one parish to those of another (from 1867 from and to Poor Law Union officers), informing the recipients of the abandonment of a removal order following a successful appeal against that order. Each notice is annotated by the Clerk of the Peace with the amount of the appellants' costs which he has allowed following taxation of those costs. The notices are often accompanied by the bill of the appellants' solicitors.
QS2/10/ VAGRANTS PASSES 1816-1821
These duplicate passes were issued under an Act of 1744 'to amend and make more effectual the laws relating to rogues and vagabonds and other idle and disorderly persons and to Houses of Correction' (17 Geo. II, cap.5). The Act provided that beggars, those unlawfully returning to a parish from which they had been removed, unlicensed travelling players and pedlars, and gypsies might be committed by a Justice of the Peace for public whipping or to a house of correction for a period, and thereafter sent back to their place of legal settlement under the authority of a pass issued by a justice. Duplicates of the examination of the offender and the pass were to be lodged with the Court of Quarter Sessions. The printed forms comprise an order by a justice of the peace to a constable, the keeper of the House of Correction at Newington, or to another officer of the peace within a parish to convey a convicted 'rogue or vagabond' under the terms of the Act from that parish to the place of last legal settlement, to be received by the churchwardens and overseers. The forms incorporate the examination of the vagrant and specify the period of confinement in the House of Correction. The examinations are signed by the examinee as well as the justice. One copy of the pass was to be carried by the officers of the peace accompanying the convicted person and was to be handed over with the person to the officers of the next parish along the route to the parish of legal settlement. Several different forms were used, some headed 'Public Office, Union Hall, Southwark'; these last include forms to be used for 'Scotch' and Irish vagrants which are directed to the County contractor for removing vagrants. The annual bundles also include some loose examinations and a number of depositions by members of the Bow Street police force that an individual has been seen 'wandering abroad and begging for alms', which depositions are followed on the same paper by the examination by a justice and a memorandum of conviction and committal in the House of Correction. Until 1815 documents of this sort appear to have been filed on the Sessions Bundles (QS2/6/-). It would appear from Miss D L Powell's Quarter Sessions Records with other records of the Justices of the Peace for the County of Surrey (Surrey County Council, 1931, p39) that from 1816 what Miss Powell describes as 'depositions', ie informations and examinations, which had until that date also been included in the bundles, were filed in a separate series (since destroyed). Possibly a separate series of vagrants passes was commenced at the same date. Already when Miss Powell's survey was made only a small group of these papers were extant. Each annual bundle contains many items; no bundle for 1817 has been found.