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Justices of the Peace
By Sherry Irvine, CG Family history research makes us aware of local officials in the parishes of our ancestors. We may not record the names of ministering clergymen but we know how to find them. We also know that everyone lived under the watchful eyes of parish overseers and churchwardens and many genealogists have examined records of the parish chest. Magistrates, on the other hand, generally remain in obscurity. They receive passing mention in genealogy books and, unless we have read accounts of local history which discuss them or find we are descended from one, they do not enter much into our research. Those of us who have read Tom Jones (Fielding) have a contemporary view of magistrates in squires Allworthy and Western presented by an author who was a magistrate himself. Origins The Justice of the Peace (JP), or magistrate, evolved from a thirteenth century official known as the Keeper of the Peace. The term Justice of the Peace was in use by the late fourteenth century. Magistrates were appointed by the Crown from the ranks of the landowners and substantial merchants of a county. Very often they were clergyman. The duties and authority of JPs was derived from the clauses set down in more than one hundred pieces of legislation passed between the end of the 14th century and 1600. It was during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs that the duties were greatly extended and their responsibilities with respect to local administration assumed a form that endured until the Local Government Act of 1888. Qualifications and Authority A magistrate was required to be able to read and write, He also had to meet minimum property qualifications. Up to 1745 a JP had to possess an estate worth at least twenty pounds per year and thereafter the qualification rose to one hundred pounds per year. All JPs swore an oath on assuming office. Keeping the peace was of primary importance and each justice swore he would enforce all laws with respect to robbery, murder, felony, riot and the disturbance of public peace. High on their list of disturbances was that of poaching. The landed proprietors made the laws of the land and they were determined to preserve game for themselves. From 1671 a JP could act alone on the report of a single witness and as a result summary convictions increased and the number of cases heard at quarter sessions fell dramatically (Munsche, p 212). In addition, JPs had scores of administrative duties the variety and extent of which are represented by this selection taken from the contents list in Formularies, Or, The Magistrate's Assistant (Robinson) highways, hue and cry, interment, kidnapping, land tax, lodgers, mayhem, oaths, pigeons, poor, rivers, robbery, sheep, tithes, turnips, and wood. Magistrates were required to attend the meeting of the court of quarter sessions four times each year in the county town. Increasingly after 1600 they began to meet in their own county divisions as smaller groups in petty sessions to make headway with the workload. Local Influence The authority of magistrates derived not only from their positions as members of a county Commission of Peace but from their stature both socially and economically. They were virtual rulers of the country at the local level. It is impossible to generalize across all counties and for all centuries as to the direct local influence of magistrates. It depended on personality to some extent and on events and issues of the period. In the latter decades of the eighteenth century magistrates in Essex were less active than their counterparts in Norfolk and Suffolk. More than a third of the Essex JPs never committed anyone to Quarter Sessions in 1782 (Browne, p 86). In difficult times such as the Civil War, the Restoration and the reign of James II, magistrates were active and vigilant, and they also were in and out of office according to who was in power in London. Learning More The book already mentioned, Formularies, Or, The Magistrate's Assistant, is one place to begin as it can be found in full text at Google Books. Reading the handbook for JPs will convey a good idea of the many issues they dealt with. However, it does not tell you anything of what went on in your ancestor's parish. You must turn to books of local history and to the records themselves, those of quarter sessions and petty sessions, as well as contemporary diaries and histories. Records of the appointment of JPs are usually held with records of the court of quarter sessions in county record offices. At the Access to Archives website a search using the keywords "commission peace justice" produced many interesting results, including references to the political influences behind the appointments. If you have used county directories in your research recently you may have noticed the names of magistrates. Several publications include them either with the lists of officials of towns and cities or with the county divisions such as hundreds. For information about the records of quarter and petty sessions begin with "Sources for the History of Crime and Law in England" which can be found among the online guides at the National Archives. Conclusion Not every parish had a resident magistrate and not every magistrate was active locally. However, any magistrate was a man of stature in his community and our understanding of the local setting in which our ancestors lived is incomplete without knowing more about him.
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