Derbyshire County Quarter Sessions Justices of the Peace, 1711-1907 Court in session, 1588-1971, including the "Liber Pacis", sessions papers, order books, minutes of indictments, jury panels, precepts, recognisance books, highway and footpaths closures and diversions, and calendars of prisoners Administrative records of gaols and lock-ups, militia, coroners' expenses, corn price returns, cotton mill apprentices, highways and bridges, lunacy, weights and measures, land carriage rate, hemp and flax bounties, gunpoweder mill and stores, theatre licensing, enrolment of volunteers to the Navy and Army, printed reference materials relating to enclosure and the poor law, and transportation of convicts to America Records enrolled, registered or deposited with Quarter Sessions, including registers of licensed victuallers, slaughterhouses and other tradesmen, militia enrolment, poll books, land tax assessments, poor rate returns, enclosure maps and awards, eligibility for jury service, deposited plans particularly relating to turnpike roads, canals and railways, religion and state security, registration of charities, societies (including Friendly Societies and Benefit Building Societies, and Freemasons' lodges), Printing Presses and Savings Banks, turnpike accounts, and vagrancy records Miscellaneous including records of the Derby Division Petty Sessions; Derby Division Petty Sessions, Long Eaton and Sawley; and Borough of Glossop, commissions of the peace No records of the mediaeval justices have survived. The earliest records known date from the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and consist of a small number of documents from the Quarter Sessions bundles and the earliest of the rolls of deeds of bargain and sale enrolled under legislation of 1535. Except for entries made on the rolls of deeds of bargain and sale, no Quarter Sessions records are known from the period of James I's reign (1603-1625) or from the early years of the reign of his successor Charles I. From the mid-17th century, the work of the Court and the Justices becomes progressively better documented. In part, this was because greater care was probably taken of the records but there was also an increase in document creation, with new record series initiated as a result of Parliamentary legislation. Records were chiefly preserved in bundles, one for each of the quarterly courts held at Epiphany (early January), Easter, Translation (mid-Summer) and Michaelmas (late September/early October). In addition there were already the beginnings of series of documents which could not be accommodated in the bundles. The records are divided into four categories (Justice, Court in Session, Administration, and Enrolment, registration and deposit), plus records inherited from the Derby Division Petty Sessions (Q/M). There are also a small number of collections containing Quarter Sessions records that strayed from the custody of the Sessions prior to the creation of the county council in 1889 – see the online catalogue for more information. 1558-1971