General Orders of the Court (GO)
Middlesex Orders of the Court, 18 May 1716. London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/OC/1, LL ref: LMSMGO400000007.
Introduction
In 1716 the Justices of the Peace who ran the Middlesex sessions decided to keep a formal record in a separate book of the policy and administrative decisions they took on County Day, which became known as the Orders of the Court. Prior to this, any written records were kept on separate sheets of paper or parchment and those which survive can now be found in the Sessions Papers (PS). The Order Books do not contain decisions on individual criminal or poor relief cases, but they record decisions taken on a wide range of issues, including the appointment of county officers, the management of prisons, arrangements for policing, passing vagrants, and approval of property rates (taxes).
A separate set of Order Books was kept by the Justices of the Westminster sessions from 1720, but these books have not been included on this website. Like the Middlesex Order Books, they can be found in the London Metropolitan Archives. The first volume of the Westminster Order Books (covering 1720-26) contains a few Middlesex entries.
Many of the volumes include notes in the margins summarising each order, making it easy to skim for relevant information. As is evident in these volumes, the Justices frequently conducted their business by appointing committees to investigate particular issues and report back to the Middlesex bench as a whole. Some orders were deemed standing orders of the court, to remain in effect until altered by a subsequent order.
An order issued in response to a request from the Proclamation Society, February 1790. London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/OC/12, LL ref: LMSMGO556100037.
Criminal Justice
Among the routine business of the Justices was the appointment of the high constables for each of the six hundreds of the county. The Justices also regulated the county prison, New Prison, and the house of correction at Clerkenwell, appointing and overseeing the work of the governors, and making decisions about repairing, rebuilding and regulating both prisons. In the last two decades of the century increasing amounts of the Justices' time was spent on efforts to reform the prisons.
In addition, the Justices occasionally issued specific orders to improve the enforcement of laws against particular offences which were the subject of current concern, such as the singing of seditious songs, selling goods from wheelbarrows (which caused obstructions in the street), and various types of vice.1 Typically, high constables, constables and other officers were ordered to enforce the laws more vigorously, and often required to submit reports documenting their efforts. In 1790, for example, the Justices issued an order responding positively to a request from the Proclamation Society for support for their efforts to encourage the prosecution of vice, specifically by distributing their tracts to constables.
Finally, the Justices regulated their own activities, issuing orders concerning the proper conduct of judicial procedures such as the binding over of criminal suspects and their prosecutors and the discharge of prisoners. Justices who failed to follow these regulations or misbehaved in other ways were sometimes summoned to appear before the assembled Justices at their dinners. Those found guilty of misconduct were the subject of representations to the Lord Chancellor asking for them to be removed from the Commission of the Peace.2
Vagrants
The only aspect of the poor laws that was discussed in these Justices' meetings was the passing of vagrants to their parishes of settlement, the expenses of which (both for their subsistence and for the officers who transported them) were paid for by a separate county fund.3 Justices' orders appointed contractors, disbursed funds to the contractors, constables and high constables who carried out this work, approved the accounts of the treasurer of the vagrant money, and set policies.
Administrative Business
Orders authorising the reimbursement of expenses for the subsistence and passing of vagrants, 12 July 1759. London Metropolitan Archives, MJ/OC/7, LL ref: LMSMGO556040083.
The Justices discussed a wide variety of other business relating to the government of Middlesex during the County Day of their sessions. Among the business recorded in these books can be found orders relating to:
- The election of a Chairman of the Justices.
- Auditing of the fees paid to county officers, such as the Coroner.
- The repair of county buildings (such as the Sessions House, Hicks Hall) and bridges.
- Regulation of the granting of licences for the sale of beer and ale.
- Setting county rates (the money which was raised to pay for repairs to county buildings, salaries for county officers, passing vagrants, and other expenses).
Introductory Reading
- Dowdell, E. G. A Hundred Years of Quarter Sessions. Cambridge, 1932.
- Goodacre, K. and Mercer, E. Doris. Guide to the Middlesex Sessions Records, 1549-1889. 1965.
- Shoemaker, Robert B. Prosecution and Punishment: Petty Crime and the Law in London and Rural Middlesex. Cambridge, 1991.
Online Resources
- London Metropolitan Archives
- London Metropolitan Archives: A Brief Guide to the Middlesex Sessions Records
For further reading on this subject see the London Lives Bibliography.
Documents Included on this Website
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1725-34, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/3, LL ref: LMSMGO55600, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1734-43, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/4, LL ref: LMSMGO55601, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1743-53, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/5, LL ref: LMSMGO55602, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1753-57, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/6, LL ref: LMSMGO55603, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1757-62, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/7, LL ref: LMSMGO55604, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1763-74, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/8, LL ref: LMSMGO55605, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1773-74, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/9, LL ref: LMSMGO55606, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1774-83, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/10a, LL ref: LMSMGO55607, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1773-76, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/10b, LL ref: LMSMGO55608, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1784-89, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/11, LL ref: LMSMGO55609, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1789-95, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/12, LL ref: LMSMGO55610, Tagging Level: E
- Middlesex Sessions Records, General Orders of Court Books, 1796-1800, London Metropolitan Archives, Ms. MJ/OC/13, LL ref: LMSMGO55611, Tagging Level: E
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Footnotes
1 For an account of one such prosecution wave, see Paula McDowell, The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678-1730 (Oxford, 1998), ch. 2. ⇑
2 Norma Landau, The Trading Justice's Trade, in N. Landau, ed., Law and English Society, 1660-1830 (Cambridge, 2003), pp. 46-70. ⇑
3 See Audrey Eccles, The Adams' Father and Son, Vagrant Contractors to Middlesex 1754-94, Transactions of the London and Middlesex Archaeological Society, 57 (2006), pp. 83-91. ⇑