QUARTER SESSIONS UK
The County Quarter Sessions was a court with administrative and judicial functions until the 1888 Local Government Act transferred most of its administrative powers to the County Council. Each sitting was held within 21 days of the Quarter Day (Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Epiphany), with occasional adjournments.
The administrative duties of the Justices had been considerable, for example they licensed alehouses and were responsible for the county's roads and bridges.
It is worth remembering that the Quarter Sessions dealt with relatively minor criminal offences. It was the Assize Courts which dealt with more serious crimes, principally those involving the death sentence.
Quarter Session papers that have been referenced without finding any STERRYs or similar are:
- Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions: 'Notes and Extracts from the County Records Comprised in the Quarter Session Rolls from 1714 to 1832, vol 1, compiled by Messrs Hardy & Page'
Source:
https://archive.org/details/cu31924091761431/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Bedfordshire Quarter Sessions: 'Notes and Extracts from the County Records being a Calendar of Vol 1 of the Sessions Minute Books 1651 to 1660, Vol 2, compiled by Messrs Hardy & Page
Source:
https://archive.org/details/cu31924091761449/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Buckinghamshire Quarter Sessions: 'Calendars vol 1 - 8, 1678-1733'
Source: Buckinghamshire Record Society
https://www.bucksrecsoc.org.uk/qsintro.html [See Note below] - Cheshire Quarter Sessions: 'Petitions to the Cheshire Quarter Sessions, 1573-1798, Sharon Howard (ed.)
Source: British History Online:
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/petitions/cheshire [See Note below] - Cheshire Quarter Sessions: H. E. Bennett and J. C. Dewhurst, Quarter Sessions records, with other records of the justices of the peace for the County Palatine of Chester, 1559-1760, Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 94 (1940), vol 1
Source:
Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire
http://rslc.org.uk/api/file/Vol_094.pdf [See Note below] - Derbyshire Quarter Sessions: J.C. Cox, Three centuries of Derbyshire annals, as illustrated by the records of the quarter sessions of the county Derby, from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Victoria. 2 vols. (1890), Rev J Charles Cox
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/threecenturiesd00dergoog/page/n10/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/threecenturiesd00coxgoog [See Note below] - Derbyshire Quarter Sessions: Brodie Waddell (ed.), Petitions to the Derbyshire Quarter Sessions, 1632-1770
Source: British History Online
https://www.british-history.ac.uk/petitions/derbyshire [See Note below] - Devon Quarter Sessions: Charmian Mansell and Mark Hailwood, editors. Court Depositions of South West England, 1500-1700, University of Exeter
Source: University of Exeter
https://humanities-research.exeter.ac.uk/womenswork/courtdepositions/ [See Note below] - Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions: Registers of prisoners for trial at Quarter Sessions and Assizes 1844-1879 are included in the database Gloucestershire Prison Records 1728-1914 on Ancestry.com [See Crime - Gloucestershire]
- Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions: Notes and Extracts from the Sessions Rolls 1581 to 1698 vol 1 and 2, W J Hardy
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/hertfordcountyre01hert/page/n5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/hertfordcountyre02hert/page/n5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/b24878315_0001/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions: Notes and Extracts from the Sessions Rolls 1699 to 1850, vol II, W J Hardy
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/hertfordcountyr00britgoog/page/n8/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/b24878315_0002/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions: Notes and Extracts from the Sessions Rolls 1851 to 1894, vol III, W J Hardy
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/hertfordcountyre03hert/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions: Notes and Extracts from the Sessions Rolls of the Liberty of St Alban Division 1770 to 1840, vol IV, W J Hardy
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/hertfordcountyre04hert/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Lancashire Quarter Sessions: Preston, Kirkdale, Lancashire, 1648-1908 [Ancestry.com]
- Lincolnshire Quarter Sessions: A. Peyton, Minutes of proceedings in quarter sessions held for the parts of Kesteven in Co. Lincoln. 1 vol. in 2., Lincoln Record Society, 25-26 (1931), vol 1 & 2
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/publicationslinc25lincuoft/publicationslinc25lincuof/https://archive.org/details/publicationslinc26lincuoft/publicationslinc26lincuoft/ [See Note below] - London London Assize Elizabeth 1 and James 1 book – calendar only – indexed [Society of Genealogists, London]
- Nottinghamshire Quarter Sessions 1676, 1680, 1689, 1693-4, 1698: H. Hampton Compnall (ed.), Nottinghamshire county records; notes and extracts from the Nottinghamshire county records of the 17th century (1915)
Source: http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/default.htm [See Note below] - Somerset Quarter Sessions 1607-1625 and 1625-1639
H. Bates Harbin and M. C. B. Dawes, Quarter sessions records for Somerset. 4 vols., Somerset Record Society
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/quartersessions01somgoog/page/n6/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/quartersessions00somgoog/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Staffordshire Quarter Sessions: Brodie Waddell (ed.), Petitions to the Staffordshire Quarter Sessions, 1589-1799, on British History Online (2019) [See Note below]
- Sussex
Sussex Quarter Sessions 1750-1769 – book – indexed
Sussex Quarter Sessions 1767-1850 – CD
Sussex Assize – 1603-1625 – calendar only – indexed [Society of Genealogists, London]
East Sussex quarter sessions 1810-54 – on microfiche – indexed - Wiltshire Quarter Sessions: Court Depositions of South West England, 1500-1700, University of Exeter
Source: University of Exeter: a digital edition of 80 fully transcribed depositions relating to 20 cases heard in the church courts and Quarter Sessions between 1556 and 1694 across Devon, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire [See Note below] - Worcestershire Quarter Sessions: Brodie Waddell (ed.), Petitions to the Worcestershire Quarter Sessions, 1592-1797, on British History Online (2019) [See Note below]
- Yorkshire Quarter Sessions, Wakefield & Leeds, 1637-1914 [Ancestry.com]
- Yorkshire Quarter Sessions: C. Atkinson, [North Riding] quarter sessions records, North Riding Record Society, 1-9, 9 vols. (1884-92)
Source: Internet Archive
https://archive.org/details/quartersessionr02atkigoog/page/n5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/quartersessionr00atkigoog/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/quartersessionr01atkigoog/page/n7/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu31924024238085/page/n5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/quartersessionre07grea/page/n5/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu31924024238077/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu31924024238044/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu31924024238051/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/cu31924024238069/page/n3/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/quartersessionre08grea/page/n5/mode/2up [See Note below] - Yorkshire Quarter Sessions: F. Barber, ‘West Riding Sessions Rolls’, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 5 (1879), pp. 362-405
Source: Internet Archive [See Note below] - Yorkshire Quarter Sessions: John Lister, ed. West Riding Sessions rolls, 1597-1602 (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record series, III, 1888)
Source: Internet Archive [See Note below] - Yorkshire Quarter Sessions: John Lister, ed. West Riding Sessions rolls, 1611-42 (Yorkshire Archaeological Society, Record series, LIV, 1915)
Source: Internet Archive [See Note below]
Note: These links were obtained from 'The Many-headed Monster, England’s Quarter Sessions Records Online and in Print' https://manyheadedmonster.com/2022/09/05/englands-quarter-sessions-records-online-and-in-print/
Sterrys were located in the following records:
City of London Quarter Sessions: Sessions Papers-Justices' Working Documents
1724 Jul 21
Joseph Sterry is listed as an Overseer in the case of the removal of Hannah Hodges from the Parish of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate London to the Said Parish of St. Sepulchres London
Source: London Lives includes a full set of records of two City parishes, the wealthy inner City parish of St Dionis Backchurch and the poorer extra-mural parish of St Botolph Aldgate, part of which fell within the jurisdiction of the county of Middlesex.
Westminster Quarter Sessions: Sessions Papers-Justices' Working Documents
1725 March
Wm Bailey: Com P Tho: Gouge Esqr . Mar: ye 20th ... Oath of Jno: Sterry on Suspition of pit ... brass weights of small value from ... appearing to be a loose idle vagrant ... person having no visible means of ... himself keep him to hard Labour
Source: London Lives includes a full set of records of one parish, St Clement Danes, and settlement examinations and workhouse registers from St Martin in the Fields.