These papers relating to the local history of Middlesex were collected for their general or antiquarian interest and relevance to the subject, rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).
Wright's Buildings were cottages, numbered 1 to 14, situated on the east side of Crouch End Hill. They were constructed in the early 19th century.
Park Road leads from Crouch End to Muswell Hill. It was called Maynard Street from 1503 until 1854, after a prominent local family.
From: A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 6: Friern Barnet, Finchley, Hornsey with Highgate (1980).
The 1962 series Bucknell's House showed a 39-week BBC project led by Barry Bucknell, DIY presenter, to renovate a derelict house in Ealing.
The parishes of Feltham, Hanworth and Sunbury were all enclosed at the same date, in 1800. Until then the common land had formed part of Hounslow Heath.
Charles Brown was a builder. He lived in Old Ford, and then Edmonton and Enfield Highway.
Charles James Sanderson lived at No. 4, Hornsey Lane.
Burleigh House, Enfield, was built circa 1700 west of the market-place. It was replaced soon after 1913 by a cinema, with shops along the street frontage of the grounds.
From: 'Enfield: Growth before 1850', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 5: Hendon, Kingsbury, Great Stanmore, Little Stanmore, Edmonton Enfield, Monken Hadley, South Mimms, Tottenham (1976), pp. 212-218 (available online).
Of the five companies, three are subsidiaries of the depositing company. City and West End Properties Limited, property company, was established in 1897 and based at 101 Leadenhall Street. In 1907 it moved to Bush Lane House where it remained until it was acquired by Trafalgar House Development Limited in 1964.
Corbett and Newson Limited, property company, was acquired by Trafalgar House Development Limited in 1966.
Woodgate Investment Trust Limited, property company, was incorporated in 1932 and shared offices with Corbett and Newson Limited at 17 Gracechurch Street (to 1933) and 34 Great St Helen's (1934-66). It too was acquired by Trafalgar House Development Limited in 1966.
Two of the five companies have no connection with the depositing company. Metropolitan Properties Company Limited and Consolidated London Properties Limited (which was acquired by Capital and Counties Properties Limited in 1964). The inclusion of these two companies derives from their previous association with City and West End Properties Limited, with which they shared both offices and directors before 1964: in some cases their records are intermingled.
The Court of King's Bench (or Queen's Bench, depending on the monarch) was founded circa 1200 to hear common pleas, although it came to specialise in pleas of special interest and concern to the king, such as those which involved his own property interests, or breach of his peace, or an error of judgment by another royal court. By 1675 the King's Bench was the highest court of common law in England and Wales, with jurisdiction over both civil and criminal actions. Civil business was conducted on the 'Plea Side' and criminal business on the 'Crown Side'. It was absorbed into the High Court in 1875 (source of information: The National Archives Research Guides Legal Records Information 34 and Legal Records Information 36).
The Court of Exchequer originated after the Norman Conquest as a financial committee of the Curia Regis (the King's Court). By the reign of Henry II it had become separate, and was responsible for the collection of the king's revenue as well as for judging cases affecting the revenue. By the 13th century the court proper and the exchequer or treasury began to separate. The court's jurisdiction over common pleas now steadily increased, to include, for example, money disputes between private litigants. A second Court of Exchequer Chamber was set up in 1585 to amend errors of the Court of the King's Bench. These were amalgamated in 1830 when a single Court of Exchequer emerged as a court of appeal intermediate between the common-law courts and the House of Lords. In 1875 the Court of Exchequer became, by the Judicature Act of 1873, part of the High Court of Justice, and in 1880 was combined with the Court of Common Pleas (source of information: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008).
The Lord Chancellor and his deputies sat in the Court of Chancery to hear disputes about inheritance and wills, lands, trusts, debts, marriage settlements, apprenticeships and so on. As an equity court, Chancery was not bound by the stricter rules of common law courts. Please see The National Archives Research Guides Legal Records Information 22, Legal Records Information 42 and Legal Records Information 28 for more information (all available online).
The Star Chamber was a special court which sat in the Palace of Westminster. It was intended to ensure that prominent and powerful individuals could be tried. Sessions were held in secret with no jury or witnesses. The system was vulnerable to corruption.
Sir John Chapman was a mercer who held office as Alderman of London. He was a Sheriff 1678-79 and Lord Mayor 1688-89, dying while in office.
These documents have been placed together for convenience under one fonds due to their small size (most are only one document or volume) and their lack of provenance. They do not form a united collection from one source. They relate to a variety of institutions, such as the Houses of Parliament, Commissioners of Excise, Armed Forces, War Office, Royal London Militia, Tower of London, Commissioners of the Treasury, Exchequer, Privy Council, Comptroller of the Revels; and historical events, such as the abdication of James II and the accession to the throne of William of Orange.
There is no unifying factor to these papers (e.g. that they relate to property owned by one estate or family or the legal work of one office), they were simply collected for their antiquarian interest before being passed to the archive.
A demicastor was a hat made of inferior beaver fur, often mixed with other furs.
According to the Post Office London Directory Charles Douglas Singer was in 1859 secretary to the Medical Invalid and General Life Assurance Society. By 1880 he was described as a letter clip manufacturer. He lived in several of the North London suburbs, from c. 1859-67 in Upper Holloway, from c. 1869-82 in Stoke Newington and by 1889 he was living in his brother George's home at 53, The Common, Upper Clapton.
Catherine Sarah Courtenay of Porterlington, Queen's County, Ireland mortgaged property to Charles Douglas Singer in 1860. These papers concern the legal problems and the incumbrances on the estates in which she had an interest, either through her husband John Courtenay who died in 1841, or inherited from her father George Murphy.
The Harrison family papers relate to Edward Harrison who died in 1865, a stationer presumably of Matthews Harrison and Sons Ltd. of 82, Cornhill; his widow Elizabeth who lived at Tulse Hill and Blackheath before moving to Eastbourne and the younger Edward Harrison who lived in Enfield from 1891 until his death in 1902 or 1903. It seems possible that his wife Emma was the daughter of Charles Douglas Singer who was made a trustee and executor of his will in 1891. In her will she in turn appointed two members of the Singer family trustees and executors.
During the 18th and 19th centuries Parliamentary Acts were used to enclose (fence off) common lands and uninhabited waste lands and entitle them to an owner. Common land was that which had traditionally been used by locals (commoners) for communal pasture or farming.
The Anchor Brewery in Southwark was established in 1616 by James Monger and taken over later by James Monger junior. It was bought by James (or Josiah) Child by 1670; who was joined by his son-in-law Edmund Halsey in 1693. Halsey became sole proprietor on Child's death.
The brewery was bought in 1729 by Ralph Thrale, Halsey's nephew, and passed to his son Henry in 1758. It was sold on Henry Thrale's death in 1781 to David Barclay, Robert Barclay, Sylvanus Bevan and John Perkins. The name was later changed from "Thrale and Company" (later "H. Thrale and Company") to "Barclay Perkins and Company" on 1 Jan 1798.
The company was incorporated as "Barclay Perkins and Company Limited" in 1896. Barclay Perkins took over Style and Winch with the Dartford Brewery Company and the Royal Brewery Brentford in 1929. In 1951 the company began to establish the Blue Nile Brewery in Khartoum.
John Courage of Aberdeen bought a brewhouse in Southwark in 1787. After his death it was managed by his wife Harriet and then the senior clerk John Donaldson. It was known as Courage and Donaldson from about 1800 until 1851, when John Courage junior and his sons removed the Donaldsons from management. The company was incorporated as Courage and Company Limited in 1888. The Company was based at Anchor Terrace, Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1
Courage merged with Barclay Perkins and Company Limited in 1955, and ceased to trade in 1957. The name was changed to Courage, Barclay and Simonds in 1970.
Sir Richard Holford of Lincoln's Inn and Weston Birt, Gloucestershire (d 1718), to whom the majority of these papers relate, was called to the bench in 1689, made a master in Chancery 1694, and knighted in 1695.
Of the other members of the Holford family mentioned, Robert Holford senior (1686-1753), son of Sir Richard, was called to the bench in 1715, having already become a master in Chancery in 1712, and his two sons, Peter (b 1719), and Robert junior, followed the family tradition, the former becoming a master in Chancery in 1750 and the latter being admitted to Grays Inn in 1742.
The London Fish Trade Association was formed in 1880 as the London Fish Salesman's Association to protect the interests of Billingsgate merchants. It changed its name to the London Fish Trade Association in 1881. From 1884 it occupied the subscription rooms in Billingsgate Market. From 1934 the Association operated coastal advice and bulking schemes for the benefit of members; various other schemes were undertaken later.
The Association was incorporated in 1946 as the London Fish Merchants' Association (Billingsgate) Ltd (see CLC/B/151-01), and a trading company, London Wholesale Fish Trade (Billingsgate) Ltd (see CLC/B/151-05), was formed at the same time to take over the operation of the various schemes.
Not available.
The movement to gain the vote for women was a mass movement that evolved most fully in the latter part of the nineteenth century. It was not, however, the only area of activity with the aim of improving the social and political situation of women in Britain. Earlier in the century, the idea of the 'sacred' protective duty of women gave them a 'high' ideological status in society that far outstripped their legal status. The social work that was undertaken by women's groups in the areas of housing and nursing led to changes regarding national laws on the poor, education and the treatment of the infirm. However, despite these achievements, the women who were responsible for them still found themselves legally impotent. This was also a time when the proportion of women compared with men in the country was increasing and the number of unmarried women without the expected financial support of a husband was growing as a consequence. Reformers therefore began to focus on the most immediate ways of improving the status and economic position of women, focusing on improvements to female education and the employment opportunities available to them. Schemes in the 1860s such as Emily Faithfull's Victoria Press and the plethora of female emigration societies that sprang up at the time and directed by individuals such as Maria Rye were designed to give women who were reasonably educated the means of supporting themselves. These developments were followed by activities centred on women's legal status regarding property and their ability to stand for election at the local level. None of the strands of activity was independent from the other as attitudes towards one affected perceptions of the others, and those who were active in one area such as women's employment also worked with colleagues more commonly associated with others such as education.
Hannah More (1745-1833) was born in Stapleton in 1745. When in her teens she wrote her first significant work, a play for schoolgirls entitled The Search after Happiness, published in Bristol in 1762. After a brief engagement she devoted herself to writing. She became particularly close to David Garrick and his wife who drew her into writing for the theatre. She wrote such plays as 'The Inflexible Captive' in 1774 and 'Percy' in 1778 until Garrick's death the following year. When this occurred, she retired to Hampton with his widow and continued her writing career in the form of didactic plays and poems. Her politics became increasingly reactionary with the outbreak of the French Revolution but she continued her use of popular forms such as ballads and in 1795-8 she published The Cheap Repository Tracts for the poor. In 1799, she published 'Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education', which called women to be worthy of holding superior moral value in the world while accepting women's inferior social status. Throughout the 1790s she and her sister Martha became involved in a project to teach the children of the poor in the Mendip Hills area. The children were taught to read, though famously not to write, with the purpose of Bible study. They were also taught the skills for trades such as weaving and sewing. She spent the rest of her life engaged in theological and moral reformatory work which found an outlet in texts such as 'Christian Morals' (1813) and 'Moral Sketches' (1819). In 1802, she built Barley Wood where her retired sisters joined her and where she lived until her move to Clifton. She died there 1833.
During the campaigns for women's franchise which had been conducted during the later nineteenth century, the focus of the groups taking part had been on influencing members of Parliament and their parties so that reform could be introduced from within Parliament. However, a series of bills to introduce a vote for women had been defeated as members of the Liberal Party, to which so many suffragists were attached, proved hostile to their cause. Additionally, by the turn of the century the media's interest had been diverted to the Boer War, meaning that publicity for the suffrage movement was rare. In this situation, a new organisation was established in 1903. Emmeline Pankhurst had been a supporter of women's suffrage for many years, but resigned from the Manchester branch of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in this year and formed the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) with her two daughters Christabel and Sylvia. Initially, the group's purpose was to recruit more working class women to the movement, but by 1905, when the new Liberal government began to withdraw active support for women's suffrage, they began to use different 'militant' methods to gain publicity that were soon adopted as a new campaign strategy and would be reused by others both in and outside of their own group. At a meeting on 13 Oct 1905, at which the government minister Sir Edward Grey spoke, Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney disrupted the event by shouting, then refused to leave before becoming involved in a struggle. This resulted in their arrest on the charge of assault, they were fined five shillings each, and were sent to prison for refusing to pay. Their methods were in direct contrast to the constitutional methods of other groups such as the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and attracted a number of early adherents such as Charlotte Despard and Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence. During 1906, the WSPU also began to increase the level of violence used, breaking the windows of government buildings and attacking Asquith's house with stones on the 30 Jun. However, not all agreed with the escalation of militancy or the Pankhurst style of leadership. A number of members left the group in 1907 with Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, and Caroline Hodgeson, to form another militant, but this time non-violent, organisation: the Women's Freedom League, which engaged in acts of civil disobedience. The impact of WSPU arrests increased when, in Jul 1909, hunger strikes began. The prison authorities feared public opinion would turn against them but were unwilling to release the increasing number of suffragettes who adopted this tactic. Consequently, women on hunger strike were force-fed. The violence escalated even further in 1913 when abortive arson attacks on the homes of two anti-suffrage MPs took place, followed by the burning of a series of other buildings. Some members of the WSPU disagreed with this arson campaign and, like Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence in 1912, were expelled or themselves left the group. However, the number of hunger-striking women rose even further and the government introduced the Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act, known as the 'Cat and Mouse Act', by which ill suffragettes were released to be re-arrested on their recovery and sent back to prison to complete their sentence. However, the WSPU's situation changed on 4 Aug 1914 when the First World War broke out. Suffrage organisations across the spectrum of opinion suspended their political activities and transferred their efforts to war work, while the WSPU began negotiating with the government to end their militant activity and begin war work in return for the release of current suffragette prisoners. This occurred and the group began to organise demonstrations in support of the war and encouraging women to replace men in the workplace, bringing the militant stage of the campaign for the vote to an end.
Sir Bruce Stirling Ingram (1877-1963) was editor of the Illustrated London News and for a time was an Honorary Vice-President of the Society for Nautical Research.
Merchant Shipping: Logs
Robert Marsham was the second son of Charles, 2nd Earl of Romney in direct descent of Sir Cloudesley Shovell through his elder daughter Elizabeth. He assumed the second name of Townshend by Royal Licence in 1893. Marsham-Townshend was educated first at Eton and then at Christ Church, Oxford.
Atlases, maps and plans - volumes.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was a Tuscan (Italian) physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher.
These papers relating to properties were collected for their general or antiquarian interest rather than having a united provenance (that is, being produced by the same institution or business).
No biographical detail has been found for George Pepper.
Vauxhall Bridge was begun in 1811 to a design by Rennie, but two years later the Vauxhall Bridge Company decided to adopt James Walker's cast iron design as it was cheaper. The bridge was opened in 1816 and was at first called Regent's Bridge. It was the first iron bridge over the Thames. In 1895 to 1906 a new bridge was constructed designed by Sir Alexander Binnie.
Henry Vane was born about 1705. He was Member of Parliament for Launceston 1726-1727, St. Mawes 1727-1741, Ripon 1741-1747 and for County Durham 1747-1753. Vane was Vice Treasurer and Paymaster General from 1742-1744, a Lord of the Treasury 1749-1755 and Lord Lieutenant of County Durham 1753-1758. He succeeded his father in the Peerage as 3rd Baron Barnard on 27 April 1753. He was created Viscount Barnard of Barnards Castle and Earl of Darlington 3 April 1754. Vane died on 6 March 1758.
Born, 1869; educated, Farnborough School, 1879-1882 and Sandhurst, 1882-1889; Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, 1893-1901; Scots Guards, 1899; served in Somaliland and Abyssinia, 1894; Foreign Office, Uganda, 1894-1895; took part in Ungoro, Nile and Nandi expeditions where he undertook surveying; awarded the Murchison Grant, 1897; served in West Africa, 1896-1897; Egypt, 1897-1899; Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, South Africa, [1900]-1901; died, 1901.
Publications: Campaigning on the Upper Nile and Niger (1898)
Born 1914; educated at Aysgarth School, Winchester College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; commissioned into Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, Aug 1934; served in France, 1939-1940; participated in Operation DYNAMO, the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) from Dunkirk, May-June 1940; attended Staff College, Camberley, 1941; served as Brigade Maj with 126 Infantry Bde and 11 Armoured (Tank) Bde, UK, 1941-1943; Lt Col, 1943; 10 Armoured Div, Middle East, 1943-1944; 12 Royal Tank Regt, Italy, 1944-1945; 1 Div, Palestine, 1945-1946; School of Land/Air Operations, Old Sarum, 1947; War Office, 1948; Staff College, Camberley, 1949-1950; served with 11 Armoured Div in Germany, 1950-1953; Military Assistant to Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 1953-1956; Officer commanding 4/7 Royal Dragoon Guards, 1956-1957; retired 1957; worked for WH Smith, 1957-1977; Managing Director of WH Smith, 1968; died 2002.
Phs. van Ommeren N.V., Rotterdam, was founded in 1839 by Philippus van Ommeren, primarily to act as shipbroker and agent to the then Rotterdam/London Line. Other agencies followed. The firm expanded into other trades and developed a variety of services. Gradually related companies were established in other cities and the London company began operations in January 1914. The outbreak of the First World War caused the cancellation of the early contracts, but in 1915 the company was appointed general agent in the United Kingdom for the Holland-America Line. During the Second World War the Netherlands Shipping and Trading Committee took control of the Dutch merchant ships on behalf of the government in exile and these were placed on time charter to the British government. With the end of the war, the company resumed its Dutch connections and agencies; they also became agents for other companies in many parts of the world.
During the Second World War the Wellcome Foundation laboratories at Frant, East Sussex, were engaged in work for the Ministry of Supply, producing scrub typhus vaccine for the armed forces. The project was given the wartime codename of 'Tyburn' after Tyburn Farm, the farm at the Wellcome Veterinary Research Station there. The project was organised by the bacteriologist Marinus van den Ende (1912-1957), serving with the RAMC: his obituary in the Lancet states that "his greatest achievement in England was the organisation of the laboratory at Frant for the large-scale production of scrub typhus vaccine, exacting and dangerous work which he carried out with great speed and precision"
In 1947 the London and Provincial Wine Company Limited of Aylesbury changed their name to Valentine Charles Limited and moved their registered offices to Bilbao House, New Broad Street, EC2. Two of the original shareholders were Charles Henry Jarvis and Valentine Harry Jarvis. The company owned several wine shops in south England. Company number: 292900.
J William Valantines of Doncaster. Unknown.
Henry Cline: born, London, 1750; educated, Merchant Taylors' School; apprenticed to Mr Thomas Smith, surgeon to St Thomas's Hospital, 1767; diploma from Surgeons' Hall, 1774; Lecturer on anatomy, St Thomas's Hospital, 1781-1811; Surgeon, St Thomas's Hospital, 1784-1811; examiner at the College of Surgeons, 1810; master of the College of Surgeons, 1815, president, 1823; delivered the Hunterian oration, 1816, 1824; died, 1827. Publications: On the Form of Animals (Bulmer and Co, London, 1805).
Wilfrid Bernard Vaillant was born at Meadowleigh, Weybridge, on 23 September 1864, son of Major Albert Vaillant. He was educated at Clewer Hill School from 1874-78, and then Radley College from 1878-83, where he won several sports prizes. He entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1883 and graduated BA in 1890 and MA in 1891.
Between 1885-90 he worked at the recently established Oxford House, Bethnal Green, East London. Oxford House was built to be a home to graduates, tutors and those intending to enter the church so that they might learn at first hand the problems of the city poor, through social, educational and religious work with them.
Vaillant attended Ely Theological College between 1890 and 1891. He was ordained Deacon on 20 September 1891 in Ely Cathedral, and Priest in St Paul's Cathedral on 18 February 1894. He became Curate at the Christ Church Oxford Mission, St Frideswide's, East London.
Born 1852; published Les Surprises du Coeur in 1881; wrote an article in 1894: "The End of Books", which predicted that books would eventually become overtaken by other media. He founded the magazine The Book.
Poor relief was based on the Act for the Relief of the Poor of 1601 which obliged parishes to take care of the aged and needy in their area. Parish overseers were empowered to collect a local income tax known as the poor-rate which would be put towards the relief of the poor. This evolved into the rating system, where the amount of poor-rate charged was based on the value of a person's property. Early workhouses were constructed and managed by the parish. However, this process was expensive and various schemes were devised where groups of parishes could act together and pool their resources. As early as 1647 towns were setting up 'Corporations' of parishes. An Act of 1782, promoted by Thomas Gilbert, allowed adjacent parishes to combine into Unions and provide workhouses. These were known as 'Gilbert's Unions' and were managed by a board of Guardians.
Under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, the Poor Law Commission was given the power to unite parishes in England and Wales into Poor Law Unions. Each Union was to be administered by a local Board of Guardians. Relief was to be provided through the provision of a workhouse. An amendment to the 1834 Act allowed already existing 'Gilbert's Unions' or Corporations of parishes to remain in existence, although they were encouraged to convert themselves into Poor Law Unions. Although there was some reorganisation of union boundaries, particularly in London, the majority of Unions created under the 1834 Act remained in operation until 1930. In March 1930 a new Local Government Bill abolished the Poor Law Unions and the Board of Guardians. Responsibility for their institutions passed to Public Assistance Committees managed by the county councils - in the metropolis either the London County Council or the Middlesex County Council.
Fostering - that is the arrangement whereby one person pays another for the care of a child - has always existed in one form or another. It had its abuses, the grossest of which was baby farming, the scandal of which necessitated legislation in the form of the Infant Life Protection Act 1872 which made it compulsory for persons taking for hire two or more infants less than a year old to register with the local authorities, who were the Councils in the care of the boroughs and the Justices in the case of counties. Child life protection as a whole was transferred to the Poor Law authorities, whose duties comprised the receiving of notice where a person undertook for reward the nursing and maintenance of an infant under the age of 7; the appointment of visitors to inspect such children; the limitation of the number in a dwelling; the removal of such infants improperly kept; and the receiving of fines imposed from offences.
Uxbridge Poor Law Union was founded in June 1836, comprised of the following parishes: Cowley, West Drayton, Harefield, Hayes, Hillingdon, Ickenham, Northolt, Norwood, Ruislip and Uxbridge. Yiewsley parish was added in 1896. The Union bought the existing Hillingdon parish workhouse site, together with a further four acres of land, and constructed a new workhouse on the site.
Source of information: Peter Higginbotham at The Workhouse website.
An Act of 1792 established seven 'Public Offices' (later Police offices and Police courts) in the central Metropolitan area. The aim was to establish fixed locations where 'fit and able magistrates' would attend at fixed times to deal with an increasing number of criminal offences.
Offices were opened in St Margaret Westminster, St James Westminster, Clerkenwell, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, Shadwell and Southwark. An office in Bow Street, Covent Garden, originally the home of the local magistrate, had been operating for almost 50 years and was largely the model for the new offices.
In 1800 the Marine Police Office or Thames Police Office, opened by 'private enterprise' in 1798, was incorporated into the statutory system. In 1821 an office was opened in Marylebone, apparently replacing the one in Shadwell.
Each office was assigned three Justices of the Peace. They were to receive a salary of £400 per annum. These were the first stipendiary magistrates. Later they were expected to be highly qualified in the law, indeed, to be experienced barristers. This distinguished them from the local lay justices who after the setting up of Police Offices were largely confined, in the Metropolitan area, to the licensing of innkeepers. In addition each office could appoint up to six constables to be attached to it.
The commonly used term of 'Police Court' was found to be misleading. The word 'police' gave the impression that the Metropolitan Police controlled and administered the courts. This was never the case, the word 'police' was being used in its original meaning of 'pertaining to civil administration', 'regulating', etc.
In April 1965 (following the Administration of Justice Act 1964) the London Police Courts with their stipendiary magistrates were integrated with the lay magistrates to form the modern Inner London Magistrates' Courts.
The police courts dealt with a wide range of business coming under the general heading of 'summary jurisdiction', i.e. trial without a jury. The cases heard were largely criminal and of the less serious kind. Over the years statutes created many offences that the courts could deal with in addition to Common Law offences. Examples include: drunk and disorderly conduct, assault, theft, begging, possessing stolen goods, cruelty to animals, desertion from the armed forces, betting, soliciting, loitering with intent, obstructing highways, and motoring offences. Non-criminal matters included small debts concerning income tax and local rates, landlord and tenant matters, matrimonial problems and bastardy.
Offences beyond the powers of the Court would normally be passed to the Sessions of the Peace or Gaol Delivery Sessions in the Old Bailey (from 1835 called the Central Criminal Court). From the late 19th century such cases would be the subject of preliminary hearings or committal proceedings in the magistrates' courts.
Outside the London Police Court Area but within the administrative county of Middlesex lay justices continued to deal with both criminal offences and administrative matters such as the licensing of innkeepers.
The exact area covered by a Court at any particular time can be found in the Kelly's Post Office London Directories, available on microfilm at LMA. The entries are based on the original Orders-in-Council establishing police court districts. A map showing police court districts is kept in the Information Area of LMA with other reference maps. Please ask a member of staff for assistance.
Uxbridge and District United Choirs x Uxbridge and District Choral Society x Uxbridge Choral Society
In 1939 J R Thonger was asked to arrange a concert in aid of the Uxbridge and District Supply Depot of the British Red Cross. He approached choirmasters and organists of local churches, and gathered support from six of the churches. Although there was not a large audience for this concert, the singers were all very enthusiastic and met again the following January to prepare for an Easter concert. The first general meeting of the Uxbridge and District United Choirs was held in April 1940 and from that point concerts were held frequently, always in aid of charity.
In 1946 the society's name was changed to the Uxbridge and District Choral Society and again in 1978 to the Uxbridge Choral Society.
The Strategic Bombing Survey was established in the US War Department as a civilian activity, 3 Nov 1944, pursuant to Presidential directive, 9 Sep 1944. During its existence it studied the effects of Allied aerial attacks on Germany and German-occupied Europe (European Survey) and on Japan (Pacific Survey), to establish a basis for evaluating the importance and potential of air power as an instrument of military strategy and for planning the future development of the armed forces. It was abolished in 8 Oct 1947, with discontinuance of operations.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the approximate US counterpart of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, and Special Operations Executive (SOE), with which it co-operated throughout World War Two and its immediate aftermath. The OSS was created by Presidential Military Order on 13 Jun 1942 and it functioned as the principal US intelligence organisation in all operational theatres during the war. Its primary function was to obtain information about enemy nations and to sabotage their war potential and morale. The OSS was terminated by Executive Order 9620 on 20 Sep 1945, its functions later assumed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and, more principally, the US State Department. One of the US State Department's primary functions immediately following World War Two was to provide the US President and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff with intelligence relating to the civil structure of foreign states and the impact of communism on post-colonial countries. In the Far East, the State Department provided the US Executive Branch with key intelligence concerning the economic and civil stability of nations weakened by Japanese occupation during World War Two and subsequently engaged in civil economic, political, and social crises. This enabled US policy planners to formulate long-term strategic goals in the Far East. During the war, the US State Department relied on OSS intelligence to prepare summary research reports concerning the social structure, strategic interests, resources, government, and economic stability of countries in the Far East. After the war, US embassies, State Department field offices, and US foreign service personnel provided the White House with the majority of strategic intelligence relating to the civil structure of nations in the Far East.
Through its embassies, missions, consulates, and foreign service personnel, the US State Department was entrusted by the US Government to gather and disseminate information about the political, economic, and social stability of nations. From 1950 to 1957, the US State Department relayed telegrams and reports about Korea back to the United States Executive Branch for action. Following World War Two, US State Department missions in Southeast Asia had forewarned the US Presidency of political instability with the removal of Japanese occupation forces. In 1950, foreign service personnel began to send urgent messages regarding the movement of scattered communist guerrilla forces southward. During the Korean War, 1950 to 1953, the US State Department maintained a steady flow of messages to President Harry S Truman concerning civil, political, and military actions in Korea and, following the armistice in 1953, continued to inform the Executive Branch of Korean economic and social stability programmes.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War Two. It was the wartime intelligence agency and was the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
The National Security Act of 1947 and the Reorganization Plan of 1949 defined the composition and function of the National Security Council (NSC). Chaired by the President of the United States, the NSC consists of statutory members (the Vice President and the Secretaries of State and Defense), statutory advisers (the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency), the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, and professional staff members who are on temporary assignment from the armed forces, the Central Intelligence Agency, elsewhere in the government, or who have been recruited from universities and think tanks. The statutory function of the NSC is to advise the President with respect to the integration of domestic, foreign, and military policies relating to national security. Since 1947 the NSC has evolved as a key foreign policy making arm of the president. Minutes of the Meetings of the National Security Council: First Supplement contains three separate types of materials: minutes of meetings, document associated with such meetings, and summaries and discussions held during the meetings. This collection relates to a period during the administrations of Presidents Harry S Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower (1947-1956), during which the National Security Council (NSC) met on a regular weekly basis. The NSC met more frequently during times of foreign crisis, less frequently when the president was travelling or pre- occupied with domestic issues. During the administrations of Harry S Truman and Dwight David Eisenhower, the NSC produced a series of formal policy papers whose purpose it was to analyse current and potential national security issues and make policy recommendations to deal with those issues. These policy papers were prepared by the NSC staff and occasionally by members of the NSC in response to requests by the NSC to study specific issues. When completed, these policy papers (NSCPP) were distributed to the NSC for study and comment. If the NSC decided to alter a policy paper, a revised draft would be produced. Once approved, the paper became the official (and usually secret) policy of the United States government. In contrast to Truman and Eisenhower, Presidents John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson held few NSC meetings, relying less on the formally structured NSC and more on ad hoc committees to discuss national security policy.
From 1918 to 1941, the US military attaché, US Military Intelligence Division (MID), Japan, produced reports relating to Japanese military, political, social, and economic development. During this period the Japanese Empire consisted of the home islands, the former Kingdom of Korea, which was annexed in 1908, portions of Siberia, the former German Pacific island possessions seized by Japan following World War One, the dependent Kingdom of Manchukuo (Manchuria), and the occupied territories of northern China seized after 1931. The major function of the MID was the collection of military information about foreign nations. Military attachés and observers assigned to foreign countries were the principal means by which the MID collected such information. The main duties of the military attaché were to observe and report on the training, organisation, equipment, doctrine, and operations of foreign armed forces. Although the US first dispatched military attaches to foreign countries in 1889, it did not accredit an attaché to Japan until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894. Two years later a second military attaché was sent out, but the Spanish-American War cut short his tenure. A permanent military attaché was finally assigned in 1901 when the US and Japan were co-operating closely in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China. For the subsequent forty years, until the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, a US military attaché was assigned to Japan. During the period 1918-1941, the military attaché's office in Tokyo usually had two assistants and a number of 'language officers'. The latter were assigned specifically to learn Japanese whilst attached to Japanese Imperial Army regiments as observers. While the military attaché advised the US Ambassador to Japan on military matters, acted as a liaison between US Army and the Japanese Imperial Army Headquarters, and gathered and disseminated intelligence, the 'language officers' translated training and technical manuals and reported on conditions in Japanese military units.
Terrorism: Special Studies, 1975-1991 is a collection of studies commissioned by the US government concerning international terrorism, 1975-1991. The US government contracted American universities, colleges, corporations, non-partisan policy centres, and individuals to provide data and analyses relating to terrorist threats to US foreign policy. University Publications of America then compiled the existing texts, which were available in US armed forces reports, US defence policy journals, non-partisan policy journals, academic journals, and academic symposia and conference proceedings, 1974-1991.
In Apr 1968 political and military representatives from the United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam began negotiations in Paris, France, to end the Vietnam War. Two months later, the talks were stalled over the inclusion of representatives from the Vietnamese National Liberation Front (Viet Cong), considered by the US an illegitimate political entity. In 1969, US Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (later US Secretary of State), Dr Henry Alfred Kissinger, once again began conversations with North Vietnamese officials. Backed by intensive US bombing of North Vietnam, and particularly its capital city Hanoi, Kissinger eventually persuaded North Vietnamese officials to negotiate the terms of a cease-fire. Throughout the lengthy negotiations, representatives from all sides sought what they considered an precipitous escape from the war. Finally, in 1972 Deputy Assistant to the President, Gen Alexander Meigs Haig Jr, met with South Vietnamese president Nguyen Van Thieu to discuss the final terms of 'Vietnamization', the process by which the American military presence in South Vietnam would be replaced with troops from the Republic of Vietnam. Also, the Viet Cong military adviser, Le Duc Tho, completed talks with Kissinger relating to the terms of a general cease-fire. On 27 Jan 1973, five years after the commencement of negotiations, a permanent cease-fire was signed between representatives from North Vietnam, the Viet Cong, South Vietnam, and the United States. Transcripts and Files of the Paris Peace Talks on Vietnam, 1968-1973 are the official transcripts of the Paris Peace Talks between political and military officials from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, the Viet Cong and the United States, 31 Mar 1968-26 Feb 1973.