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Records of Middlesex Quarter Sessions relating to Petty Sessions and summary jurisdiction, 1774-1915. Generally, records of summary jurisdiction and petty sessions are not regularly found before the mid Nineteenth Century because there was no obligation to return any to the Clerk of the Peace before then, and their survival rate is low. Some were voluntarily returned (mainly convictions and depositions), and there is record of cases within the main sessions records, particularly on the sessions rolls (see MJ/SR). An Act of 1847 required details of juvenile convictions to be returned to the Clerk; an Act of 1848, required details of fines, depositions and case papers; but it was the Criminal Justice Act of 1855 which laid down that all petty sessional records should be returned for filing in the main sessions records at the next Quarter Sessions following. The quantity of records that have survived for the Middlesex petty sessions is small and date mainly from the Nineteenth Century. MSJ/PR are poor law removal orders; MSJ/F are returns of fines imposed at petty sessions; MSJ/R are returns of offenders and bastardy maintenance orders; and MSJ/C and MSJ/CY are records of convictions.