Middlesex Quarter Sessions of the Peace

The court of Quarter Sessions was the place in which the Justices of the Peace exercised their judicial and administrative functions for the county, and generated a variety of records from that role. Records were often deposited, filed (enrolled) or registered 'by statute' with the Clerk of the Peace, to be kept with the sessions records, and be available for inspection. These were records presented to the justices in a session, and certified before them, but which were not part of the normal sessions work, although sometimes it is hard to make the distinction. Indeed, statutes ordering the creation of these records often stipulated that returns or registers should be 'filed on the rolls of the Sessions of the Peace" or "be deposited with the Clerk of the Peace to be registered and kept with the records of Quarter Sessions"; which means in practice that many records which were created outside the normal sessions work are found on the sessions rolls (see MJ/SR), in the sessions books (see MJ/SB) or in the sessions papers (see MJ/SP).