Sir Charles Lee, foreman of the Jury

An order made by the Middlesex Quarter Sessions in 1705 that the "petty sessions" for the several divisions of the county should be held "at the known and usual place" indicates that their existence must have been well recognised by then. The divisional arrangement in the County was based to a large extent upon the old administrative area known as a 'hundred'.

Lord Howard had been accused of being the author of a seditious pamphlet, "The True Englishman", which advocated the overthrow of the King and his replacement by the Duke of Monmouth. According to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "With two footmen he assaulted an informer in April 1681, and the victim repaid him by accusing him of seditious language. Falsely charged with having written The True Englishman, which accused Charles of arbitrary rule, he was arrested on 11 June. In the king's bench he protested his innocence, and, with Algernon Sidney's assistance, persuaded the government to drop the case in the absence of credible witnesses." Richard L. Greaves, 'Howard, William, third Baron Howard of Escrick (c.1630-1694)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2009