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Archival description
Powis Castle Estate Records, Sub-series English
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Quarter session files and papers

The quarter session files (some tolerably complete, others imperfect) include various warrants and precepts; lists of the officials in the town and liberty, names of the grand jurors, and their presentments; return of bills, bonds, recognisances, and bail pieces; some depositions in cases of theft and assault before the borough magistrates; presentment of defective highways (pursuant to Act 3 and 4 William III); infringements of the assize of bread and ale, and 'the blowing of meat'; defective stocks, etc.; local nuisances, 'shaving on the Saboth day', and occasional contraventions of the then existing Poor Law. Seemingly, the local quarter sessions (as from about 1615, the date of Pool's charter) tended to absorb the bulk of the 'statutory offences' which for some generations after the Act of Union (1536) were presented by both the urban and rural petty constables in the leets of their respective manors. Doubtless the court leet of the manor of the borough of Pool lost much of its significance as an organ of borough government during the seventeenth century, but from about 1750 to 1846 it continued to be an active organisation for the supervision of the commons, the reparation of the common highways, and particularly the collection of alienation fees accruing from the transfer and sale of property within the town and liberty.

Chirbury court baron papers

The court baron papers comprise files of documents connected with the various administrative and legal processes of the court baron from time to time e.g. declarations, pleadings, issues of pleas, jury panels, with occasional bonds, mainprises, and bills of costs; also divers writs or precepts (replevin, levari facias, distringas, etc.). The series range in date from 1597 to 1795. The extant files for the reign of Elizabeth and James I are mixed i.e. they include both declarations, etc., and precepts; those temp. Charles I were found to be very incomplete and much scattered, and consequently have been reassembled into small regnal year files according to category of document, 'D' or 'P'. From about 1648 to 1659 precepts and declarations appear to have been carefully filed separately, and the original files seem to be tolerably complete. There is a big gap in the series between 1661 and 1772, and the insignificant size of the few representative files for the early decades of the eighteenth century suggests a considerable decline in the activities of the court. Declarations, etc. (mixed): 40 Eliz.-21 Jas I: 1597-1603, 1603-1605, 1605-1606, 1607-1609, 1610-1612, 1613-1621, 1614-1620, 1616-1618, 1619-1623, 1622-1623 (precepts), 1623-1624 (precepts). Court baron papers, 1-21 Charles I [years 1, 2, 5, 20 missing]: declarations etc., 1-21 Chas I (arranged in regnal year files); precepts 3-21 Chas I (arranged in regnal year files). Court baron papers, 1646-1795: precepts 1648-1650; precepts 1651-1654; precepts 1655-1657; precepts 1657-1659; declarations (mixed) 1646-1650; declarations (mixed) 1647-1653; declarations (mixed) 1654-1656; declarations (mixed) 1723-1726; declarations (mixed) 1737-1739; declarations (mixed) 1741-1759; declarations (mixed) 1783-1795. [Only a few scattered survivals ranging between these dates.]. MA 485, listed in the old schedule is now (April 2007) not found.

Copy sales,

A conveyance of 3 cottages in t. Trefonnen, p. Oswestry, 1858 (D33/89/95). Listed as being part of this parcel in 'Powis Castle Estate Register of Muniments of Title' (now DA1)is no longer extant, at least not in the original parcel.

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