 | |
| Long title | An Act for facilitating the Union of Liberties with the Counties in which they are situate. |
|---|---|
| Citation | 13 & 14 Vict. c. 105 |
| Territorial extent | England and Wales |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 14 August 1850 |
Status: Repealed | |
The Liberties Act 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 105) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that provided a mechanism to enable the various liberties or independent jurisdictions in England and Wales to be merged into the geographical counties in which they lay.
Throughout England and Wales there were numerous liberties which were for historic reasons, to varying degrees, independent of the administration of the authorities of the county in which they lay. By the nineteenth century it had become clear that their continued existence was causing inefficiencies in local government and frustrating the effective administration of justice. Liberties generally had a commission of the peace and gaol distinct from those of the county, and the Inspectors of Prisons, in their annual report of 1850 noted:
The inconvenience of these separate jurisdictions is most obvious, and particularly where they extend into more counties than one, which is not unfrequently the case. The prisons retained in them for the confinement of prisoners under criminal and civil process are of the most inferior description, and in civil cases the prison of a Liberty is not unfrequently selected either by the debtor or the creditor; by the former, as leaving him under less restraint than the county gaol; by the latter, as likely to punish respectability by its uncleanliness and discomfort. [2]
The Act applied to any liberty that possessed a separate commission of the peace, be they divisions of a county, counties of a town or city or sokes. [3]
The justices of the peace of any liberty, or of any county in which a liberty lay, were given the right to prepare a petition seeking the union of the liberty with the county. Notice of the resolution to prepare the petition was to be published for three successive weeks in both a London newspaper and one circulating in the county involved. The petition was to lay out the reasons for the proposed union, and to set out in detail the arrangements for taking over the property of the liberty, and the payments to be made, or continued employment by the county of those holding franchise or office in the liberty. [3]
If the petition was approved by the Privy Council, a notice to that effect was to be published in the London Gazette . The notice would detail the areas involved, and the parishes formerly in the liberty would be annexed to existing hundreds and petty sessional divisions of the county. [3]
Following the union: [3]
Where municipal boroughs incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 had been granted a separate court of quarter sessions, they were expressly exempt from the legislation. [3]
Notices of the following unions of liberties with counties were published in the London Gazette:
In the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, a county town is the most important town or city in a county. It is usually the location of administrative or judicial functions within a county, and the place where the county's members of Parliament are elected. Following the establishment of county councils in England 1889, the headquarters of the new councils were usually established in the county town of each county; however, the concept of a county town pre-dates these councils.
Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866), is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled that the use of military tribunals to try civilians when civil courts are operating is unconstitutional. In this particular case, the Court was unwilling to give President Abraham Lincoln's administration the power of military commission jurisdiction, part of the administration's controversial plan to deal with Union dissenters during the American Civil War. Justice David Davis, who delivered the majority opinion, stated that "martial rule can never exist when the courts are open" and confined martial law to areas of "military operations, where war really prevails", and when it was a necessity to provide a substitute for a civil authority that had been overthrown. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase and three associate justices filed a separate opinion concurring with the majority in the judgment, but asserting that Congress had the power to authorize a military commission, although it had not done so in Milligan's case.
The Soke of Peterborough is a historic area of England associated with the City and Diocese of Peterborough, but considered part of Northamptonshire. The Soke was also described as the Liberty of Peterborough, or Nassaburgh hundred, and comprised, besides Peterborough, about thirty parishes.
The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. These courts also became established in Scotland, Ireland and in various other dominions of the British Empire.
Havering, also known as Havering-atte-Bower, was a royal manor and ancient liberty whose area now forms part of, and gives its name to, the London Borough of Havering in Greater London. The manor was in the possession of the Crown from the 11th to the 19th centuries and was the location of Havering Palace from the 13th to the late 17th century. It occupied the same area as the ancient parish of Hornchurch which was divided into the three chapelries of Havering, Hornchurch and Romford.
A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe. Destitute people who were unable to pay a court-ordered judgment would be incarcerated in these prisons until they had worked off their debt via labour or secured outside funds to pay the balance. The product of their labour went towards both the costs of their incarceration and their accrued debt. Increasing access and lenience throughout the history of bankruptcy law have made prison terms for unaggravated indigence obsolete over most of the world.
A county corporate or corporate county was a type of subnational division used for local government in England, Wales, and Ireland.
The Gaol Act, sometimes called the Gaol Act 1823, the Gaols Act 1823, the Gaols, etc. (England) Act 1823, the Prison Act 1823, or the Prisons Act 1823, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to reform prisons. The Gaols Act 1823 mandated i) sex segregated prisons and ii) female warders for female prisoners across the whole of the then British Empire.
The Liberties is an area in central Dublin, Ireland, located in the southwest of the inner city. Formed from various areas of special manorial jurisdiction, separate from the main city government, it is one of Dublin's most historic working class neighbourhoods. The area was traditionally associated with the River Poddle, market traders and local family-owned businesses, as well as the Guinness brewery, whiskey distilling, and, historically, the textiles industry and tenement housing.
The London District was a historic district in Upper Canada. It was formed in 1798 from parts of the Home and Western Districts, and lasted until its abolition in 1850.
A liberty was an English unit originating in the Middle Ages, traditionally defined as an area in which regalian right was revoked and where the land was held by a mesne lord. It later became a unit of local government administration.
The Metropolitan Buildings Office was formed in 1845 to regulate the construction and use of buildings in the metropolitan area of London, England. Surveyors were empowered to enforce building regulations which sought to improve the standard of houses and business premises, and to regulate activities that might threaten public health. In 1855 the assets, powers and responsibilities of the office passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works.
The County Police Act 1839 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was one of the Police Acts 1839 to 1893. The Act enabled Justices of the Peace in England and Wales to establish police forces in their counties. The Act was not compulsory, and constabularies were only established in 25 out of 55 counties by 1856, when the County and Borough Police Act 1856 made their provision mandatory.
The Liberty of Ripon or Riponshire was a liberty possessing separate county jurisdiction, although situated within the county of Yorkshire, England.
The Liberty of the Clink was an area in Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames, opposite the City of London. Although situated in Surrey the liberty was exempt from the jurisdiction of the county's sheriff and was under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Winchester who was usually either the Chancellor or Treasurer of the King.
The Liberties of the Tower, or the Tower Liberty is a small neighbourhood in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, which includes both Tower Hill and the Tower of London. The area was defined sometime after 1200 to provide an open area around the Tower to ensure its defensibility. The liberty was an independent administrative unit from then until it was formally abolished on 25 June 1894. The district maintains a ceremonial existence, with its custom of beating the bounds being a particularly well known example of the tradition.
Cross Tipperary, formally the County of the Cross of Tipperary, was an Irish county comprising those lands within County Tipperary which were excluded from the "County of the Liberty of Tipperary", the county palatine under the jurisdiction of the Earl of Ormond. Cross Tipperary existed from the granting of the liberty in 1328 until 1637, and was explicitly abolished along with the palatine jurisdiction in 1715.
The City Marshalsea was a debtor's prison in Dublin, Ireland. Debtors were imprisoned there by order of the Court of Conscience and Lord Mayor's Court of the county of the city of Dublin. The maximum debt was £10 in the Lord Mayor's Court, and 40s. (£2) in the Court of Conscience.
The Middlesex Quarter Sessions was the quarter session court for the county of Middlesex, England. Membership was made up of the justices of the peace. The quarter sessions heard criminal cases and also had a role in the civil administration of the county. Administrative functions of the quarter sessions lasted from the 16th century to 1889 and included taxation, licensing, prisons, asylums and bridges. The Middlesex sessions area was reduced in 1889.