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.
It had overlapping jurisdiction with the Westminster Quarter Sessions within the City and Liberty of Westminster. Following the County Rate Act 1739 there was a single county rate for Middlesex, including Westminster. The separate Westminster sessions ended in 1844 and were absorbed by Middlesex. [1]
The Middlesex sessions did not have authority over the Liberty of the Tower which had separate sessions. The City of London held the City of London Quarter Sessions at the Guildhall.
In order to accommodate the burdens of the populous metropolitan area, Middlesex sessions were unusual as they met eight times a year instead of the traditional four. [2] The sessions were location at Hicks Hall, St John Street, Clerkenwell from 1601, with the April and October sessions taking place at Westminster Hall. A new Middlesex Sessions House was opened at Clerkenwell Green in 1780.
The area of the Middlesex sessions was reduced in 1889 when the County of London Quarter Sessions were created. The Middlesex sessions moved to Westminster Guildhall, also the location of Middlesex County Council from 1913. Middlesex Quarter Sessions were replaced by the Greater London Quarter Sessions in 1965, although the Middlesex area continued to be used as a commission area for sessions until 1971.
From the sixteenth century, the court had a role in the local government of Middlesex, which contained many of the metropolitan parishes of London. [3] County functions of the court included maintenance of bridges, responsibility for gaols, the regulation of weights and measures, and supervision of the Poor Law. [4]
During the eighteenth century committees were set up to deal with specific county business. [5]
Local government functions passed to the London County Council and the Middlesex County Council in 1889.
The judges of the court were the justices of the peace. There was no requirement for legal training and after 1835 the county sessions were the only remaining courts where this was permitted. From 1844 it became a requirement that the chairman of the Middlesex sessions must be legally qualified. [6]
Surviving records are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.
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Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
Clerkenwell is an area of central London, England.
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The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388. They were also established in Scotland, Ireland and in various other dominions of the British Empire.
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The Middlesex Guildhall is the home of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. It stands on the south-west corner of Parliament Square in London. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Hicks Hall, or Hickes' Hall, was a courthouse at the southern end of St John Street, Clerkenwell, London. It opened in 1612, and was closed and demolished in 1782. It was the first purpose-built sessions house for justices of the peace of the county of Middlesex, and became the main court of petty sessions and arraignment for more serious offences, including cases involving plots, attacks and minor transgressions against the state.
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The Liberty of Ripon or Riponshire was a liberty possessing separate county jurisdiction, although situated within the county of Yorkshire, England.
The former Middlesex Sessions House or the Old Sessions House is a large building on Clerkenwell Green in the London Borough of Islington in London, England, built in 1780 as the courthouse for the Middlesex Quarter Sessions. It is a Grade II* listed building.
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The courts of assize, or assizes, were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes exercised both civil and criminal jurisdiction, though most of their work was on the criminal side. The assizes heard the most serious cases, which were committed to it by the quarter sessions, while the more minor offences were dealt with summarily by justices of the peace in petty sessions.
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