West Riding Sessions Records

Published in 1915, this collection of the transactions of the quarter sessions held in Yorkshire West Riding contains the orders for 1611–33 and the indictments and orders for 1637–42. This volume forms a companion to the 1888 edition of West Riding session rolls for 1597–1602, also edited by John Lister (1847–1933), who here provides a lengthy introduction in which he gives an account of the various indictable offences specified in the court records. These include housebreaking, arson, murder, and riotous assembly, as well as absence from church and selling meat during Lent, among others. Court orders are concerned with such subjects as vagrancy, bastardy, alehouses, soldiers, and the plague. The texts themselves, which in this volume are all in English, typically state the indictment, describe the incidents of the trial, if any, and give the verdict in each case. Lister provides extensive explanatory footnotes.