Law and Order - Nottingham's Courts
In Nottingham law and order was enforced through a number of different courts.
The Mickletourn Jury
The Mickletourn Jury was a court that was known to have existed by at least 1308. Its name means the 'great jury'. The jury would walk around or 'perambulate' the town, checking for any offences. In addition, a team of constables called decennaries were responsible for policing the town and reporting any offences to the jury. By 1395 there were 31 decennaries who would have policied the streets around where they lived. It is likely that most men in the town would have been a decennary at one time.
The types of offences which would be reported to the jury would be civil faults such as:
- Dumping rubbish in the street or a watercourse
- Impeding rights of way
- Stealing stone from the town wall
- Blocking spouts or cesspits
- Selling bad meat, candles with short wicks or badly tanned leather
- Encroaching or building on common land
- Charging too much for weaving or fulling
- Gossip - both male and female scolds.
The Assize of Bread and Ale was the process by which the quality and the price of these goods were established. Anyone who sold poor bread or ale, or who overpriced it, could also be presented to the jury.
The decennaries could arrest and imprison thieves who were court red-handed.
The jury would present these offences to the borough court.
Read the earlist surviving account from the Mickletourn Jury, dated 1395 [PDF 31KB] 
The Borough Court
This court was established under the charter of 1284, which created the office of the mayor. New Justices of the Peace were created in 1399. The records of this court commence in 1303 and over time it absorbed the functions of the Mickletourn Jury.
This court was concerned with:
- Non-payment of debts, especially between merchants
- Trespass
- Fraud by suppliers of wool and malt, in terms of quality and quantity
- Breach of covenant and enforcing burgesses to perform their various obligations
- Affray. This focused on fights between disputants and was often brought before the Borough Court after the case had appeared at the Mickletourn Jury. Disputants would be arrested by the decennaries. If blood was shed the offence was 'affray with blood'; if not, it was 'affray without blood'
- The property of felons would be seized so inventories of their household goods would be made. Read an inventory of a felon whose goods were seized by the court in 1390 [PDF 20KB]
Jurors were selected from the burgesses and would have sat in the Borough Court.
The town was also subject to the hue and cry to watch for and arrest individuals who may have committed offences elsewhere.
Justices in Eyre
The most serious cases were dealt with by the justices in eyre, itinerant justices who were the forerunner of the Assizes. Cases which they dealt with included murder. In 1313 Walter de Thornton, the Mayor of Nottingham, was murdered, and the justices were assigned to try the felon accused of his murder. They also had to arrest those people who tried to rescue the murderer when he was being led to the castle prison, and who later secretly entered the castle and shaved his head so that, if he escaped, he could seek sanctuary at Lenton Priory disguised with a shaven head or tonsure.
Read about a felon who was captured after he broke sanctuary in 1393 [PDF 20KB]
Other courts
In 1155 the Piepowder Court was established which dealt with any offences in the markets or fairs.
In 1449 a new Sheriff's court was granted to Nottingham which dealt with civil cases like the Borough Court. Sometimes it sat alongside the Borough Court.
In 1449 a new court called the Quarter Sessions was established. Quarter Sessions were the courts of counties, and this court was established in Nottingham in 1449 because the charter issued in this year caused Nottingham to become a county in its own right. This court was presided over by seven new Justices of the Peace and the town Recorder, a man of law, and largely replaced the itinerant justices in eyre. A jury would also have been chosen from among the burgesses. Offences which it dealt with included theft, assault, gaming, vagrancy, rioting, eavesdropping, disturbing the peace, manslaughter and housebreaking. The most serious offences such as murder would still have been referred to the Assizes.
A gaol for the borough is known to have existed by 1330 and would have been presided over by a gaol warden.
The Shire Hall was a building in the borough which was part of the county, and therefore not subject to any borough administration. Here the Nottinghamshire County Quarter Sessions were held, and prisoners awaiting trial at the county Quarter Sessions or the Assizes would be held in the gaol here.
At Nottinghamshire Archives
References are made to the Mickletourn Jury in the records of the Borough Court and the Mayoralty Rolls. The Assize of Bread and Ale appears on the Mayoralty Rolls until 1755. The following records also survive:
- Presentment rolls: these are presentments made by the Mickletourn Jury to the Borough Court, 1395-1869, with gaps (references: CA 3942, 3011-3073). They provide much information about town life, trade and urban activity.
- There are also minutes for 1741-1836, with gaps (references: CA 2926-44, CA 2946-3001)
The records of the Borough Court can provide much detail on life and affairs in the town, including information about trade, merchants, and inventories of household property. Up until 1622 pleas or lawsuits brought by the burgesses are recorded separately to those brought by outsiders or 'foreigners'. The following records of the Borough Court survive:
- Court rolls: 1303-1455, with gaps (references: CA 1251-1342, CA 1368)
- Court books continue the record of the court rolls, covering 1481-1866, with gaps (references: CA 7618-7619, CA 1370-1406, CA 1408-1416, CA 1418-1438, CA 1440, CA 1443-1456, CA 1447, CA 1449-1454, CA 1455-1466)
- Minutes: 1653-1850, with gaps (references: CA 1454, CA 1465, CA 1419-1472, CA 1475-1476, CA 6481-6483)
- Pleadings: 1598-1853, with gaps (references: CA various)
Writs or court summons of various kinds, including sheriffs' writs, exist for 1359-1812, with gaps (reference: CA various)
The following Quarter Sessions records have survived:
- Court rolls: in addition to proceedings these also include writs, presentments and jury panels, 1453-1841, with gaps, and some continuing to 1971 (reference: CA 1-350)
Very little information survives on the Sheriffs' court. There are occasional references to it in the Borough Court rolls. There are record books for 1628-35, 1718-1723 and 1727-1733 (references: CA 1477-1479).
Illustrations
Top right: presentment roll of the Mickletourn Jury, 1395 (reference: CA 3942).
Middle right: borough court record extracts regarding impounded cattle and the capture of a felon who had broken sanctuary, 1393 (reference: CA 1293).
Middle left: inventory of a felon's household goods seized by the borough court, 1390 (reference: CA 1290/20/26).
- See the inventory in more detail here [PDF 600KB]
- Read a transcript of the inventory here [PDF 20KB]
Bottom left: valuation of goods of a felon who had taken sanctuary, 1393 (reference: CA 1293).
