The corporation of Shrewsbury: Courts of the bailiffs and courts of record

VII.—Courts of the Bailiffs and Courts of Record.

The rolls of pleas in the Bailiffs' court in cases of debt and trespass and other civil cases begin in Dec., 1 Edw. I., 1272. They include afterwards cases of assault and theft. Amongst them is an assize roll ("coram Rege") in 1379. The records of the Sessions before the Recorder begin, in an imperfect condition, at the year 1508, or in fragmentary notes a little earlier. The Quarter-Sessions records begin at the year 1564.—(Extracts from these have been printed by Sir Offley Wakeman in the Transactions of the Shropshire Archœol. Soc.)

There are four rolls of the Court of Pie-powder in the years 1435–6, 1438, 1447 ("Pee Pouderez") and 1453 ("Peepoudres"). Rolls of fines are noticed above, in the Bailiffs' accounts temp. Hen. VI.

A thick folio volume of copies of recoveries, bonds, &c. in the court of the Bailiffs and Mayor bears the following title:—"A booke conteining the recordes of fynes, recoveries, and statutes within the towne of Shrewesbury; made in the tyme of Thomas Sherer and Thomas Chorlton, gent., Bailiffs, Anno Domini 1578; wherin nevertheles are conteined some recordes in former tyme." The contents extend to the year 1732.

Papers relating to the relief of the poor fill two boxes in conjunction with highway accounts. The first assessment for the poor is dated 30 Dec. 1580.