IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/0581
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: EDMONTON HUNDRED
Date(s): 1769
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 0.01 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Richard Hassell, Justice of the Peace for Edmonton Hundred
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Richard Hassell was a Justice of the Peace for the Hundred of Edmonton.
Since 1361 the Justices of the Peace met in their court of Quarter Sessions to try offences, and also, from the mid Sixteenth Century to deal with county administration. It was from this latter date with the increase in their workload that Justices began to do some of their business (minor legal and specific administrative tasks) outside of the formal sessions, either singly or in small groups.
Over the next century meetings outside of sessions became more regular, and more matters were dealt with there which had previously been heard at full sessions. They were often carried out at the magistrates' own homes, sometimes at special session meetings in a local court house, tavern or other meeting place.
An order made by the Middlesex Quarter Sessions in 1705 that the "petty sessions" for the several divisions of the county should be held "at the known and usual place" indicates that their existence must have been well recognised by then. The divisional arrangement in the County was based to a large extent upon the old administrative area known as a 'hundred'. Ossulston was the largest, densely populated and further divided into several smaller parts from at least the 1680s - Holborn Division and Finsbury Division within it remained as petty sessional divisions until the late Twentieth Century. From 1828 all courts of Quarter Sessions were able to create districts or divisions specifically for petty sessions, either new areas or formalising any earlier informal divisions.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Copy of certificate issued by Richard Hassell to William Spencer of South Mimms relating to the privileges of tenants of the Duchy of Lancaster (including exemption from tolls).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
One document.
Conditions governing access:
Available for general access.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the Corporation of London.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Gifted to the Archive in November 1955.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: November 2009 to February 2010