Under Che Act of 7 and 8 Wm.III c.32 (1696) all constables, annually, at the Michaelmas quarter sessions were to return a list of names and places of abode of all persons qualified to serve upon juries between the ages of 21 and 70 and the justices were to deliver a duplicate of the list through the clerk of the peace to the sheriff or his deputy on or before January 1 following, and cause the lists to be entered into a book by the clerk of the peace, and to be kept amongst the records of the court of quarter sessions (s.A). According to the Act of 4 and 5 Wm. and Mary c.24 (1692) jury qualification was the possession of freehold or copyhold land to the value.of £6 per annum (s.15). The Act of 6 Geo. IV c.50 (1825) extended the qualification for jury service and freeholders' lists are superseded by jurors lists.
The Act of 6 Geo.IV, c.50 (1825) 'for consolidating and amending the laws relative to Jurors and Juries' revised the earlier Acts relating to juries - 4 and 5 Wm. and Mary c.24 (1692) and 7 and 8 Wm.III, c.32 (1696). It stated (s.l) that (in England) every man, between the ages of 21 and 60, possessing freehold or copyhold land to the value of £10 per annum, land leased for a term of 21 years or longer, to the annual value of £20, householders assessed to pay £20 poor rate, or occupiers of houses containing not less than 15 windows, should be qualified to serve on juries in courts of assizes, on grand juries in courts of sessions of the peace and on petty juries. (Jurors serving at the general quarter sessions were known as either grand jurors or petit jurors). The qualification for Welsh jurors was to be three-fifths of that for English jurors, that is £6 per annum freeholders or copyholders, £12 per annum long- leaseholders, £12 per annum householders or occupiers of houses containing not less than 9 windows.
Warrants were sent out by the clerk of the peace to high constables of each hundred, who were to send precepts to churchwardens and overseers of the poor of each parish, to make out lists of jurors; these lists were then to be approved at petty sessions held in the last week of September each year; the lists were then to be returned to quarter sessions to be copied by the clerk of the peace into the jurors' books for the sheriff's use in the following year.
The Act of 1825 was amended by the Juries Act 1870 (33 and 34 Vict. c.77) under which (s.7) the qualification for Welsh jurors was to become the same as that for English jurors.
All duties of listing were transferred by the Juries Act of 1922 to the county registration officer and the clerk of the county council.
102
As for exemption from jury service by the Act 5 and 6 Vict., c.35 (1842) all commissioners of taxes could on request be granted a certificate which exempted them from all parish and ward offices and for serving on juries. The clerk of the peace was then to enrol these certificates. The Income Tax Act of 8 and 9 Geo.V., c.40 (1918) confirmed these provisions.