Edeyrnion Petty Sessional Division, records of

Scope and Content

Petty Sessions began at the beginning of the 18th century as extra meetings to lessen the burden on Justices of the Peace in Quarter Sessions. The normal practice was to subdivide a shire into geographical divisions with each magistrate being assigned to a particular division. The Sessions were held twice monthly in each division as opposed to the Quarter Sessions, which were held every three months.

The Petty Sessions dealt mainly with minor cases such as drunkenness, assaults, larceny, trespassing, fraud and juvenile cases, as well as ale licensing and adoption. They required the presence of two Justices of the Peace but no jury.

In 1974, the Edeyrnion division merged with the Ceiriog, Llangollen and Uwchaled divisions to form a new Berwyn division.

This collection includes: minute books, court registers and juvenile court registers.

Related material-

PSD/Q- Berwyn Petty Sessional records

Arrangement

Petty Session records are arranged as follows-

Minutes; Court Registers; Juvenile Court Registers; Accounts; Registers of Licences; Register of habitual drunkards; Register of clubs; Miscellaneous Registers and Miscellaneous.

Access Information

100 year closure period