Courts

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In the late Middle Ages office the office of Justice of Chester was a powerful position, but it was also a decidedly deadly one: few survived the office without being exiled, killed or simply dying in office. Peaceful retirement was seldom an option.

Palatine Jurisdiction


In England, a county palatine or palatinate was an area ruled by a hereditary nobleman enjoying special authority and autonomy from the rest of a kingdom or empire. The name derives from the Latin adjective palātīnus, "relating to the palace", from the noun palātium, "palace". The precise location of the "Palace of the Earl" in Chester is unknown, although some early maps show its supposed ruins in Edgar's Field.

Palatinate thus implies the exercise of a quasi-royal prerogative within a county, that is to say a jurisdiction ruled by an earl, the English equivalent of a count. A duchy palatine is similar but is ruled over by a duke, a nobleman of higher precedence than an earl or count. The nobleman swore allegiance to the king yet had the power to rule the county largely independently of the king. It is therefore distinguished from a feudal barony, held from the king, which possessed no such independent authority. Rulers of counties palatine created their own feudal baronies, to be held directly from them in capite, such as the Barony of Halton. Formal county palatine jurisdictions were first created in England under the rule of the Norman dynasty. In continental Europe, they have an earlier date, although the Anglo-Saxon subdivisions of England, even after there was an overall English King may have in practice had much local jurisdiction.

Besides its own City courts, Chester was the location of courts held at Chester Castle for the county at large. In the Middle Ages the county court, presided over by the justice of Chester, was the superior court for the whole county palatine, including the city. The other palatinate court, the Chester exchequer, operated under the authority of the chamberlain of Chester and heard cases concerned, among other matters, with debt. From 1543 the chief justice of Chester held criminal sessions on circuit for Cheshire, Flintshire, Denbighshire, and Montgomeryshire, the equivalent of the assizes held for other circuits and known as the Court of Great Sessions. The sessions for Cheshire were held twice a year at the castle, usually in March or April, and September or October, and as elsewhere were accompanied by much ceremonial and became the focus of the county gentry's social season. The Court of Great Sessions and the Chester exchequer were abolished in 1830, but Chester remained an assize town until both the assizes and quarter sessions were replaced nationally by Crown Courts in 1971.

Until the palatinate was taken back under control of the Crown the Norman Earls of Chester were the heads of their own legal and fiscal system for any matter other than treason. This meant that Chester and Flintshire (eventually together with the "March" counties of Denbighshire and Montgomeryshire) had a legal system which was independent of the national assizes. The fact that the City became a county in itself as a consequence of Charters made matters even more complex.

The Justice of Chester
The Justice of Chester was the chief judicial authority for the county palatine of Chester from the establishment of the county. Within the County Palatine (which encompassed Cheshire, the City of Chester, and Flintshire), the Justice enjoyed the jurisdiction possessed in England by the Court of Common Pleas and the King's Bench. As the list below shows, the position was often a precarious one and at times few survived the office without being exiled, killed or simply dying (often quite young) - notable Justices of Chester between 1387 and 1471 (of which only one lived to retire) included:




 * DIED IN EXILE: Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland 1387–1388: a "favourite" and court companion of King Richard II - he was attainted and sentenced to death in absentia by the "Merciless Parliament" of 1388. He died of the injuries he had sustained during a boar hunt in 1392;


 * MURDERED: Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester 1388–1391: the leader of the Lords Appellant, a group of powerful nobles whose ambition to wrest power from Richard II, culminated in a successful rebellion in 1388 that significantly weakened the king's power. Richard II managed to dispose of the Lords Appellant in 1397, and Thomas was imprisoned in Calais to await trial for treason - during that time he was murdered;


 * EXECUTED: John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter 1391–1394: a half-brother of Richard II, to whom he remained strongly loyal. He is primarily remembered for being suspected of assisting in the downfall of King Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. Early in 1400 Holland entered into a conspiracy, known as the Epiphany Rising, with his nephew Thomas Holland, Earl of Kent, and with Thomas le Despencer and others. Their aim was to assassinate King Henry and his sons, and to return Richard, then in prison, to the throne. The plot failed and Holland fled, but was caught, near Pleshy Castle in Essex, and executed on 16 January 1400.


 * DIED IN EXILE: Thomas de Mowbray, 1st Duke of Norfolk 1394–1398: as a result of his involvement in the power struggles which led up to the fall of Richard II, he was banished and died in exile in Venice.


 * EXECUTED: William le Scrope, 1st Earl of Wiltshire 1398–1399: Scrope was captured with Bussy and Green when Bristol Castle surrendered to Henry on 28 July 1399. He was executed without trial at Bristol Castle, together with Bussy and Green, and his head carried to London in a white basket to be displayed on London Bridge.


 * KILLED IN BATTLE: Henry Percy 1400–1403: in 1403 the Percys turned against Henry IV in favour of Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, and then conspired with Owain Glyndŵr against King Henry. In 1408 Percy invaded England in rebellion once more and was killed at the Battle of Bramham Moor. Percy's severed head was subsequently put on display at London Bridge.


 * DIED IN OFFICE: Gilbert Talbot, 5th Baron Talbot 1403–1419. He died in office aged 35, having been appointed to the office at the tender age of about 19.


 * DIED IN OFFICE: Thomas Beaufort, Duke of Exeter 1420–1426: an English military commander during the Hundred Years' War, and briefly Chancellor of England. He died in office, in 1426 (aged 50).


 * DIED IN CUSTODY: Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester 1427–1440: the trial in 1441 of Eleanor Cobham, his second wife, under charges of witchcraft, destroyed Gloucester's political influence. In 1447, he himself was accused, probably falsely, of treason, and died a few days later while under arrest.


 * BEHEADED BY MOB: William de la Pole, 1st Duke of Suffolk 1440–1450: the disastrous renewal of the war in France, and other national problems spelt the destruction of Suffolk's career. Many accused him of maladministration and poor conduct of the war, and political pressures forced Suffolk into exile in 1450. Arriving at the coast on his way out of the country, he was caught by an angry mob, subjected to a mock trial, and beheaded.


 * DIED IN OFFICE: Thomas Stanley, 1st Baron Stanley 1443–1459 (joint): died on 11 February 1459 of natural causes (aged 54).




 * KILLED IN BATTLE: John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury 1459–1460: he was killed at the Battle of Northampton.


 * RETIRED: Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby 1461–?: change of regime never really weakened his grip on the key offices of Chester and Lancaster and throughout his life Stanley consolidated the legacy he had inherited from his father and extended his hegemony and that of his family across the north-west. He was “a man of considerable acumen, and probably the most successful power-broker of his age”. He died in 1504, aged 69.


 * KILLED IN BATTLE: Richard, Duke of Gloucester 1471–?: was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1483 until his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat at Bosworth Field, the last decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, marked the end of the Middle Ages in England.

The legal reorganisation of Wales and the Marches under Henry VIII diminished the authority of the Earl of Chester (i.e., the Prince of Wales) in the County Palatine: however the authority of the Justice was increased. In 1542, the Great Sessions were established in Wales, that country being divided into four circuits of three shires each. Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Montgomeryshire were made part of the Chester circuit, over which the Justice presided.

Under Elizabeth I, a second justice was added to each of the Welsh circuits, after which the senior and junior justice are generally referred to as the Chief Justice of Chester and the Second or Puisne Justice of Chester. Because the Cheshire justices were free to practise as barristers in the English courts or sit in Parliament, the post of Chief Justice was often awarded as a form of patronage by the Government to aspiring lawyers.

The offices of Chief and Puisne Justice were abolished in 1830, as part of reforms that also brought Wales under the jurisdiction of the courts at Westminster.

Chester Courts in the Middle Ages (1066-1506)
A borough court with 12 'lawmen' (iudices) existed in Anglo-Saxon times, and it was probably equivalent to the later Portmote. This was a gathering, i.e. *moot", of the men of a port. Hemingway writes:


 * "according to Jacob there was a general assembly of the people to consider of and order matters of the commonwealth. There was anciently used by the Saxons a mote bell, employed by the English Saxons to summon people together to the court. The remains of this custom is still retained in this city to this day where a small bell is at St Peter's church, when the mayor and recorder go into court at each the general courts held in April, August and October."

In 1300, Edward I's charter granted the citizens of Chester the right to try pleas of the Crown before the mayor and sheriffs of the City - the first time any city in England obtained this privilege. Hemingway writes:


 * "There is a document amongst the corporation records which purports to be a return to a quo warranto under the statute of the 6th Edw I, in which the constitution of the city is thus stated:- The Maior and citizens of the citty of Chester clayme to have liberties under written, that is to say that the citty of Chester be a free citty and that the citizens may chuse to them a maior of themselves, from year to year, the Friday next after the feast of St Denyce which shall make his oath to keep the laws of our sovereign lord the prince and the liberties and laws of the citty aforesaid. And also that they may chuse to them two sheriffs of themselves the day aforesaid which in manner aforesaid the execution and commandments of the said Earl of Chester and of the maior and citizens of Chester truly shall do by their oaths and to have Gildam Mercalem in the citty aforesaid and to have free court of port mote in the city aforesaid of all quarrels growing within the citty aforesaid to be tried that is to say to have pleas of lands and tenements and of repleven growing by plaint in the port mote or writ and pleas of dower in a writ of right which in the aforesaid port mote by writ originally ought to be served. And all other pleas to be holden in the pentice of the citty aforesaid afore the sheriff."



Portmote
The Portmote was the principal medieval court of the city, and is first mentioned in the early 13th century. The city sheriff (then a single officer) presided and judgement was vested in a group of doomsmen (judicatores), a body perhaps descended from the Anglo-Saxon lawmen and much the same in number. The doomsmen determined customs, fixed the dates when the portmote met, postponed cases if they deemed the evidence insufficient, and acted as witnesses to property transactions recorded in court. As a court of record, where the principal citizens witnessed one another's land grants, the portmote's main business was probably pleas of real estate, initiated by plaint and writ. Hemingway writes of it as follows:


 * "The mayor of Chester by ancient usage, confirmed by the charter of Henry VII, has crownmote and portmote courts. The former must have been created by one of the of Earls of Chester as we see by the followirig document, extracted from the rolls of the court of session at Chester, 44 Henry III, that it was in existence in 1260:- "Be it remembered, that the sheriffs and commonalty of the city of Chester, bailed to the liberty of their town from the gaol of the castle of Chester, Dawe the son of Maurice, suspected of many robberies, and him afterwards delivered and the same was soon afterwards attainted for stolen goods found upon him, and capital offences perpetrated within their baliwick."

The Portmote was held in the Common Hall, otherwise known as the Moot Hall (see: Commonhall Street) and always on a Monday. The court rolls contain both pleas and enrolments of deeds and exist as a separate series from 1295 to 1563.

Crownmote
The Crownmote, which apparently emerged as a distinct court in the later 14th century, was held in the Common Hall (see: Commonhall Street) under the presidency of the mayor and in the presence of the sheriffs who, as the executive officers, assembled the jurors. In 1399 the crownmote was declared the court in which defendants who failed to respond to the writ capias were to be outlawed. Its other business included coroners' inquests into violent deaths, indictments for trading offences and encroachments, and infringements of civic ordinances and of the Statute of Labourers, matters which in the later 15th century were heard instead by the mayor in 'full' portmote and once at a 'great inquiry' in the Common Hall.

Pentice


The sheriffs also operated in the Pentice court, where the procedure was more summary: cases were determined by the sheriffs without a jury. The court, named from the structure in which it was held, a lean-to built against St Peter's church, was well established by 1288. Its earliest surviving records date from 1297. On petition, a case could be transferred to the Portmote. The Pentice was particularly concerned with the regulation of the markets, and also heard all pleas during the fairs, when the Portmote was suspended. Samuel Lewis recorded the following:


 * Fourteen days before the commencement of each general fair a wooden hand as the emblem of traffic and bargain is suspended from the Pentice adjoining St Peter's church where it remains during the fair a period of twenty nine days when non freemen are allowed to trade in the city and during the continuance of the fairs a court of pie powder is held by the sheriffs.

Piepowder Court (see: Gloverstone)
A "court of pie powder" was a special tribunal which had unlimited jurisdiction over personal actions arising in the market, including disputes between merchants, theft, and acts of violence. In the Middle Ages, there were hundreds of such courts, and a few survived into modern times. The term refers to the dusty feet (in French, pieds poudrés) of travellers and vagabonds. Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England in 1768 described them as:


 * "the lowest, and at the same time the most expeditious, court of justice known to the law of England"

The tradition of hanging up a glove in this manner is also found in other ports, particularly in Exeter, Portsmouth and Southampton.

Dee Mills Court
The ancient customs recorded in 1353–4 obliged the Justice of Chester or his deputy to deal with trespasses committed at the Dee Mills and fishery but by the late 14th century sessions were probably held only intermittently. A revival was attempted in 1402, perhaps because of the presence in Chester of Henry, prince of Wales, and his council; the mayor and sheriffs were ordered to proclaim a session to be held before the Justice and chamberlain of the palatinate and to summon a jury drawn from the city and the mills. It was perhaps intended to initiate regular sessions, and a judicial inquiry, nominally under the Justice of Chester, was held at the mills in 1404. Thereafter, however, inquiries in 1406, 1407, 1410, and 1411 were apparently conducted during sessions of the County Court.

Chester Courts in the Early Modern (1506-1660)
The GREAT CHARTER of Henry VII (1506) proceeds:


 * "know Ye that we, for the great affection which we have and bear to our City of Chester, the Citizens and Commonalty of the same City, and in consideration of the good behaviour and great expenses of the inhabitants of the same City, as also of the voluntary service many ways rendered by them against our adversaries and rebels, willing the better estate of the same City, and especially to provide for the convenience and quiet of the said Citizens, their heirs and successors, of our especial grace and certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given and granted, and do give and grant, and by these presents have confirmed for us and our heirs to the aforesaid Citizens and commonalty, their heirs and successors for ever, that the said City, and all the ground within the said City, with the suburbs and hamlets within the precinct and compass of the same, and all the ground within the precinct and compass of the said City of Chester and the aforesaid suburbs and hamlets, (wholly excepting our castle within the walls of the said City), be exempted and separated, as well by land as by water, from our shire of Chester; and that the said City, and the suburbs and hamlets of the same, and all the ground within the precinct and compass of them, (except as before excepted), be henceforth a County by and in itself distinct and separate from our County of Chester, and that from henceforth it shall be called and named the 'County of the City of Chester.'"

The Mayor and Sheriffs were invested with authority to hold a Court in the Common Hall of the City for the trial of offences and claims of all kinds arising within the City, its suburbs, and hamlets, "our Castle and our liberty within the boundary commonly called 'Gloverstone' only excepted." The Northgate Tower was to be continued as a gaol, and Port-mote and Crown-mote courts were to be held before the Mayor. The forfeited goods of felons were to be the property of the citizens, who were also freed from the payment of all customs except those on wine and iron. The management and regulation of the Dee fisheries was vested in the Mayor and Sheriffs, as well as the control of the city markets. The twenty-four Aldermen were automatically justices of the peace by virtue of their office, and special powers were conferred upon any four of them, the Mayor and Recorder being two of the four, to inquire from time to time, and as often and whenever they should think good:


 * "concerning all felonies, trespasses, forestallings (that is, purchasing goods elsewhere than in fair or market), and regratings (buying up goods or victuals for re-sale), from time to time there done and committed."

The charter of 1506 amended the structure of the city's courts. While confirming that the portmote, Pentice, and crownmote were to be held as formerly, it added two others, the county court of the city and quarter sessions. The county court of the city, a necessary aspect of Chester's new status as a county in its own right, had little business. Quarter sessions on the other hand was responsible for trying all misdemeanours and most felonies in the city; in practice it took some business from the portmote but most from the crownmote, for which only the most serious felonies were reserved. The changes and rationalization in the city courts' internal procedures coincided with a rise in the activity of the Cheshire courts based at the castle, which led to conflict between city and county jurisdictions.

Ecclesiastical Courts
The charter of 1506 assigned all jurisdiction within the liberties to the mayor and citizens, and thereby brought to a head the long-standing conflict between the corporation and the abbey. When in 1507 Abbot Birkenshaw demanded recognizances to keep the peace after a brawl in Northgate Street, the disputed jurisdiction was referred to arbitration which in 1509 found in the city's favour; the abbot's authority was confined to the monastic precincts, his right to hold a fortnightly court in St. Thomas's outside the Northgate and to hear pleas during the Midsummer fair being abolished.

Chester Courts after 1660
After 1660 the ancient city courts declined steadily in significance to become almost purely formal as the activities of quarter sessions expanded. The county court of the city was held for the purposes of conducting parliamentary elections until an Act of 1745 laid the responsibility on the sheriffs, after which it ceased to meet. The crownmote remained the city's highest criminal court, presided over by the recorder, and in the early 1830s tried some 40 cases a year.

The Modern Courts


In two weeks of April-May 1966, the infamous Moors Murders case was tried at Chester Assize Crown Court within the castle grounds. Both Brady and Hindley denied some of the murders and tried to blame an associate, Smith, for them. Police protection had to hold back crowds from getting at the police cars carrying Brady and Hindley from their cells in the Police Station located in the basement of the Town Hall. Jeers rang out when these cars appeared. A glass screen was installed before the dock at the courtroom to prevent things being thrown at them. On 6 May 1966, Brady was found guilty of the murders of John Kilbride, Lesley Ann Downey, and Edward Evans and was sentenced to three concurrent terms of life imprisonment (as the death penalty had been abolished a year earlier). Hindley was found guilty of the murders of Downey and Evans and given two concurrent life sentences, plus seven years, for harbouring Brady knowing that he had murdered John Kilbride.



The "Courts of Assize", or "Assizes" were periodic criminal courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the "Quarter Sessions" they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent "Crown Court". The Assizes heard the most serious cases, which were committed to it by the Quarter Sessions (local county courts held four times per year), while the more minor offenses were dealt with summarily by Justices of the Peace in petty sessions (also known as Magistrates' Courts). In Chester, the Magistrates Court was for many years located in the Town Hall where the disused courtroom can still be visited today.

The courtroom at the Town Hall ceased to be used for Quarter Sessions in 1972 or as a Magistrates Court in 1991 when a new Magistrates Courthouse was opened in Grosvenor Street. An adjoining room was used as a retiring room for the magistrates.

Christleton
Requirements for becoming a lawyer in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland differ slightly depending on whether the individual plans to become a solicitor or barrister. All prospective lawyers must first however possess a qualifying law degree, or (since 1979) have completed a "conversion course". Following graduation, the paths towards qualification as a solicitor or barrister diverge. Prospective solicitors must enroll with the Law Society of England and Wales as a student member and take a one-year course called the Legal Practice Course. In 1962 the only place this course could be taken was either in London or Guildford, although Chester was added to this very short list in 1974.

Christleton Hall is a former country house in the village of Christleton, Cheshire, England. It was built in about 1750 for Townsend Ince. The building was later used as a boarding school, and since 1974 it has been a law college. Additions were made to it in the middle of the 19th century, and in the early part of the 20th century. The house is constructed in red brick with stone dressings, and has a Welsh slate roof. It is in three stories, and has a south front of four bays, three of which are from the original house. The hall is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II listed building. The 20th-century additions are excluded from the listing.

Related Pages

 * Charters;
 * Dutton;
 * Gloverstone;
 * Chester Castle;
 * Town Hall;

Sources and Links

 * Chester Assize Court at English Heritage;
 * Chester Crown Court home page
 * Hearings List for Chester Crown Court;
 * The opening of the Assize Courts - silent film from the 1920's which does not actually show the Assizes.