| Administrative history | The Minute and Order Books, the formal record of the Court proceedings, are extant in the North Riding in an unbroken series from 1605, although there is one isolated record of a court of 4 October 1570 at Richmond. Up to 1769 there is the one series of Minute and Order Books recording both judicial and administrative proceedings. From about the second quarter of the 18th century, however, these books only include the orders of the Court relating to administrative business, appeals, road diversions, appointments of new justices and orders as to prosecution costs, and ignore the judicial business: this series was labelled 'Book A' in the Office of the Clerk of the Peace in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1769 a separate series of Minutes (later called 'Book S') containing records of trials and judicial business was begun. This series continued until 1921 when it was merged with the Order Book or 'Book A'.
In 1813 a third book was instituted called the 'Special Orders Book' containing only those orders relating to the administrative work of Sessions such as the appointment and reports of ad hoc Committees and county officials and the upkeep and repair of roads and bridges and county buildings. This series was in turn merged with the Order Book ('Book A') in 1927. |