| Administrative history | This jurisdiction or liberty of the Chapter and Prebends of York was, like that of Ripon, in existence by the 11th century and the time of the Domesday survey. The records relate to a dispute over the liability of the inhabitants of parish within the Liberty to serve as jurors at North Riding Quarter Sessions during the years 1789-1800. From the evidence available, the affair seems to have been rather inconclusive but there may have been other records not now extant. The claim for exemption arose following the summoning of jurors from Haxby and Stillington to Quarter Sessions in September 1789. After this, there was desultory correspondence on the matter with the Clerk of the Peace of the Liberty and others, mostly concerned with the question of obtaining counsel's opinion on the subject and the delays that had taken place. The matter seems to have dragged on and in April 1799 the North Riding Justices ordered that both parties should take counsel's opinion. The Dean and Chapter of York were also to state their case for exemption. The whole affair seems to have been inconclusive and nothing more is heard about it. |