Catalogue description Palatinate of Chester: Exchequer of Chester, and Courts of Great Sessions of Wales: Unpublished Depositions

Normally depositions were returned to the court where they were opened and examined. However, these depositions were returned to the court but never opened, the seals of the commissioners, for the most part, being unbroken. The most common reason for this was that the disputes to which they were linked were settled before the matters came to final hearings and so the evidence contained in the depositions was not needed.

The documents are mainly on parchment, although there are some paper documents. Apart from the Latin commissions noted above they are all written in English, being folded into packets of various sizes. At some point in the past a number of the depositions in this series have had their seals broken so the contents may now be read. An examination of these reveals that each packet follows the standard pattern for files of equity depositions. Each one contains the commission authorising the taking of the depositions, the interrogatories put to each witness and the depositions made by them.

The packets are usually annotated on the outside sheet with the names of the parties and a statement relating to the delivery of the packet to the court. The date when the packet was delivered and/or the year in which the depositions were made are often noted. These annotations are often accompanied by the signature of the court official who took delivery of the packet. These and other annotations may be in English or Latin.

The packets were addressed differently according to whether they were being returned to the Chester Exchequer or one of the Courts of Great Sessions. The former were addressed to "Prepotentissimo/Excellentissimo domino Regi in scaccario suo Cestr'" or "Serenissimae Dominae Elizabethae... etc." The latter were addressed to the "Chief Justice [or] Justices of Great Sessions of [name of circuit] in the court of Chancery there." Readers should not attempt to open or disturb any sealed files in this series.

The packets or files of sealed depositions are not arranged in any date order being simply packed in boxes and there is as yet no catalogue giving details of the individual packets.

Between 1536 and 1543 a new judicial system was established across Wales with local administration being based on the long-standing English model of sheriffs, coroners and justices of the peace. Above the local level were four Courts of Great Sessions, modelled on similar courts operating in the principality of Wales from 1280. Each of the four courts had jurisdiction over a circuit: North Wales (Anglesey, Caernarfon and Merioneth); Carmarthen (Camarthen, Cardigan and Pembroke); Brecon (Brecon, Glamorgan and Radnor); Chester (Flint, Denbigh, Montgomery and the Palatinate of Chester).

This last circuit was a little different from the others in that it was formed by adding responsibility for Denbigh and Montgomery to the existing Chester Court of Great Sessions which had enjoyed all civil and criminal jurisdiction in the Palatinate of Chester and neighbouring Flint from the early middle ages. Each circuit was presided over by a justice, a second being added in 1576. Writs were issued by a prothonotary in each circuit who also entered the records of the court from his office, known at first as the exchequer and later, as the chancery. The courts covered all matters which in England were handled by the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas.

Originally, the Courts of Great Sessions did not encompass an equitable jurisdiction. However, at some point in the seventeenth century the courts began to hear matters of equity. Following the opinion of William Black, who surveyed the records of the courts in 1840, it has generally been held that it was the abolition, in 1689, of the Court of the Council of Wales with its equitable jurisdiction, that prompted the Courts of Great Sessions to take on this role. Black based his opinion on the fact that during his survey, which was far from complete, he found no equity records earlier than 1688. However records from the equity side of the Courts of Great Sessions from before 1688 are in existence, the earliest discovered being dated 1649.

It should be noted that in the Chester circuit only equity matters originating in the three Welsh counties (Flint, Denbigh and Montgomery) were heard in the Court of Great Sessions; suits from the Palatinate being heard, of course, by the Chester Exchequer Court.

In 1830 the separate Welsh jurisdiction was abolished by the same act that ended the life of the Chester Exchequer.