Catalogue description Court of Common Pleas: Attorneys' Oath Rolls

Several separate series of oath rolls, compiled as a result of various statutes from 1695 onwards which required lawyers to take oaths of allegiance to the crown or to practise honestly.

They include a series containing the signatures of attorneys being admitted to the court between 1789 and 1843; three rolls signed by Roman Catholics, 1791 to 1837, under an act of 1791 which allowed them to practise as lawyers after making a specified declaration and oath; and one roll for declarations by Quakers or Separatists under an act of 1833 which similarly enabled them to practise.

There is also a series of general qualification rolls for the period 1789 to 1847, containing signatures of persons wishing to hold civil or military office under the crown, taking the oaths of allegiance, supremacy and abjuration as well as declaring against transubstantiation.