Catalogue description Assizes: Oxford Circuit: Crown Minute Books

These Oxford Circuit crown minute books contain, minutes of crown cases, comprising a fairly full summary of the indictments annotated with a brief indication of the outcome. There are also notes of other matters, such as lists of recognisances to prosecute, to answer, to give evidence, and to keep the peace, of examinations and informations made and against whom they were made, all documents which have not survived. The early volumes contain the full texts, in English, of many orders of the court, and lists of coroners' inquests handed in, with a note of the deceased, the verdict of the jury and the name of the coroner. In those respects these books are somewhat fuller than the crown minute books of some of the other circuits. The later volumes give less detail on such matters, but more information about the names of grand jurors and trial jurors.

The series is complete from 1658 to the end of the assize system in 1971, except for gaps between 1697 and 1705, 1708 and 1712, 1730 and 1734, and 1753 and 1755. None are known to have survived before that date, and any earlier volumes which may once have existed had probably disappeared by 1800, when the circuit deputy clerk, Benjamin Pugh, reported to parliament that the oldest records he then had went back for about 150 years. This series starts earlier than any other series of assize crown minute books.

For the criminal depositions and papers pertaining to these cases see:

ASSI 6