Catalogue description PETTY SESSIONS

Petty Sessions records include minutes of Sessions, court registers (standardised by Act in 1879) registers of licences, adoptions etc. but it is worth bearing in mind that such records were for long considered to belong to the Clerk of the division, not being deemed public records until the 1958 Act.

Broxton Petty Sessional Division

75 year closure period for adoption records; 30 year closure period for the remainder.

• Chester, Cheshire
• Administration of justice

Courts of Petty Sessions evolved from the exercise of summary jurisdiction by justices outside Quarter Sessions. Regular divisional meetings of two or more justices appeared gradually in the eighteenth century. By the end of that century, such meetings were instituted at stated times and places and by the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century were virtually universal.

Up until c.1838, the boundaries of Cheshire Petty Sessions divisions coincided with the hundred boundaries, but after this date, divisions gradually split as the result of growing populations and therefore increasing business. Towns which became boroughs gained their own sessions. Between 1913 and 1952 boundaries remained the same but in 1952 and again in 1967 some divisions amalgamated, whilst in 1974, new divisions were created to mirror the district councils of new Cheshire.

The business of the court of petty sessions was both judicial and administrative and the modern magistrates court has inherited these functions. The judicial side deals with minor offences - both adult and juvenile (these comprise 98% of all criminal cases; the most common modern example is the motoring offence). Magistrates also preside over the Youth Courts which are especially constituted with jurisdiction limited to proceedings for custody, maintenance, adoption, guardianship and family protection orders. Administrative duties of magistrates include the licensing of public houses, licensed victuallers, clubs, restaurants, cinemas, lodging houses, premises licensed for liquor, music, dancing etc. and registered premises (explosives).