Court Records
In order to gain a more accurate impression of the prosecution of fraud, this thesis looks in depth at the disposal of fraud by magistrates, and to a lesser degree, the presence of fraud accusations heard at the quarter sessions. The official records of the Old Bailey are also considered, including the numerous records for the differing functions of the Old Bailey.168
Beginning at the most senior court, the official records pertaining to the Old Bailey and the Middlesex Sessions are unusually complicated. This was due to the four different overlapping types of judicial sessions held within the Sessions: quarter sessions, sessions of oyer and terminer, gaol delivery, and quarter sessions for the City and Westminster.169 Official assize records across the country are themselves, not entirely reliable. One essential reason for this is that so many records have been lost, both within London and across the country: ‘The survival pattern of some documents is inexplicably uneven’.170 Whilst the records are relatively well preserved, where they exist, there are a number of these records which are either too fragile for researchers to access, or are yet to be cleaned and so are, for the present time, mostly unreadable.171
Where records do exist, they are idiosyncratic in their methodological challenges.
Assize records are being increasingly researched and this research is revealing the unreliability of much of the information held within these records. J.S Cockburn sardonically claimed this research to have varying effects for researchers:
168 For an overview of the Middlesex Sessions and the wider role of the Old Bailey see P.S King, Guide to the Middlesex Sessions Records, 1549-1889 (Greater London Record Office Middle Records, 1965)
169 King, Middlesex Sessions Records p.12
170 J.S Cockburn ‘Early-modern assize records as historical evidence’ Journal of the Society of Archivists 5 (1975) p.217
171 The London Metropolitan Archive is the process of cleaning Old Bailey Gaol Delivery archives and more information can be found at: https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/london-metropolitan-archives/Pages/default.aspx
44 Legal historians will welcome the slow unlocking of these [assize record]
laconic formulae which conceal the early history of our legal processes. But for the social historian the operation may well be painful. For it seems to reveal that one of the most attractive bodies of early-modern legal material is of limited value as a basis for the naïve sociological analysis to which it has most often been subjected.172
The Reporting of Fraud: Summary Courts
In order to ascertain both how fraud accusations were reported, and how a portion of these indictments arrived in the Old Bailey, it is necessary to use summary court records to estimate the frequency with that fraud accusations were made, and how they were consequently disposed of at summary level. Sadly, the information required to answer these questions does not exist in an easily accessible or complete archive. The two main archives that record summary justice within the City of London are the Minute and Rough Books from the Mansion House and the Guildhall. There are also records pertaining to prisons such as the Bridewell, but these only record those cases that resulted in a conviction and imprisonment, missing any complaints which resulted in dismissal or committal to a higher court.
The Minute and Rough Books of the City however make reference to cases that were dismissed as well as tantalising and often colourful detail of how the complaints were addressed by the magistrates and their clerks. For example, in the information given by Robert Cuzons against George Snyder and John Hamot for a false pretence, the defence against which was that the whole episode had been an elaborate April Fool’s joke.173
As courts of no record, the Guildhall and the Mansion House records served no official purpose. Rather, the books were kept for the clerks’ own records and so they were taken untidily and are often difficult to decipher. Fortunately Greg Smith has
172 Cockburn Journal of the Society of Archivists p.231
173 Mansion House Justice Room – Minute Books found in the London Metropolitan Archive, reference CLA/004/02/019
45 transcribed a number of the Guildhall Minute Books, and a small number of the Lord Mayor’s Waiting Books.174 Like the Mansion House Minute Books, the Guildhall Books record approximately a month per book and surviving records run from May 1752 to 1796. These records are not complete however and Smith estimates that approximately fifty-five books remain, of which the first surviving fifteen he has transcribed.175 These books run from 1751 to 1781. In assessing the frequency and disposal of fraud-related cases within the Guildhall, a further six Minute Books176 have been assessed along with ten Mansion House Minute Books.177 In total, twenty-one Guildhall Minute Books have been analysed for the purpose of this thesis. There are far fewer records pertaining to the Middlesex Sessions. However, there exists a number of accounts from individual offices to the Treasury, as well as some remaining collections of informations and recognizances from petty sessions that detail fraud-related hearings. As there are no equivalent records to the City Magistrates for Middlesex, this makes comparisons between the two jurisdictions problematic.
For the quarter sessions, quantitative research of court records is blighted by the fact that often the offence, the parish of residence and the occupation of the defendant were all unreliable.178 More significantly, like the summary courts, the quarter sessions records have not been digitised and so any research, including that conducted for this thesis, requires sampling of the records rather than any comprehensive analysis. Many of these sources may be in a good enough condition to be digitised, particularly after cleaning. However, archives such as the quarter sessions, and indeed any court roll, will prove deeply problematic for digitization.
This is primarily due to the bulking and difficult manner in which these archives were recorded, with multiple pieces of paper hand-sewn together and then attached to the vellum which would be wrapped around the outside. The result is a large number of documents which would take a very long time to photograph and considerably
174 Smith, Summary Justice
175 Ibid p. xxviii
176 Guildhall Justice Room – Minute Books at the London Metropolitan Archive reference CLA/005/01
177 LMA CLA/004/02
178 Shoemaker Archives, p.145
46 longer to key into a database. It is not a coincidence that the Proceedings were chosen for digitization. These records were originally printed onto sheets and had been transferred onto microfiche before the digitization took place. Consequently, it is unlikely that any archives in roll form will be digitised in the near future.
As shall be explored in detail in Chapter 7, the summary court records are the most problematic of all in that these courts were courts of no record and consequently the archives which have survived are rough notes taken by clerks and for no official purpose. This results in the records being ad hoc and without pro forma, resulting in the research being significantly more difficult than for other court records that were kept in a rigidly formulaic manner (in form rather than in substance).
Newspaper and Parliamentary Papers
A commonly utilised source of archives by crime historians is newspapers. This thesis uses newspapers very little, and for two reasons. First, regional newspaper editors during this period shamelessly copied the text of the more substantial Metropolis newspapers. If trying to ascertain details of an Old Bailey case, the best place is undoubtedly the Proceedings themselves. Where newspapers do reference the Old Bailey, the text is often directly lifted from the Proceedings.179 The second reason for not relying upon newspapers is that only nineteenth century newspapers have been digitised.180 Consequently, researching pre-1800 is extremely difficult and given the tendency for newspapers to duplicate copy from the Proceedings, such an arduous task would reap few rewards. Newspaper accounts of the fraud accusations in the magistrates could be of potential use and the publications of Bow Street Magistrates, The Hue and Cry have been consulted for the early part of the period.
Parliamentary records during this period have not been researched in detail.
Parliamentary records for the time directly proceeding this period, in particular the time around the passing of the 1757 Act that codified fraud offences181, would
179 King, Crime, History and Society, (2009) p.111
180 http://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk
181 See Chapter 3
47 certainly be significant. Sadly manuscript records of the House of Commons before 1770 were destroyed.182 However, analysis of the jurisprudence surrounding such legislation provides insight into how the Act was assimilated into pre-existing case law.183
A number of other archives have been explored including a cache of records belonging to a prosecution association within the City of London184 and a number of miscellaneous documents belonging to and used by court clerks and other legal professionals.185 In addition to these, multiple contemporary practitioners’ texts and sources of black latter law are explored in order to identify the doctrines and enforcement of fraud-related laws.