The Castlewellan Court Book 1824
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THE CASTLEWELLAN COURT BOOK 1824 EDITED BY J. CHRISTOPHER NAPIER Published on the internet 2004 DEDICATED to the memory of Martin McBurney QC RM, whose cruel murder on 16 September 1974 deprived us of a true Justice of the People. I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the huge assistance given by William and Monty Murphy, by the late Desmond McMullan, of Heather Semple, Librarian of the Law Society of Northern Ireland, Terence Bowman, editor of the Mourne Observer, in addition to the countless friends who proffered advice and assistance without which this book could never have been published; in addition to the encouragement of Ann, my wife throughout the long period in which this work was done. J Christopher Napier BA Biographical Note on Editor Master Napier was born in Belfast in 1936, and was educated at St Malachy’s College, Antrim Road, and Queen’s University, Belfast. He practiced as a solicitor in Belfast from 1961 until 1990 when he was appointed Master (Taxing Office) of the Supreme Court of Judicature for Northern Ireland. CONTENTS Frontispiece – Photograph of the Court House as it is today – a public library 1. Introduction and Background a. The Book itself b. The age in which the Book was written c. Castlewellan in 1824 d. The Justices of the Peace and their role e. Notes on the Justices referred to 2. Appendices a. Fines b. Legal Costs c. Produce d. Prices and bargains e. Table of Causes of Action, Crimes and Statutory Offences f. Table of Serious Offences g. Deposition of William McNally h. Index of Persons i. Index of Places j. Index of Occupations k. Extract on Courthouses in Ireland 1845 by C B E Brett. 3. Calendar of Court Business 4. The Text of the Book THE CASTLEWELLAN COURT BOOK 1824 THE BOOK ITSELF This book is one of three books, of which it is the only one not in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, which survive from this period1 and therefore these are an invaluable source of information on the conduct of such courts in Ireland, their impact on the common people of Ireland, and the enthusiasm with which the common people embraced this apparently easy access to justice to redress their wrongs. The Castlewellan Court Book 1824 bears all the hallmarks of the 19th century officialdom it represents. It is bound in cardboard covers with leather corners and leather spine-binding, and it is lined with tortoise-shell paper in brown, grey and black. It measures 15 inches by 9½ inches and is 2 inches thick. The passing years have scuffed the cover in places. The book is well-preserved for its age. The binding is intact. A piece of red leather with gold letters thereon has become detached from the front of the book and been stuck back on with sellotape. This bears the inscription, inside an edge of gold vine-scrolls, CASTLEWELLAN COURT BOOK 1824. The book itself is not yet in the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland, although I did persuade the owner to permit me to deposit a photocopy there before I finished making my own copy. Accordingly, since 1982 the book has been "officially" known. Little is really known about the history of the book since the clerk to the justices2, John Hanna, made the last entry in it until it "appeared" on my desk. There is a story told, probably apocryphal, that the late Martin McBurney QC, a Resident Magistrate, found the book in a drawer in the court house in Castlewellan while presiding over the last, or one of the last, sittings of the Petty Sessions Court in the old Market House in the Upper Square in Castlewellan. It is inconceivable that a member of the magistracy would purloin such a piece of history and then present it to a friend of his who was a local historian. 1 Early Manor Court records do exist – see Manor Courts in the west of Ireland before the Famine, Richard McMahon in Mysteries and Solutions in Irish Legal History, Four Courts Press, 2001. The manor court is a very different entity presided over by a seneschal, rather than a bench of justices. 2 I believe that this was an informal position at this time, merely an employee of the justices, without the formality which the post was to be given by subsequent Petty Sessions Acts. There is an anomaly here. The SR&O which provided that the sittings of the petty sessions court for the district of Castlewellan be removed to Newcastle was not signed until 4 July 1997. It was not brought into effect immediately. The last sittings at the Courthouse in the Upper Square were not held until 29 March 1979. Poor Mr. McBurney was murdered in September 1974. I believe that the Book had left the Courthouse by that date. I first heard of the existence of this book as a "rumour", then succeeded in tracking down the owner and obtaining his blessing for me to make a copy and write up the information that it contained. Like all owners of rare works, the owner did not so much want to prevent the book from being read, but rather feared that he might lose the original, of which he was fond. The book is printed in six columns, each column bearing the title I have shown in my copy, and was to be filled in by the court clerk. The book as printed is for writing in landscape mode, to use modern parlance, rather than portrait mode. The entries made by the court clerk in the book are in brown ink. All seem to be the work of one clerk. Except in those instances where I have shown the contrary, the first six columns are always completed by the clerk. He usually writes with due care, but sometimes the haste with which the entries were made is apparent and suggests that the summons in question was entered at the sitting of the court rather than the day before in preparation for the court. The final column is for the chairman of the magistrates to enter the judgment of the court, and the writing of this column varies with the chairmanship of the sittings. The handwriting of the clerk does develop somewhat during the course of the book, as if this were to be expected with the passage of time. Generally I have no difficulty in reading the clerk's writing. However, it is not always possible to tell the difference between his upper case L and S. There is little to distinguish these with the naked eye, and I have to rely as far as possible on the sense of the entry. Also, his lower case i and e are alike. He does sometimes dot his i - but not always - and, as there are sometimes small blots of ink on the paper, at times I have had difficulty in telling these two letters apart. The first column is the serial number of the summons3. The second is the name of the Complainant, the third the name of the Defendant. Usually the townland in which the parties reside is shown by way of address for identification. The fourth column shows the cause of action, in civil matters, or in criminal, the offence alleged, the fifth the name of the magistrate who issued the summons. All these particulars would have been before the clerk on the original summons, with particulars of service endorsed on the rear, as he made the entry into the book. He left the final sixth column blank for the chairman of the magistrates to enter the Judgment and Observations of the court. Over three thousand persons are named. These names show some duplication. Such a large number of entries gives us an insight into the public life of the area during the two years covered by the book. Because of its being absent from the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922 the Book and its two extant companions have survived the destruction of the public records in the Four Courts blaze. This book is one of three surviving examples of what historians and lawyers today have left of the records of the operation of the petty sessions courts in the whole of Ireland in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. With its companion volumes the books cover the years from 1823 to 1828. The two companion volumes have found their way into the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and are indeed suitable for publication as companion volumes to the present work. The first covers the period from 23rd August 1823 until 11th October 1824 and contains 1262 entries4. The book is a little battered. The third book is in poor condition, with covers and spine missing. It commences on 9th October 1826 and contains 1578 entries, the date of the last court being 3rd November 18285. The similarities and differences are best discussed in any subsequent publication. That all three books relate to the same Petty Sessions Court and are consecutive makes these surviving records all the more valuable. 3 The serial numbers are generally in correct sequence, but where a number has been repeated, I have distinguished the second entry by adding a + sign. 4 PRONI HA/22/A/1. 5 PRONI HA/22/A/3 My purpose in publishing the present work now is because of the fact that it is in private hands rather than in the public domain, and thus should be made easily available to historians of law and of Irish social history.