Minutes : 1812-1839.

            St. John County was one of the original eight counties that were established when New Brunswick was set off as a separate jurisdiction from Nova Scotia in 1784. The City of Saint John was incorporated in 1785, and is the oldest incorporated city in Canada.            

            The Minutes of the Court of General Sessions for St. John County, that have been included in the Loyalist Collection, are available on two microfilm reels: 
 Reel 1 contains the Minutes for the period from March, 1812 until December, 1830. 

Reel 2 continues the Minutes for December, 1830 and ends with September, 1839. The Minutes begin with the list of justices who are present, and in the case of St. John County, the mayor of the city is present as well.   The names are always followed by the Proclamation for Constables and the Proclamation for Grand Jurors. The individuals are listed by name in each case.   Indictments, jury decisions and punishments are given, frequently in considerable detail, and include the names of witnesses on many occasions.   In civil matters, the Minutes are a record of the following:   the appointment of parish officers;  individuals who have been granted commercial licences;  expenditures ordered by the court;  assessments;  accounts submitted; petitions to the Legislature;  appointments; and numerous other items of business.  Affairs of concern to the City of Saint John dominate the proceedings, and the Minutes provide a much greater amount of detail than is usually found in  similar records for other counties.   Even then, the amount of detail appears to vary with the reporting style of the individual who is the official recorder.            

            There is no finding aid to this material.  The only internal guide is a contents listing for 1830 and March of 1831 that is located at the beginning of the Minutes for1830.