Minutes : 1784-1880.

            Shelburne County was established in 1784 following the arrival of approximately 16,000 Loyalist soldiers, Refugees and Blacks at the end of the American Revolution.  Local government authority was quickly established with the creation of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace which had both administrative and judicial authority.            

            
The Records of the Court have been microfilmed in the following order : 
Volume 1, December 16, 1786-1801; 
Volume 2, 1799-1833; 
Volume 3, 1834-1854; 
Volume 4, 1854-1880.
The third reel contains, in addition, a separate section of very early Records of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace for the District of Shelburne, March 30,1784 - April 23, 1785 and a Grand Jury Book, 1816-1850.  The Records contain:  petitions from individuals; requests for payment in return for services rendered; court proceedings; County Treasurers' reports; lists of Petit Jurors, Justices of the Peace and Township officers; as well as many other records. Included with the Shelburne Records are separate lists of officeholders appointed for Barrington Township.

Special Sessions are imbedded chronologically within the court records.  The sessions, Volume 1 to 4, is the court sitting in its Administrative capacity.
             

            A microfilm shelf list, giving the volumes and years which have been microfilmed on each reel, is available in print.