Minutes : 1789-1816.

Call Number:
HIL-MICL FC LPR .O5C6S4M4M4
Category:
Ontario
Creator:
Upper Canada. Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Mecklenburg, Midland District).
Material Description:
1 microfilm textual records (4 volumes) ; 35 mm
Background:

From the formation of the Districts, in what was to become Upper Canada, until 1841 the management of local affairs in each District was conducted by the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace. The Court was composed of magistrates who were appointed by the Governor or Lieutenant Governor in Council. This system of municipal government by appointed justices was British in origin, brought to America by the colonists and thence to Upper Canada by the Loyalists. After 1841, municipal councils assumed much of the work that had been carried out by the Sessions Courts.

Contents:

The Minutes contain a record of all administrative and judicial affairs which came before the Court. The majority of the court sittings were held at Kingston and Adolphus Town. The reel contains a few marriage oaths for 1794, 1804 and 1827.

Originals:
The original records are held by the Law Society of Upper Canada.
Archival Ref. No.:

PF16-2 Mecklenburg District Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace minute books.

Finding Aids:

An inventory, which is included at the beginning of the microfilm reel, is available in print and as a PDF in the electronic finding aids section.

Inventory_Minutes_UC-Court-General-Quarter-Sessions.pdf
Notes:
Between July 1889 and January 1901, Professor Adam Shortt published the Minutes of the Mecklenberg Quarter Sessions in the Queen's Quarterly under the title, Early Records of Ontario.

The published Minutes contain dates of sessions which are not included on this microfilm reel and therefore, the two sources complement each other.

Microfilmed on the same reel with Minutes of the Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace (Luneburg, Eastern District) : 1789-1802, and shelved at MIC-Loyalist FC LPR .O5C6S4M4M4