Welsh Journals

AN EDITED CALENDAR OF THE FIRST BRECKNOCKSHIRE PLEA ROLL OF THE COURTS OF THE KING'S GREAT SESSIONS IN WALES, JULY, 1542 A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE COURTS AND THEIR RECORDS THE Courts of the King's Great Sessions in Wales were formally established by the Act of 34-35 Henry VIII, c.26, and were intended to enforce the introduction into the recently defined Principality of Wales of the English language and English laws and customs. The twelve Welsh shires were divided into four judicial circuits, each circuit consisting of three adjacent shires: the Chester Circuit (Denbigh, Flint, and Montgomery); the North Wales Circuit (Anglesey, Caernarvon, and Merioneth); the Carmarthen Circuit (Carmarthen, the County Borough of Carmarthen, Pembroke, the County Borough of Haver- fordwest, and Cardigan); and the Brecknock Circuit (Brecknock, Radnor, and Glamorgan). Each circuit had its own chancery, judicial seal, and original seal, though the original seal used for the Palatinate of Chester was used also for Flint instead of the original seal provided for Denbigh and Montgomery. Although the Act provided for the appointment of four prothonotaries, or Clerks of the Crown, the prothonotary of the Chester Palatinate Courts extended his office to Flint, and John Arnold was appointed as the prothonotary of the North Wales Circuit, while the remaining shires of the Principality were, together with the border shire of Monmouth, absorbed into the office held by John Lennard. Provision was made, also, for the appointment of deputy prothonotaries, and, in the 17th century, it appears that this office was identified with the respective shrievalities of the shires as the plea roll titles are signed for the greater part of this century by the sheriffs and not by the prothonotaries. Unlike the Common Bench of England, whose authority they equalled in Wales, the Courts of Great Sessions were held twice a year outside the four normal law terms in order that their Justices might enjoy the privilege of practising as barristers on the English circuits. The Courts had civil, criminal, and equity jurisdiction, and appeal in personal actions lay in the Court of the Council in the Marches until its abolition in 1689 when this appellate jurisdiction devolved on the House of Lords. Appeal in real and mixed actions lay in the Court of the King's Bench. After the abolition of the Council in the Marches the Westminster Courts began to encroach on the jurisdiction of the Great Sessions, and, in the case of Mostyn v. Fabrigas, Lord Mansfield asserted a virtually concurrent jurisdiction for the King's Bench over actions which were