The people's courts: manor courts of the 1830s

[smcarberry]

Judging from the popularity of televised court sessions in which people sue each other for return of property, damage to property in one-time incidents, or small debts like not paying for half of an obligation, etc., reading the testimony taken by a British Parliamentary committee (staffed by Irish social heavy-weights) ought to be good leisure reading. At one time, owning an Irish estate often provided the right to hold court in order to determine small claims. Jurisdiction had to be traced back to an order of authority ("warrant") granted by a particular ruler, but apparently most of Clare was subject to such warrants and thus sessions in manor courts were held throughout the 1830s, the time period covered by this 1837 Parliamentary report:

http://books.google.com/books?id=BHFbAA ... re&f=false

Page 324 starts a description of each manor court, including whether the seneschal (person acting as a judge) was actually trained in law (most in Clare were not). There was an issue as to the quality of justice, with testimony taken from two Clare men who held opposing views. On p. 266 a seneschal Joseph Raughan [sic] described the regularity of court sessions and contradicted the events described by citizen Thomas Fitzpatrick of Corrafin [sic] on p. 117 (24 May 1837). I suggest reading the Fitzpatrick description, in which he stated that the court in his locale usually met in a pub, with witnesses who were allowed to testify whether or not inebriated. Jurors sat around a pub table, with a crowd of spectators leaning in on them. For deliberations the jurors did not always leave for a separate, private room. A bailiff's widow, Mrs. Doyle, acted as a collector for judgments and annoyed officials with her haranguing those present; Fitzpatrick viewed her as acting in an attorney role while Raughan saw her as a shill for her two sons who had taken over the bailiff function. In any case, a typical court session was not the dignified, sterile environment present in more formal courts, but manor courts were used heavily because debts could be reduced to judgment without waiting eight or more months needed for the higher courts to reach a case on its docket. Most manor courts had a limit on the monetary value of a claim, similar to the jurisdictional limit of a modern small claims court.

Enjoy,
Sharon Carberry

Manor Court stats, 1830s p474.jpg (21.81 KiB) Viewed 6255 times

Manor court stats, p475.jpg (39.48 KiB) Viewed 6253 times

Manor court stats, finis.jpg (39.3 KiB) Viewed 6253 times

[smcarberry]

Providing the title page of the report on manor courts.

Manor Courts report title page.jpg (18.01 KiB) Viewed 6253 times

[Paddy Casey]

What superb vignettes, Sharon. Beats TV's Judge Judy any day. Delightful reading, really takes one back into the era and the ways "justice" was administered. I see that if a person was late paying for a sack of potatoes, for example, the creditor could apply to one of these manor courts for the debtor's bed (or some other item of his property) to be sequestered until the debt was paid. Imagine that:a bailiff comes into your hovel and removes your bed until you can scratch a couple of shillings together. Amazing !

Paddy

[Polycarp]

The late Chris O'Mahony has done valuable work on tracing Clare manor court boundaries and on the Earl of Thomond's eight Clare manors of the later seventeenth century (1666 - 1686). He published his research in "The Other Clare" in three parts between 2003 and 2005 and in "Analecta Hibernica" in 2004. There are many names (jurors, defendants) given in the O'Mahony article in 'Analecta' (pages 135 - 220 of volume 38, 2004). The source material is drawn from MS c 10/7 in the Petworth House archives in West Sussex. Interesting that the courts were still in session in 1837.