| Description | Edward I's charter of 1300 (CH/13) granted the citizens of Chester the right to 'hold pleas of our Crown relating to matters which may have arisen within the same liberty to be pleaded before the Mayor and Bailiffs of the said city...' and Chester was the first borough to receive this privilege. Because so few rolls attributed to the crownmote court have survived, its times of meeting and forms of procedure are difficult to determine. However, it is known that it met on a Monday and that the business with which it dealt included the trial of felonies and lesser crimes on indictment. By the mid fifteenth century, crownmote and portmote were sometimes held on the same day. Crownmote survived the establishment of quarter sessions in 1506 and continued to be held until the nineteenth century. More serious crimes appear to have been heard at crownmote instead of, as in counties, being sent to the assizes. Before 1300, pleas of the Crown arising in Chester were heard by the justice of Chester, an officer of the county palatine; some records relating to these are preserved in the Public Record Office and have been calendared by R. Stewart Brown in Calendar of County Court, City Court and Eyre Rolls of Chester 1297, Chetham Society, 2nd series, volume. 84, 1925. The earliest surviving Crown pleas amongst the city records are included in a portmote court roll for 1305 (MR/9). A separate series of rolls exists from 1316. Although repaired, they are in a very poor condition. The first roll has been transcribed by A. Hopkins in Selected Rolls of the Chester City Courts, Chetham Society, 3rd series, volume. 2, 1950. Crownmote Court Rolls (QCR) The first roll (QCR/1) records the process of cases through the crownmote court in Chester, including an account of the case, the verdict and the penalty. Subsequent
rolls mostly give indictments and coroners' presentments. |