Page:Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, volume 1.djvu/3

 INTRODUCTION

The Charter of "The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England," granted March 4, 1628-9, provided that annually there should be chosen from among the freemen of the Company, a Governor, Deputy-Governor and eighteen Assistants. Among the duties prescribed for this governing body was that of holding

"vpon every last Wednesday in Hillary, Easter, Trinity and Mich[aelm]as termes respectivelie for ever, one greate, generall, and solempe Assemblie, which foure Generall Assemblies shalbe stiled and called the Foure Greate and Generall Courts of the saide Company."

For a number of years this Court exercised the entire judicial powers of the Colony but with the increase of population there came a necessity for additional tribunals, and at a session of the General Court held in Boston on March 3, 1635-6, the following law was adopted:—

"Further, it is ordered, that there shalbe ffoure Courts kept eury quarter, 1, att Ipswch, to which Neweberry shall belonge; 2 att Salem, to wch Saugus shall belonge; 3, att Newe Towne, to wch Charlton, Concord, Meadford, & Waterton shall belonge; 4th, att Boston, to wch Rocksbury, Dorchestr, Weymothe, & Hingham shall belonge.

"Eury of their Courts shalbe kept by such magistrates as shal[lbe] dwelling in or neere the said townes, & by such other &#42835;sons of worth as shall from tyme to tyme be appoyncted by the Genrall Court, soe as noe Court shalbe kept without one magistrate att the least, & that none of the magistrates be excluded, whoe can & will intend the same; yet the Genrall Court shall appoynct wch of the magistrates shall specially belonge to eury of the saide Court. Such &#42835;sons as shalbe ioyned as assotiates to the magistrates in the said Court shalbe chosen by the Genrall Court, out of a greater number of such as the seurall townes shall nominate to them, soe

* Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Boston, 1853, Vol. I, p. 11.