Page:Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, volume 1.djvu/4

iv as there may be in eury of the said Courts soe many as (with the magistrates) may make fyve in all. Theis Courts shall trie all civil causes, whereof the debt or damage shall not exceede xli, & all criminall causes, not concerneing life, member, or banishmt. And if any ꝓson shall finde himselfe greived with the sentence of any the said Courts, hee may appeale to the nexte greate Quarter Court, ꝓvided that hee putt in sufficient caucon to ꝓsent his appeale with effect, & to abide the sentence of the magistrates in the said greate Quarter Court, whoe shall see that all such that shall bringe any appeale without iust cause be exemplaryly punished.

"There shalbe foure great Quarter Courts kept yearely att Boston, by the Gournt & the rest of the magistrates; the first, the first Tuesday in the 4th moneth, called June; the second, the first Tuesday in Septembr; the third, the first Tuesday in Decembr; the fourthe, the first Tuesday in the 1th monethe, called Marche. The inferior Courts shalbe kept the 1th, the last Tuesday in June, & the rest the last Tuesday in eury of the said monethes.

"All accons shalbe tryed att that Court to wch ye deft belongs.

"All offenders which shalbe in the prison att Boston att the tyme of any Court there holden, shalbe tryed att that Court, except in the wart of his comitmt hee be reserved to the greate Quarter Court. And it shalbe lawfull for the Gournr, or Deputy Gournr, or any two magistrates (vpon speciall & vrgent occacon), to appoyncte Courts to be kept vpon other dayes then in this order are appoyncted."

The first session of this Court in Essex County was held June 27, 1636, at Salem. With the continued increase of population there came a demand for more frequent sessions of the Courts and on June 2, 1641, the General Court established four quarter-annual courts as follows:—

"Whereas it is desired by this Court to ease the countrey of all unnecessary travells & charges, it is ordered, that there shalbee 4 Quarter Courts kept yearly by the matrats of Ipswich & Salem, wth such others to bee ioyned in comission wth them as this Court shall appoint, not hindering any other matrats that will help them; this order to take effect after these next Quarter Courts shalbee ended at Salem & Ipswich, two of these Quarter Courts to bee kept at Salem & the other 2 at Ipswich, the first Court to bee kept the last third day of the 7th month at Ipswich, (& the rest at the same time the former Courts were), the next quarter at Salem, the 3d qrter at Ipswich, the 4th at Salem, & the matrats of Ipswich & Salem to attend every of these Courts, but no iurymen to bee warned from Ipswich to Salem, nor fro Salem to Ipswich; to each of these places

* Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Boston, 1853, Vol. I, p. 169.