Page:Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts, volume 1.djvu/5

 a grand iury shalbee warned once a yeare, & these Courts to have the same power, both in civill and criminall causes, the Court of Assistants hath at Boston, except tryalls for life, limbs or banishmt, wch are wholly reserved to Boston Court; provided, it shalbee lawfull to appeal from any of these Courts to Boston. And it shalbee in the liberty of any plantitfe that hath an action of above one hundred pounds principall debt to try his cause in any of these Courts or at Boston; the fines of these Courts to defray the charges of the same, & the overplus to bee returned to the Treasurer for the publique. And Salsberry & Hampton are ioyned to the iurisdiction of Ipswich, & each of them to send a grand iuryman once a yeare to Ipswich."*

Massachusetts Bay was divided into shires or counties by a law passed May 10, 1643. The territorial limits of Essex County were much as they are at the present time, save that all the towns lying north of the Merrimack river were established as the county of Norfolk, thereby including the towns of Haverhill and Salisbury. Norfolk County was divided into two court jurisdictions, Dover and Portsmouth forming the northern and the remaining towns the southern. The Quarterly Courts in the southern jurisdiction were held at Salisbury and Hampton and the records of these sessions are included in the following pages until Feb. 4, 1679-80 when the towns of Haverhill, Amesbury and Salisbury were placed within the jurisdiction of the Essex County Courts. These County Courts or Inferior Quarterly Courts had jurisdiction in civil and criminal cases except in cases of divorce and crimes involving life, limb or banishment. They had power to summon grand and petit jurors, to appoint their own clerks and other necessary officers, to lay out highways, license ordinarys, to see that a proper ministry was supported, to prove wills, grant administrations and to have general control of matters in probate. In 1664, they were authorized to admit freemen. In general, they had jurisdiction in all matters not reserved to the Court of Assistants, which was the Court of Appeal. The writs, declarations, and other pleadings, complaints, indictments, and course of proceedings in the courts were simple, brief and informal. For the first twenty years the testimony in a trial was written down by the


 * Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, Boston, 1853, Vol. I, p. 325.