Where Do We Find Jury Lists from the 1800s?

 

24 October 2014

As a rule, the surviving lists will be copied into the recorded minutes of the county court (i.e., inferior, superior, ordinary, chancery, circuit, or whatever name is used in the locale).

At the end of each court term, a drawing was typically held for names of registered voters who would be summoned to appear for duty at the next term. The list would be recorded amid the minutes of the expiring term. At the new term, the minutes will identify those who were selected for duty and those who did not show up and, consequently, would be fined.

Occasionally, a county will have preserved the original jury lists amid "loose papers" of the court or "miscellaneous records" in the office of the clerk. Loose lists may also have been deposited, in recent times, in that county's record collection at the state archives or they may have wandered off to a local library or university archive.

EE 8.30 addresses the subject more fully and provides citation models.

 


PHOTO CREDIT: "Old oak entrance door ot Grand Jury Room in Crown Court," CanStockPhoto (http://www.canstockphoto.com/images-photos/jury.html#file_view.php?id=1549822 : downloaded 16 Septemer 2014), uploaded by illu; used under license.

 

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