Nature of Source
Annual returns of people qualified to serve as a juror based on ownership of freehold or copyhold land and property. The original qualification was restricted to those aged between 21 and 70 who owned freeholds worth at least 40 shillings per year. In 1825 the age restriction was lowered to 60 and the value of the qualifying property was revised to freeholds worth £10 per year. Other qualifying criteria included those holding leaseholds for 21 years or worth more than £20, property rateability at £20 (£30 in Middlesex) or possession of a dwelling with fifteen or more windows. The records simply list the names of freeholders for each parish but from 1832 the address of the freeholder was specified along with the qualifying property.
Those who qualified to serve as a juror might have served at the Quarter Sessions, Assizes, the manorial courts or at coroner courts and at various other courts. The annual lists were compiled from 1696 and were collected by the parish churchwardens or parish constable. The returns were sent to the clerk of the peace and can be found among the Quarter Session papers and only include the male population.
Jurors’ Lists or Freeholders’ Lists are similar in scope to Poll Books. Freeholders’ Lists were used as a basis for determining which citizens were entitled to vote in parliamentary, county and borough elections. Therefore Poll Books list those that actually voted and Voter Lists contain the details of all freeholders in the vicinity.
Also see
Electoral Registers or Burgess Rolls
Guilds, Freedoms & Freemen’s or Burgess Rolls
Poll Books
Where Found
County Record Offices (Jury lists are found amongst Quarter Session records. Find the details of a local UK archive from a searchable list of over 2,500 archives hosted by The National Archives)
Society of Genealogists
LDS FamilySearch Centers (Search the FamilySearch Catalog for the whereabouts of transcribed copies of juror and jury lists. The catalog consists of of genealogical materials including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, and publications made available by FamilySearch online and in libraries and centers worldwide)
Period Covered
1696 – 1832
Genealogical Value
- Name, address, age and occupation of juror or freeholder.
- The qualification of the juror based on his property ownership.
Further References
N/A
Websites
https://highlittletonhistory.org.uk/misc.html (High Littleton & Hallatrow: History and Parish Records: Jurors List 1796 to 1863)
https://en.powys.gov.uk/article/1977/Registers-of-Electors-Freeholders-and-Jurors-Lists (Powys Archives: Registers of Electors, Freeholders’ and Jurors’ Lists: Guide to the holdings covering Breconshire, Radnorshire and Montgomoryshire)
Online Databases
www.hunimex.com/warwick/index.html (Pickard’s Pink Pages for Warwickshire: Warwickshire freeholder and voter lists and Coventry heads of households)
www.ancestry.co.uk (Warwickshire, England, Occupational and Quarter Session Records, 1662-1866. This database contains a collection of records from Warwickshire Quarter Sessions including Jurors Lists, 1696-1848 and Lists of Freeholders, 1710-1760. These are lists of people entitled to vote or of people who voted at elections)
www.ancestry.co.uk (Dorset, Jury Lists, 1825-1921)
www.ancestry.co.uk (Cambridgeshire, England, Juror Books, 1828-1883. This collection comprises records of those qualified to serve as a juror in the county of Cambridgeshire)
www.ancestry.co.uk (Surrey, England, Jury-Qualified Freeholders and Copyholders, 1696-1824. This collection contains lists of those qualified to serve as jurors in Surrey, England, and includes the names of qualified men, the parish, and at times a street name and possibly occupation)
www.findmypast.co.uk (Devon, Plymouth & West Devon Parish Chest Records 1556-1950. Records from the parish chests of Plymouth and West Devon including: Examinations, Jury Lists, Settlement Papers, Bastardy Papers and Overseers and Churchwardens’ Accounts)
www.findmypast.co.uk (Devon, Plymouth Borough Records 1519-1905. Various records from the borough’s administration including List of grand jury and Lists of jurors)
www.foda.org.uk/main/transcripts.htm (Friends of Devon’s Archives: Devon Freeholders Books, 1711-1799)
www.oldbaileyonline.org (Old Bailey Online: Names of jurors are included in the accounts of the proceedings and can be searched by a juror name index)
www.highlittletonhistory.org.uk/transcriptions/HLJurorsLists1796to1863.pdf (List of persons qualified to serve on juries for the Parish of High Littleton in the County of Somerset)
www.ancestor.abel.co.uk/Angus/freeholders.html (Freeholders of Angus & Kincardineshire, 1788 and 1813)
CD Roms
Anguline Research Archives (Court Rolls of the Honor of Clitheroe in the County of Lancaster, 1377-1567. Translated and transcribed by William Farrer. Also includes a list of the tenants and freeholders in 1443 and a list of the names of jurors for the period 1523-1567)
Hathi Trust (Court Rolls of the Honor of Clitheroe in the County of Lancaster, 1377-1567. Translated and transcribed by William Farrer)
