Spotlight- Justices of the peace
William Salt Library
This page features one of the many treasures that can be found within the William Salt Library collection.
The 650th Anniversary of Justices of the Peace Act, 1361
The year 2011 marks the 650th anniversary of the Justices of the Peace Act 1361, which conferred the title justice of the peace to "good and lawful men" who were to be appointed in every county in the land to "guard the Peace".
Amongst the outstanding collection of documents and volumes in the William Salt Library it is possible to view proceedings of the cases that were presented to the Justices of the Peace within the Staffordshire Advertiser newsapaper (1795-1972).
© William Salt Library, Stafford, 2011
Within the issue of the 12 October 1861, see below, there is an unusual case that came before the Justices of the Peace with regard to the interference by Thomas Finney of Charles Paddy, Assistant Inspector of Nuisances. Mr Paddy was investigating a reported nuisane caused by Mr Finney who had been keeping pigeons in his bedroom. Mr Paddy had been prevented by Mr Finney from looking to see if a previous nuisance order with regard to the pigeons had been carried out. In the end Mr Paddy was pushed down the stairs by Mr Finney in order to prevent him from seeing if the pigeons had been removed. At the sessions Mr Finney, admitted that the pigeons had been removed and was fined 11 shillings and 6 pence for preventing Mr Paddy from seeing for himself.
© William Salt Library, Stafford, 2011
The Advertiser newspaper is full of articles such as the one detailed above, which report on minor offences that were taken to the Justices of the Peace, as well more serious crimes that were tried in the Quarter Sessions and Assize courts.
The William Salt Library is also able to offer Digital images from Newspapers for Download from an FTP Server at a cost of £5-00 per image. This service is only for the supply of digital images of identified columns/sections of local newspapers within the library collection. For further information regarding this service please see the section on Unprocessed Digital Images from Newspapers on the Library's Photographic Services| page.
William Salt Library Ref: The Staffordshire Advertiser, 12 October 1861, page 6 column 6.
Follow this link to see previous documents that have been placed under the spotlight.|
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