Records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery

This collection comprises the records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery. The records were created as a result of the Court exercising its function in the judgement of criminal proceedings in both original and appellate jurisdictions. That is, the records which comprise this collection are products of cases first heard in the Court of General Gaol Delivery itself and cases referred to it by the Isle of Man's Lower Courts. Records in this collection include:

• Minutes
• Draft judgements
• Criminal entry books
• Criminal books
• Criminal case files
• Criminal indices

The Criminal Court in the Isle of Man is known as the Court of General Gaol Delivery. In its earlier days, it was held within the outer gates of Castle Rushen, Castletown and was presided over by the Governor and attended by the two Deemsters and Tynwald's membership. Tynwald - the Island's insular legislature - at this time comprised a Council, the Upper Chamber, and 24 Keys who made-up the Lower Chamber.

An Act of 1737 - states " That no Court, Judge, or Magistrate within the Isle whatsoever, shall have the power or authority for the future, to impose or inflict any fine or punishment upon a person or persons within the said Isle, for or on account of any Criminal Cause whatsoever until he, she or they be first convicted by the verdict or presentment of four, six or more men, as the case shall require upon some Statute Law in force on the said Island… ".

In essence, from this point onward, serious criminal causes or proceedings could no longer be dealt with in a summary way by the Governor, Deemsters, Council and Keys which, at this point, constituted the Court. Therefore - in addition to the Court's existing membership - a jury of the respondent's peers had to be empanelled. The number of jurors empanelled depended on the nature of the crime.

Tynwald's membership sat as part of the Court of General Gaol Delivery until the 1820s when the Court became completely separate from the Island's insular legislature. From then on the Court comprised the Governor, the Clerk of the Rolls, the two Deemsters and a jury of twelve men. An amendment to the Judicature Act in 1918, merged the offices of the Clerk of the Rolls and that of the First Deemster into one. This effectively reduced the sitting panel of judges for the Court. Later, in 1921, the Governor was removed from the sitting panel of judges for both this Isle of Man High Court and the Court of General Gaol Delivery. Responsibility for the latter, the Court of General Gaol Delivery, was passed to the Second Deemster.

A number of criminal codes and laws relating to criminal sentencing have impacted judgements handed down by the Court over time. While not intended to be exhaustive, these include:

• An Act for Trials Treason and Felony and Regulating the Proceedings of the Court of General Gaol Delivery, 1777
• Criminal Code 1817
• Act for the Amendment of the Criminal Law of Said Isle, 1832
• Act to Abolish the Punishment of Death In Certain Cases, 1852
• Criminal Code, 1872
• Criminal Code Amendment Act 1892
• Criminal Code Amendment Act 1914
• Criminal Code Amendment Act 1917
• Criminal Code (Informations) Act 1920
• Criminal Code Amendment Act, 1921
• Criminal Code Amendment Act, 1925
• Larceny Act, 1946
• Theft Act 1981
• Criminal Law Act, 1981
• Criminal Jurisdiction Act 1993
• Criminal Justice Act 2001

This Collection is arranged into 4 series and 3 subseries:

• S117/1 - Records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery: Minutes and Indices
• S117/2 - Records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery: Draft Judgements
• S117/3 - Records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery: Criminal Entry Books
• S117/4 - Records of the Isle of Man Court of General Gaol Delivery: Criminal Books, Criminal Case Files and Criminal Indices
• S117/4/1 - Criminal Books
• S117/4/2 - Criminal Case files
• S117/4/3 - Criminal Indices

This collection is partially closed with some records currently being subject to a B2/C2 closure period of 84/100 years under the Public Records Order 2015 due to statutory data protection restriction laid down in the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please contact the Isle of Man Public Record Office for further information: public.records@gov.im

For information on visiting the Isle of Man Public Record Office please see our website: www.gov.im/pro .

Please see our website for catalogues: www.gov.im/pro .

Fonds level description created by Gavin Rowan, Records & Archive Officer, 28 May 2020.

Crown copyright for unpublished works applies to this collection. Crown Copyright expires 125 years from the end of the calendar year of creation.

Records were selected for permanent preservation in accordance with the Court of General Gaol Delivery retention schedule, dated 4 Jun 2018.

The records comprising this collection were created and held by the Court of General Gaol Delivery. The constituent parts of this collection were then consigned to the Public Record Office under section 3(8) of the Public Records Act, 1999 between 2000-2012. These consignments were later transferred as full accessions under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act, 1999 in two discrete transfers in 2019 and 2020. The two constituent accessions which comprise this collection were then catalogued in May 2020.

Accruals are expected for this collection.