Comprises the following series:
QS1/1/ COMMISSIONS OF THE PEACE 1677-1878
From the early sixteenth century the Lord Chancellor nominated Justices of the Peace, with the advice of the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey from the eighteenth century. The commissions are in the form of letters patent under the great seal and list the names of all justices, in order of precedence and then alphabetically. Further names have been inserted, either between the lines or at the end of the list. New commissions were issued on the accession of a new sovereign (up to 1837) and at intervals in between. Names were regularly added to the last commission of 1878 (-/11 below) until the abolition of Quarter Sessions, and the date a justice was removed from the commission was also added in the years before 1956, the last of this type of addition. For manuscript copies of -/5-8, and of the Commission for 1841, the original of which has not survived, see QS1/3/1-4.
QS1/2/ OATH BOOKS AND PAPERS RELATING TO APPOINTMENT OF JUSTICES 1880-1938 The justices swear oaths of allegiance and that they will serve the Crown and do right to all people by law.
QS1/3/ LISTS OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND COUNTY OFFICERS 1808-1920
QS1/3/ MANUSCRIPT LISTS 1808-1850
Copies (manuscript) entered in small vellum-bound volumes, in list form, of names included in the Commissions of the Peace for 1808, 1830, 1837 and 1841, with some addresses and dates of appointment added, the earliest being that of George, Earl of Onslow, 1756. These were clearly used as working lists, and are amended as justices were added to or removed from the Commission. Note: the original parchment commission for 1841 appears not to have survived.
QS1/3/ PRINTED LISTS 1848-1920
Printed lists of Acting Magistrates and County Officers [small, leather-bound, printed volumes]. All the lists are headed with the name of the Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum. There follow the names of the justices, ordered, in 1848, by quality, but thereafter (ie from 1851) listed in simple alphabetical order. From 1851 dates of qualification are given, and almost all volumes contain manuscript additions and deletions. From 1864 the volumes also include lists of ex-officio magistrates and of county officers: the chairmen of sessions, clerk of the peace, county treasurer, high sheriff, under-sheriff, clerk to the lieutenancy, chief constable, county surveyor, coroners, clerks to the justices in the divisions and officers of the county gaol and house of correction and, latterly of the county lunatic asylum(s). From 1901 the volumes are formed from the unbound sheets of a pocket-sized 'year book', pasted down into the pages of volumes bound to match the earlier series. From 1901 membership of committees of quarter sessions, and of petty sessional divisions (with names of constituent parishes of petty sessional areas), and dates of meetings are given. Deputy Lieutenants' names are marked with an asterisk.
QS1/3/ LISTS ARRANGED BY PETTY SESSIONAL DIVISION 1879-1888
QS1/4/ PAPERS RELATING TO THE APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMEN AND DEPUTY CHAIRMEN 1938-1971
QS1/5/ STANDING ORDERS 1854-1963