Fonds Y/S - Gt. Yarmouth Borough: Quarter Sessions

Great Yarmouth obtained a separate commission of the peace by royal grant in 1494. Until Michaelmas 1676 the formal record of the borough sessions of the peace was entered on the borough court rolls (Y/C 4). After this date, the sessions books listed under the reference, Y/S 1 become the fair-copy record of the sessions of the peace until after 1732, when the so-called 'waste' sessions books (reference, Y/S 2) take over as the main record. This latter series survives up to 1864.

Yarmouth was scheduled to retain its commission of the peace by the Municipal Corporations Act of 1835, this being confirmed by a royal grant of 1836. Before this time the offices of town clerk and clerk of the peace had been held together. They were now separated and the sessions records (save those attached to the borough court rolls and certain others (Y/C 9-12), which the town clerk retained) passed to the clerk of the peace.
About the year 1900 the clerk of the peace placed in the town clerk's custody sessions records of date before 1863-1864, and it is these records that are listed here. A small group of recorder's rough minute books of the later 19th century (Y/S 11) probably found their way into the town clerk's hands at the same time.
The term 'quarter sessions' is used from the later 17th century, but it is not until 1836 that the sessions are held at regular quarterly intervals.