VPRS 351 Court Of Petty Sessions Registers (1895 - 1899); Licensing Register (1862 - 1864); Charge Books (1860 - 1879); Process Records (1857 - 1874)

This series consists of various record series from Steiglitz Courts.The P consignment contains:Court of petty Sessions Registers 1895-1899These two volumes were used by the Court of Petty Sessions at Steiglitz to record Convictions, Orders and Other Proceedings. The details of each case are recorded in eight columns across the page. The first column recorded the number of the case, the following columns recorded the name of the Prosecutor, Informant Complainant or Applicant; the name of the Accused or Defendant, How before the Court (Arrest on View, Warrant or Summons); Court Fees; the Charge, Cause or Proceeding; the Decision, Memorandum of Conviction, or Order, and the last column was used for remarks. The numbering system for each case starts from one each year.License Register 1862-1864This volume was used by the Steiglitz Court of Petty Sessions as a register of licenses issued during the period 1862-1864. The details of each license application were recorded within seven columns across the page. The volume was originally printed to be used as a court proceedings register, as the columns have headings such as "Prosecutor or Plaintiff" and "Prisoner or Defendant". However the printed headings have been crossed out by hand and have been replaced by handwritten headings applicable to a license register. The headings for the seven columns are as follows - Date, Number, Applicant's Residence, Description of License, Decision, Signature of Magistrate. At the start of a new year, a new page is not begun. The new year is recorded by inserting the year in the date column as a sub-heading for the date recorded by day and month (e.g. May 6th).The first two pages record applications for various types of licenses. These include Slaughtering License and Hawker's License. This list continues on page four. The third, fifth and sixth pages were used to register applications for District Publicans' Licenses. This section records the Date, Number, Applicant, Sign and Situation of the House, several Recommendations, Householders, Sureties, and Further Proceedings (i.e. Decisions).Charge Book 1868-1879This volume was used to record court proceedings and results of cases before the Steiglitz Court of Petty Sessions. It is a register of court cases arranged in chronological order. An annual single number system is used to number each case. Each day of court proceedings is allocated a separate page. Only those days on which court was in session are allocated pages. Each page is divided into eight columns to record the following - the Summons Date (issued and returned), the Case Number, Prosecutor or Plaintiff, Prisoner or Defendant, Cause or Charge, Decision, and Further Proceedings. Further proceedings included bail and the punishment taken in cases where a fine could be paid in lieu of imprisonment. At the end of September, October, November and December 1968 a summary of cases is recorded. The Register also records other decisions made by the Court, e.g. announcements of the Revision of General Electoral Lists and the announcement of the election of Licensing Magistrates for the year 1872 (29th January 1872). It also arbitrarily lists throughout the volume applications for Public House Licenses.Another book spanning the period 1 September 1860 - 14 September 1868 is located in the P2 consignment of this series. Information is recorded in this book in an identical manner to that described for the later volume as described above. This volume was found within the archival collection maintained by the MDHC Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne at East Melbourne and was donated to PROV in September 2009.The P1 consignment contains:Process Records: Summons, Licence Applications, Court Orders and General Correspondence (1857 - 1874).The records include Court Summons, License Applications, Information and Complaint Forms, Warrants, Miner's Rights Applications, Slaughtering Returns, and general inwards and outwards correspondence referring to court business. In the first box the records are broadly grouped according to date ranges. However with the exception of the Slaughtering Returns which are grouped together, the records are arbitrarily placed together. The records in the second box also have only minimal arrangement according to the date range. In the third box the records are arranged according to date range, however to some extent the Summons are grouped together and the Registered Letter Receipts are also grouped together.