VPRS 5551 County Court Ledger

This series was created to record financial information connected with management of cases heard before local County Courts. The requirement to create this record was originally provided by Section 11 of An Act for the More Easy Recovery of Certain Debts and Demands 1857. Under this section the Clerk of Courts was required to "keep an account of all court fees and fines payable or paid into court and of all moneys paid into and out of court and shall enter an account of all such fees fines and moneys in a ledger belonging to the court..". The ledger appears to have been one of at least three volumes established under the 1857 Act to record information about cases brought before it, the other two being the County Court Register and, until c.1865, the County Court Journal. Each case recorded in the journal was given the same case number as that for the com[plaint] recorded in the Register. Information recorded included the [com]plaint number and amounts paid or received relating to a large number of court processes including the issuing of summons, orders, document filing, affidavits, bonds, securities, Bailiff's fees, fines and authorities to obtain money from the Court. Each of these processes is identified in separate columns within the folio. The names of the parties to an action are not recorded as this information was to be found in the Register. The provisions in the 1857 Act were replaced by s12 of the County Courts Statute 1865 which simply stated clerks needed to make a minute of all fines and other proceedings of the court in such books as shall be prescribed. The form of record prescribed is subject to research but it appears that some Clerks continued to use the pre 1865 ledgers.本数据集系列旨在记录与地方郡法院（County Courts）审理案件的管理相关的财务信息。本记录的创制要求最初源自1857年《关于更便捷追回特定债务与求偿的法案》第11条。根据该条款，法院书记员需“留存所有应缴或已缴至法院的诉讼费与罚款，以及所有缴入及支出法院的款项的账目，并将此类费用、罚款及款项记入法院所属的总账簿（ledger）中”。该总账簿似乎是1857年法案规定设立的至少三卷案件记录卷宗之一，另外两卷分别为郡法院登记册（County Court Register），以及截至约1865年的郡法院日志（County Court Journal）。日志中记录的每起案件均使用与登记册中记录的起诉状（complaint）相同的案件编号。记录的信息包括起诉状编号，以及与大量法院程序相关的收付金额，这些程序包括传票签发、命令下达、文件归档、宣誓证词（affidavits）、保证金（bonds）、担保品（securities）、法警费（Bailiff's fees）、罚款以及从法院获取款项的授权书。上述每一项程序均在对开页（folio）内的单独列项中予以标识。由于诉讼当事人的信息可在登记册中查询，因此日志中未记录诉讼双方的姓名。1865年郡法院法令（County Courts Statute 1865）第12条取代了1857年法案中的相关条款，该条款仅要求书记员需在规定簿册中记录所有罚款及法院的其他诉讼程序。目前关于规定的记录形式仍有待研究，但部分书记员似乎仍在沿用1865年之前的总账簿。