Dorset Record Society was set up in the 1960s with the aim of publishing original manuscripts to make them accessible to the general reader. They have concentrated on documents that are not readily available for study, those that are difficult to read, or those that are of particular interest. Publication is occasional, and depends on funding from sales of previous volumes. The Record Society is a committee of DNHAS. For general enquiries please contact the Hon. General Secretary, Dorset County Museum, High West Street, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 1XA.
Published by DRS 2008
Price £4.00
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28pp, index, photographs; A4 stapled, glossy cover
At the age of 97, Young sat down and filled an exercise book with his remarkable memories of life in the opening years of the nineteenth century. His life saw the coming of the railway, horseless carriages, and a gradual improvement in the lot of the working man in the largely agricultural society he knew so well. A friend of William Barnes, his memories provide a direct glimpse of the world described by Barnes and Hardy. The book is illustrated with early photographs of Sturminster Newton and the area.
Published by DRS February 2006
Price £25.00
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Hardback, 524pp, index of places, index of personal names
The courts of Quarter Sessions were held four times a year to hear criminal cases and deal with administrative business. Criminal offences ranged from physical violence, theft and damaging property to begging or causing a public nuisance. Those found guilty were punished with a fine, imprisonment, hard labour, public whipping, the pillory, or even death by hanging, according to the seriousness of the offence. Administrative business included the maintenance of roads and bridges, the licensing of alehouses, bastardy, pensions for ex-service men, the relief of poverty, and the collection of rates and taxes, matters now dealt with by central or local government. The courts were held at Blandford, Bridport, Shaftesbury and Sherborne, and sometimes at Dorchester and Beaminster to hear cases from the whole of the county. The Order Book provides an insight into the administration of the county in the years leading up to the profound political upheavals of the English Civil War.
The earliest surviving Order Book for the Quarter Sessions for Dorset is now housed in the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester. It consists of a manuscript book of 642 sheets closely written on both sides, in which the Clerk of the Peace recorded the work of the court in a mixture of English and Latin. In order to make this material more accessible, the Editors have summarised all the entries in English and listed the cases.
Volume 14 includes a glossary of less familiar legal terms, a list of justices and a comprehensive index of places and personal names. An introduction explains the work of the Quarter Sessions courts. The volume is illustrated by facsimile pages, and sample pages have been transcribed and translated to give the reader a glimpse of the original document.
The index of several thousand personal names, often with indication of rank, domicile and occupation, makes this volume of great value to those in search of family history.
The publication of this volume in hardback marks a new standard for the Society.