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Cheshire Quarter Sessions Poor Law Documents

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Epiphany 1731/32-Midsummer 1746

Many poor law documents may be found in Quarter Sessions Records and this file (PDF, 874 kb) is the result of a document by document search between the years given above. The transcriptions and abstracts were made from a microfilm copy of the original documents at the LDS Library in Lincoln during two hour sessions on Wednesday evenings over roughly three years. None of the work has been second party checked and because of the quality of some of the documents complete accuracy is not guaranteed.

The documents found can be roughly split into two sections - those for settlement and removal, and those for bastardy cases. However, there are also a smattering of miscellaneous documents that relate to the poor law. Many removal orders appear as a result of appeals made by the parish to which the paupers were being sent, and the result of the appeal is often appended. From the 1740s vagrancy passes with examinations appear; many of the people examined and passed to their place of legal settlement were not from Cheshire. Bastardy documents abound - recognizances, examinations and certificates especially. There may be more than one extant document referring to the same case.

Anyone finding information of interest about their family may freely use the information in this file provided that the Cheshire Record Office reference is clearly given wherever the extract is published. References follow every paragraph in square brackets and begin with the letters “QJF”. It is particularly recommended that a copy of the original document be ordered from the Cheshire RO as more information may be found than appears in the abstracts and transcriptions.

Anne Cole