| J4011 |
Lists of Freeholders Qualified to Serve as Jurors (Albany), 1789-1821. 1.3 cu. ft.
This fragmentary series consists of lists of adult male freeholders qualified to serve as jurors in circuit court trials. The lists were prepared and returned by sheriffs or county clerks. Each list gives the names of freeholders, their places of residence, and their additions (occupations or ranks). Most of the lists were compiled for the empaneling of "struck" juries. Laws of 1786, Chap. 41, required the sheriff of the county where an issue was to be tried to make up a special list of freeholders if the court ordered a struck jury. From the list of freeholders the court clerk compiled a shorter list of forty-eight disinterested persons. Attorneys for the opposing parties struck off names on the list alternately until a panel of twenty-four jurors was left. Laws of 1798, Chap. 75, transferred the duty of preparing lists of freeholders for struck juries to the county clerks and stated that these special juries would not be allowed except in cases distinguished by their "importance or intricacy." The lists of freeholders for struck juries in this series include the names of the parties in the cause to be tried. Sometimes the names of freeholders have lines drawn through them, indicating the names that were "struck off." Several of the documents in this series are lists of all persons qualified to serve as jurors in their counties. The returns of jurors for New York City and County for 1816, 1816-19, and 1821 are actually statistical summaries by ward. The documents in this series are arranged by county, then by year.
Note: Freeholders were defined by statute (Laws of 1786, Chap. 41) as persons possessing real property worth at least 60 pounds, above all mortgages and other encumbrances thereon. Property held by leasehold did not qualify. Residents of incorporated cities might qualify if the value of their personal property exceeded the same amount.
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| J2011 |
Criminal Case Documents (Albany), 1797-1808. .4 cu. ft.
This series consists of documents filed in criminal cases heard and decided by the justices of the Supreme Court of Judicature in their capacity as judges of the court of oyer and terminer in Albany County. Documents include writs of venire facias juratores commanding the sheriff to empanel a jury; bills of indictment by the grand jury; recognizances of bail for the appearance of defendants and witnesses; records of conviction, which include the entire proceedings of a case from indictment to sentence; and a few other documents of uncertain origin. The first volume of Albany Supreme Court minutes, J0l30, contains occasional records of indictments, trials, and convictions, and at least some of the documents in this series relate to those cases. The documents are unarranged and unidexed.
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| J1011 |
Fines and Chirographs (Albany), ca. 1793-1829. .9 cu. ft.
A fine was the record of an amicable agreement in court ending an action at law to enforce a covenant to convey real property. The conveyance was accomplished after the plaintiff asked the court's permission to terminate his suit. In origin this proceeding settled a genuine dispute, but for centuries a fine was normally based upon a fictitious lawsuit agreed to by the parties. This archaic proceeding was employed occasionally because the (fictitious) lawsuit and all other (genuine) claims of title to the lands conveyed were forever ended after the fine was proclaimed in court and enrolled. The documents included in the fine are (1) the original writ of covenant (or writ of praecipe), (2) the license to agree, (3) the concord, (4) the note of the fine, and (5) the foot of the fine.
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Chirograph, 1793. Shown here are the top and bottom halves of a chirograph, a conveyance of property in the seventh ward of New York City. the letters of the CHIROGRAPH were written on the interlocking teeth of the indenture. (The plaintiff-grantee received the other half of the indenture as proof of the conveyance.) The chirograph was the concluding agreement of a centuries-old real action called fine and recovery. (Series J1011 Fines and Chirographs [Albany].) |
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The writ of covenant was usually issued by an inferior court of record (such as the court of common pleas). It commanded the deforciant (the name for the defendant in this type of proceeding) to perform the (fictitious) covenant made by him with the plaintiff to convey a parcel of land, which is described in detail. The license to agree is an enrolled note signed by a Supreme Court justice giving leave to the plaintiff to settle his dispute with the deforciant, despite the fact that he has commenced an action against him. The concord is an enrolled order to the deforciant to perform the covenant made to convey the parcel of land. The note of the fine is a summary of the writ of covenant and the concord. The foot of the fine is the actual conveyance of the property made in the Supreme Court. The conveyance was executed in duplicate on one sheet of parchment and is a true indenture because the two parts were cut apart in an indented (wavy) line. On the interlocking teeth of the indenture was written the word CHIROGRAPH, an ancient name for an instrument of conveyance. The foot or bottom part was filed with the court, while the top part went to the plaintiff. Other documents may be found along with those comprising the fine. The warrant of attorney designated a person to prosecute a writ of covenant on behalf of a plaintiff who was unable to appear in court to acknowledge the fine. The writ of dedimus potestatem ordered other persons to act in place of the justices of the Supreme Court in taking acknowledgment of the fine from a party to the action who was unable to appear in court. The affidavit of newspaper publication of the notice of levying a fine contains an attached copy of the notice.
The documents in this series are unarranged and unindexed, and occasionally some parts of a fine are missing. Orders for the proclamation of fines were entered in the Albany and Utica minute books of the Supreme Court, J0130, J0128. The procedure for levying a fine was carefully outlined in Laws of 1787, Chap. 43, but in all essentials it dated back to the twelfth century. The 1787 act required that fines be recorded in the clerk's office in the county where the property conveyed was located. The proceeding of fine and recovery was abolished by the Revised Statutes of 1829, Part II, Chap. 5, Title 7, Section 24.
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