ABSTRACT
The basic sources used have been the Rolls of the Somerset Quarter Sessions and the Act and Deposition Books of the Consistory Court of Bath and Wells located in the Somerset Record Office, Taunton. The Session Rolls (Q/SR) are divided into volumes but as these are not in strict chronological order and have different sets of pencilled enumeration, references to them give the name of the examining justice, the date of the examination and the volume number in the form E. Ceely, 10-6-53, SR 98. The most relevant of the Act Books (D/D/Ca) are those recording the ex officio jurisdiction of the court. These are listed under parish headings and therefore the notation adopted is parish and volume number, for example, Shepton Mallet, Ca 263, or date and volume number. The depositions contain a number of defamation and testamentary cases and with so many pages in disrepair notation is in terms of the parties involved and the volume number in the form Brimpton v. White, Cd 41. Depositions for ex officio cases appear in the form of parish and volume, Chard, Cd 44. As some of this material is in a bad state of repair, exact documentation is often impossible and where not, would lead to inconsistencies. In the Session records where the justice or the date is obscured, ‘nj’ or ‘nd’ is used and where part of the letter is missing it is indicated by ‘x’, e.g. 27-x-28. In quotations from primary sources spelling and punctuation has been modernised and legal terminology, viz. ‘the said’ and ‘the aforesaid’, omitted without ellipsis.
