ABSTRACT
From the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries, the courts of quarter sessions (or quarter sessions for short) were local courts in the Kingdom of England (and Wales) that were traditionally held four times a year in each county. Individuals seeking legal redress could petition the judges (justices). Some of these petitions reveal the emotional elements in legal proceedings in seventeenth-century England. In this petition to the quarter session, a prisoner named Roger Silkston begs to be released, asking the justices to show compassion for his destitute wife and children.
