‘UP TO NO GOOD’

A collection of documents relating to the types of summons that were issued to the people of Biddulph, Bradley Green, Brindley Ford and
the surrounding area between 1870 and 1880.
Documents include: Transfer Notice of a Liquor License and applications for a Liquor License, Summons for being Drunk &
Disorderly, Summons under Employer & Workman Act, Summons by School Attendance Officer, Summons for Threatening Behaviour,
Summons re: Bastardy, Summons for Damage & Injury and Summons for Poaching.

Some Notes on Local Justice in the 1870’s

Most Victorians paid little attention to Parliament, because it was remote from their daily lives. Local government was more visible and the basic unit of local government was called the "parish," although it no longer necessarily had the same boundaries as a Church of England parish.

In the traditional system dating from medieval times, the parish was responsible for policing and mending roads. Each parish was also obliged to look after its own poor, which it did well or badly in a great variety of ways depending on local needs and resources.

Most functions of local government were carried out by justices of the peace appointed by the county’s Lord Lieutenant. (The other duties of the Lord Lieutenant, who was almost always a peer and the county’s largest landholder, were largely ceremonial.) Justices of the peace had to own land and belong to the Church of England. In the countryside, the local squire was almost certain to be a justice. Clergymen could also be appointed. The justice was an unpaid amateur; he did not need to have any training in law or administration. Serving as justice was a gentlemanly obligation - and a remaining vestige of the paternal authority that upper-class men exerted over the lower orders.

Justices of the peace supervised the paid parish officials who managed poor relief and fixed roads. They also served as magistrates: for petty criminal offenses, the local justice heard the case, passed judgment, and pronounced the sentence. In more serious matters, he ordered that the suspect be bound over for trial before a judge.