The Court Records of Philadelphia, Bucks, and Berks Counties in Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
The court records of early Pennsylvania contain valuable information about the relationship between law and society, the workings of government and justice, and the meaning of change within family structures. Unfortunately, few historians of seventeenth and eighteenth-century Pennsylvania society have used legal records. Local court records in particular remain untapped sources as a result of their awkward organization and inconvenient disposition in courthouses, state and city archives, and historical societies. Those studying Pennsylvania law and society must grapple with more than the usual problem of deciphering the scrawls of court clerks. They also face the time consuming (or in some cases, impossible) task of locating continuous runs of court records. Scholars long believed that for the county of Philadelphia only a few miscellaneous colonial court records had survived. Stories of fires in the bowels of City Hall deterred even the most impetuous graduate students from pursuing the search. Historians tended to neglect the few available legal records on the assumption, probably correct, that they could not convey an accurate picture of early Pennsylvania courts. In fact, however, historians were too quick in accepting rumors of total disaster. There exists a complete body of orphans court records for Philadelphia County beginning in 1719, and a large number of common pleas and quarter sessions records as well. Used in conjunction, these documents reveal a great deal about early justice. Court records in the nearby counties are nearly complete and convey additional information about Pennsylvania law and society outside Philadelphia. Although there is a significant body of legal records, they are inconveniently located. In some states such as Maryland and South Carolina, legislatures have acted to centralize all historical records.