Research


Scope and Content Note

Series contains documents relating to civil litigation and Criminal prosecutions in the Supreme Court of Judicature, filed by the court clerk whose office was in New York City, or in other locations between the years 1778-1783. Series also contains many documents filed by the clerk of the City and County of New York and the clerk of the circuit courts. Most of the documents in civil cases are pleadings by plaintiffs and defendants, bonds, draft rules, and affidavits. There are many other types of documents, almost all of them on paper. The few parchment documents are writs. Criminal case documents include indictments, informations, etc., almost entirely for the period 1753-1795. Among them are indictments of "enemies of the state," i.e. Loyalists, during and after the Revolutionary War. The series also includes a very small number of documents from other courts. Some documents are missing (particularly in letter codes B, C, G, H, and I), but they may be available on microfilm.

Other documents, present for most if not all counties, include coroner's inquisitions into unwitnessed or suspicious deaths, 1780-1797, and rough minutes of circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer, 1787-1798. For New York City and County there are bonds of individuals receiving liquor licenses, 1785 and 1797, and duplicate militia commissions by the governor, 1797-1822.