Research


Scope and Content Note

This series includes judgments handed down by the Supreme Court of Judicature in civil cases and some court documents that preceded those judgments. Judgments, in this case, are money judgments, or cases in which the defendant in a civil case must pay the plaintiff money or the equivalent in goods to satisfy a debt or obligation. Early cases documented in the series pertain to the confiscation of the real property of Loyalists.

These judgment rolls contain pleadings, complaints, answers, affidavits of appearance, judgment records, notices of appeal, bills of cost, and notices of satisfaction. Records may also include lists of jurors. Together, these records document the background to the dispute (usually debt involving promissory notes or sales and tort actions relating to negligence suits), the judgment, and the reasons for the judgment.