New York Colony Court of Oyer and Terminer Minute Books

Chronological by court term, then by date of court session.

The Court of Oyer and Terminer had general jurisdiction in cases of felony, misdemeanor, and other offenses. A justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature presided, assisted by two local magistrates.

Minute books contain a record of proceedings in the Court of Oyer and Terminer in each county outside of New York City and County. Minutes for each court session include a list of grand jurors, entries of indictments returned and defendants arraigned, and minutes of trials and sentences.

JN521-17: The first volume (September 1716-September 1717) includes court session in Albany, Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster counties. The second volume (August 1716-September 1717) includes court sessions in Kings, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, and Westchester counties. Both volumes have been disbound.

JN521-17A: This accretion consists of a photocopy of the transcription of a volume containing minutes of proceedings in each county (August 1721-September 1749).

JN521-17: Microfilmed for the New York County Clerk's Office in the 1950s. (Filmed on the same roll are minutes of the New York City Mayor's Court, 1731-1738, and Court of Quarter Sessions, 1706-1714, and judgments of the Mayor's Court, 1774-1786.) It was also microfilmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah in 1977. The GSU microfilm is cataloged under the author "New York Court of Oyer and Terminer," and titled "Minutes, 1716-1717, for various counties," microfilm roll number 1021265 items 1-2.

Series JN531, Supreme Court of Judicature (New York) Minute Books, contains minutes of a Court of Oyer and Terminer held in New York City and County, November 1760, at the end of Volume 8. The library of the New York Historical Society holds engrossed minutes of the Court of the Oyer and Terminer for Ulster County, 1779-1782 and 1785, Albany City and County, 1781, Suffolk County, 1784-1785, and the City and County of New York, 1787. The minutes are part of the John McKesson Papers, 1761-1825. The National Archives holds manuscript minutes of the New york Court of Oyer and Terminer for the period April-October 1685. The minutes were microfilmed for the Library of Congress "Early State Records Project," and the microfilm copy has been digitized by LLMC Digital (OCLC 973227259).

Volume list is available at the repository.

JN521-17: These records were transferred by the New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration in 2017.

JN521-17A: Photocopy of transcription was provided by the Library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

JN521-17A: Transcription was evidently produced from the original minutes which are now lost. A table of contents (by county) states that the table was "indexed by Henry Onderdonk Jr. of Jamaica, August 17, 1871." Henry Onderdonk Jr. (1804-1886) was a historian residing in Jamaica, Queens County, N.Y. However, the transcription is not in his handwriting.

JN521-17: Use and reproduction of fragile documents may be restricted.