New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Special Bail Pieces

1797-1807: Chronological by term.

1808-1826: Chronological by year or years, then rough alphabetical by name of attorney.

1827-1847: Chronological by year or years, then rough alphabetical by name of defendant.

The special bail piece is a memorandum filed with the court stating that the defendant has been delivered to bail.

It gives the names of the defendant and plaintiff; the name, occupation or rank, and residence of the bail (two persons are named, but generally one is fictitious--"John Doe" or "Richard Roe"); and the type of common law action. The bail piece is signed by the bail and acknowledged before a Supreme Court Justice or a Circuit Judge, a Supreme Court Commissioner, a judge of the Court of Common Pleas, or other court officer. The amount of the bail bond is not stated. On the dorso of the special bail piece are found the title of the cause, the name of the defendant's attorney, and the filing date. A few bail pieces have exceptions by the plaintiff objecting to the bail. There are relatively few bail pieces for the period 1831-1847 because of the liberalization of bail requirements by the Revised Statutes of 1829 and because bail pieces were now customarily included in the judgment rolls.

J0099Series J0099, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Geneva) Special Bail Pieces, contains some Albany bail pieces

J1202Series J1202, New York State Supreme Court of Judicature (Albany) Special Bail Books, dockets the bail pieces in Series J0096 through 1827

Container list is available at the repository.

The Court of Appeals placed these records on deposit at the Historic Documents Collection, Queens College, from 1973-1982.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.