New York Colony Circuit Court Minute Book

Chronological by court term then by date of court session.

The court's alternate name, found in the heading for each court term, was Court for the Trial of Causes Brought to Issue in the Supreme Court. That describes the court's function: it was essentially the trial branch of the Supreme Court of Judicature. A Circuit Court was held in each county of the province of New York at least once a year. The chief justice of the Supreme Court of Judicature usually presided, assisted by one other justice. The court's jurisdiction was exclusively civil. Holding jury trials in each county was convenient for litigants, witnesses, and jurors. All case documents, including writs, pleadings, and judgment rolls, were filed by the clerk of the Supreme Court in New York City.

This transcription contains minutes of jury trials and related proceedings in Circuit Court in each county outside of New York City and County. Most cases concerned complex real property disputes. Volume includes minutes for the period September 1721-September 1749. At the end of the transcription is a "Catalogue of Books," a list of short titles of published English law reports, digests, treatises, and statutes, as well as a few American titles. Date of the catalog appears to be circa 1790s. The owner of the law library is not identified.

A manuscript transcription of "circuit court" minutes for the period August 1721 to September 1749, including minutes of the Court of Oyer and Terminer (criminal cases) and the Circuit Court (civil cases) is in the library of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. The original minutes are lost and presumed destroyed.

Minutes of the Circuit Court in Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester Counties, various dates, are published in "Minutes of the Supreme Court of Judicature April 4, 1693, to April 1, 1701," Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1912 (New York: 1913), pages 41-214.

Table of contents lists counties alphabetically with page numbers for start of terms in each county.

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

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