Note 1059 — Chapter XV · DIVORCE IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

In that year the court of trials, composed of the governor and assistants or councillors, which with no essential change in composition and functions had existed from about 1644, was superseded by a regular law tribunal, the superior court of judicature: Arnold, op. cit., II, 157. But already in 1729 a "Superior Court," composed of at least five members of the upper branch of the legislature, and apparently lower than the court of trials, was established: ibid., 90. In general on the various stages in the history of the court of trials, see ibid., I, 210 (1647), 302 (1663-64), 460 (1680); II, 16 (1704).