Note 781 — Chapter XII

The courts were of three different kinds: namely, the County Courts, Orphans’ Courts, and Provincial Court. The County Courts sat at irregular intervals during the year, and were composed of justices of the peace, commissioned from time to time, the number of whom varied with the locality, the press of business, or the caprice of the government. They had jurisdiction to try criminal offences of inferior grades, and all civil causes except where the title to land was in controversy. In proper cases they exercised a distinct equity jurisdiction, which seems, however, to have been excessively irritating to the people. In many instances they were materially assisted in their labors by boards of peacemakers, who were annually appointed to settle controversies, and who performed pretty nearly the same functions as modern arbitrators. The Justices of the County Courts sat also in the Orphans’ Courts, which were established in every county to control and distribute the estates of decedents. For some cause now imperfectly understood, the conduct of the early Orphans’ Courts was exceedingly unsatisfactory, and their practice so irregular that but little can be gleaned respecting them.