People, Place and Power – The Grand Jury System in Ireland

25 The weakness in the old parish system of road maintenance made new legislation necessary. A 1759 statute (‘Act to alter and amend the Laws of the repair of highways’) made minor reforms, by changing the free labour requirement, paying the overseers and clarifying the role of the grand jury. 22 More radical changes were introduced in 1765 when an Act transferred responsibility for constructing and maintaining roads from the parish to the grand jury, with financial costs to be borne by the counties or baronies rather than by individual parishes. 23 This expanding role in road maintenance explains why grand juries began employing cartographers to undertake detailed surveys. Fig. 8. Grand Jury Map, County of Galway: vicinity of Oughterard.