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

37 2.2. Civil records: presentments books and abstracts, query books and financials The most widely known grand jury records are the presentment books, and query books. The secretary to the grand jury was responsible for recording its decisions at the assizes, and these were usually entered, by hand, in a robust a robust volume. Some manuscript volumes have survived, including for many Ulster counties, and for Clare, Kildare, Longford, Meath and Wexford. By the late eighteenth century, small numbers of printed volumes of presentments were produced. It is unclear whether all counties began printing their presentments at the same time and how many copies they produced. Fifty volumes of the earliest known surviving printed volume for County Wicklow (1793) were printed. Two copies were given to each grand juror, leaving four in the hands of the clerk. At least one of these volumes survives. 40 Cavan printed its summer 1792 presentments, Clare was printing its presentments from at least spring 1799, and Kilkenny City from at least spring 1803. 41 Longford’s earliest surviving printed volume dates from spring 1817, although it appears to have commenced printing its presentments from summer 1800. 42 Kilkenny County’s spring 1801 assizes approved payment of £52:10:9 to Catherine Finn for printing and stationery. 43 Queen’s County’ printed 300 copies of its summer 1813 presentments, at a charge of £25. 44 Two questions arise: What is a presentment book? And why did counties go to the trouble and expense of printing them? Presentments were decisions of the grand jury, and typically involved proposals to spend local taxes (the cess) that were approved by the grand jury and authorised (‘fiated’) by the judge at the assizes. A presentment schedule, or ‘long list’ of all requests for spending was produced in advance of the assizes, then the ‘short list’ of approved works were noted in a manuscript book by the Clerk of the Crown. Magnificent examples survive for many locations, including Carrickfergus, Clare, Kildare, Longford and Wexford. The approved presentments were printed as Abstracts of Presentments, and some counties have made their printed volumes available digitally, including Donegal, Limerick, Louth and Wicklow. Barony presentment sessions were introduced in 1819 to improve accountability. 45 Query books contain accounts of expenditure for work completed. It is important to remember that the presentments in a presentment book only means that expenditure was approved; not that the work was completed. Presentments which were not undertaken were known as ‘undischarged queries’.