History of the Circuits

Introduction and Beginnings of the Circuit System

A complete history of the circuits has yet to be written. Most legal history research has concentrated on law, the judges and lawyers and the procedures involved in bringing litigation before the court, drawn from the rolls of the courts and other historical sources. Where information about the composition of the circuits exists, it usually reported in the context of the organisation of the judiciary rather than the lawyers representing the litigant.

What does become clear from the records is that the administration of government and of the law has from the earliest times included the King, or his representatives, travelling the country on 'circuits'. King Edgar in the tenth century administered justice in this way and information for the Doomsday Book was collected by dividing the country along lines that are similar to the later judicial circuits.

An early example is seen in the judicial enquiry set up by Henry II in 1170 to review the oppressions during his four year absence in France. The Inquest of Sheriffs was conducted by 12 commissioners sent out on each of a number of circuits, from which the only extant record of a complete circuit is the south eastern which included Kent, Surrey, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire (Selden Society vol 60). It is known that this enquiry was to be completed within two months, suggesting that an extremely efficient administration was in place.

J S Cockburn in 'A History of English Assizes 1558 -1714' quotes William Lambard writing in 1635:

'…King Henry II … in the three and twentieth year of his reign [1176-7], did (by the advice of his son and bishops) cut the realm into six parts, and to every of these parts appointed three justices, which by Henry Bracton are called intinerantes, and in Britton's book justices in eyre, quasi errantes…. The proper names of which justices are set down by Roger Hoveden, who also describeth their circuits, not to differ much from the same that our Justices of Assize do now ride.'

In the 'Chronica de Rogeri de Houedene' probably written in the last decade of the twelth century, circuits from both 1176 and 1179 are described. They show clearly both that there was no settled number of circuits and that the constituencies were liable to change.

In 1176 the counties were grouped into six circuits in the following manner:

Nortfolc, Sutfolc, Cantebrigesire, Huntedunesire, Bedefordesire, Bukinghamsire, Exxes, Hertefordesire;

Lincolnesire, Notinghamsire, Derebisire, Stafordesire, Warewicsire, Northamtesire. Leicestresire;

Kent, Surreie, Suthantesire (Southampton), Suthsexa (Sussex), Berkesire, Oxenefordsire;

Herefordesire, Gloucestresire, Wirecestresire, Salopessire;
Wiltesire, Dorsete, Sumersete, Devonia, Cornubia;

Everwicsire, Richemundesire (East and North Yorkshire?), Loncastre, Coplande (South Lancashire?), Westmerilande, Northumberlande, Cumberlande.

Only three years later in 1179 the counties were arranged in four groups:

Suthamtesire, Wiltesire, Gloucestresire, Dorsete, Somersete, Devoniarum, Cornubia, Berkesire, Oxenefordsire;

Cantebrigesire, Huntedunesire, Northamtesire, Leicestresire, Warewichsire, Wirecestresire, Herefordsire in Wallia, Stafordesire, Salopessire;

Norfulce, Sutholche, Essexe, Hertfordsire, Midelsex, Kent, Surreia, Sudsexe, Bukinghamsire, Bedefordsire;

Notinghamsire, Derebisire, Euerwicsire, Northumberlande, Westmerilande, Cumberlande, Inter Rible et Meresee (South Lancashire?), Loncastre.

Professor Baker supports 1176 as the beginning of the circuit system, noting that the reason behind the need for such a system was the delay in provision of local justice. He also points out that this organisation of itinerant judges to hear pleas and deliver gaols at varying court centres was separate from the eyre system, although the commissions may have overlapped or corresponded. Assizes were not held by the itinerant justices during an eyre in a particular county, as the commission for the eyre included the power to take assizes without a special patent. The eyres were suspended in 1225 by the statute of 9 Hen III c11 and assizes were to be held in each county of England 'in their circuit'. However, in 'English Government at Work, 1327-1336, Taylor shows that eyres were still taking place in the early fourteenth century .

Further records showing the constitution of the circuits support the idea that their organisation was flexible. In 1224 an enquiry into the commission to Fawkes de Breaute covered seven counties: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Northamptonshire, Oxfordshire and Rutland. In 1259 the circuit scheme outlined by the Parliament of Oxford grouped together Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, London and Middlesex in one circuit; Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire within another; and Leicestershire and Warwickshire as two of a five county circuit. In 1285 the Statute of Westminster II, 13 Ed I c30, stated that two justices were to be assigned to take assizes in each county of England. These were divided into nine circuits according to Selden Society vol 42, but the volume does not name them.

The Statute of Justices of Assize of 1293, 21 Ed I, once more divided England into four circuits as described by the Judicial Commission in 1874 (and by Dugdale in the 'Origines Juridiciales', 1671):
York   Lincoln Cornwall Kent
Northumberland Leicester Devon   Essex
Westmoreland Warwick Somerset Suffolk
Cumberland Stafford Dorset   Norfolk
Lancaster Shropshire Wiltshire Hertford
Nottingham Northampton Southampton Cambridge
Derbyshire Rutland Oxford   Huntingdon
Gloucester Berks   Bedford
Hereford Sussex   Buckingham
Worcester Surrey

Middlesex, probably including London, was allocated to the Justices of the Bench in Westminster. Neither the palatinates of Durham nor Chester were allocated to a circuit. Lancaster, although granted palatinate powers in 1351, had had exclusive jurisdiction over common law and equity causes for some generations. Even so it appears to have been included in the Northern Circuit throughout (Cockburn p45). It is to be surmised that Ely, described in 1610 as a 'county palatine' also 'formed a unique jurisdictional enclave' (Cockburn p 33) at this time.

The irregularity of the circuits continued both in their constituency and how often towns were visited. In 1310, for example, no regular circuits are reported in the Year Book 3&4 Ed II, whilst it is suggested that there were seven in existence in 1311 with three justices assigned to each (Selden Society vols 22 and 42). Mary Margaret Taylor in her chapter on assizes in 'English Government at work, 1327-1336' shows clearly how the circuits in this period were not settled. Commissions were issued for single counties on some occasions and for two on others, and the records show that counties were included in different circuits. She proposed a list of circuits compiled from the manuscript patent and assize rolls of 1327 - 37:

Home: Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex
Midland: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland, Warwickshire
Eastern: Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Norfolk, Suffolk
North Western: Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire
Northern: Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmoreland, Yorkshire
South Western: Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire
(NB: Both Lincolnshire and Wiltshire are excluded from Taylor's list, but do appear regularly).

The most significant variations to these groupings are that the Northern Circuit was often enlarged by the inclusion of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire and the reduced Midland sometimes adding Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire from the Eastern. Oxfordshire and Berkshire were also omitted from the North Western and added either to the South Western or, less frequently, to the Home Circuit. While the statute of 1293 had stated that Middlesex assizes should be heard in the common pleas, from 1327 - 36 they were frequently heard on one of the circuits due in part to the common pleas being in York for a considerable time. Lincoln received a charter in October 1327 permitting pleas before the mayor and bailiff, but it still appears in the commission lists.

Attempts to regularise the holding of assizes recurred during the fourteenth century. The Statute of 4 Ed III c2 in 1330 stated that assizes were to be held thrice yearly, although twice remained more common, whilst 14 Ed III c16 clarified the position at nisi prius, enabling judges both of the King's Bench and Common Pleas to give judgment on circuit. This latter statute of 1340 has been suggested as the beginning of the circuit system (Selden Society vol 42). Two more statutes in the reign of Richard II first commanded the justices of assize to hold sessions in the principal towns of every county, 6 R II c5 (1194), and then permitted the Chancellor to vary those towns at his discretion, 11 R II c11 (1199). While the system may well have been established, the precise form was not at this stage.

The Changes under the Tudors

At the accession of Henry VII in 1485, the composition of the circuits seems to be more settled. In 'Aspects of the Legal Profession in the late Fifteeenth and early Sixteenth Centuries', (University of London PhD Thesis 1955), E W Ives is able to identify six Circuits:

Home: Essex, Sussex, Middlesex, Hertfordshire, Surrey, Kent
Western: Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall
Oxford: Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire
Norwich: Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire
Midland: Northamptonshire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire
Northern: Yorkshire, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland

Lancaster is missing from Ives' allocation, but would have been part of the Northern Circuit according to Cockburn, although the palatinates of Chester and Durham continued to be separate from the circuits. In addition, London was served by the King's Bench. Justices of Assize were admitted to Durham only by patent of the Bishop until, in theory, judicial supremacy moved to the Crown in 1535. Even then Durham was not fully integrated into the Northern Circuit until the early seventeenth century. It also appears that at this time the Bishop of Ely reissued commissions to the same panel, so in effect it became part of the circuit system.

The other area of difference that emerges between the accounts of Ives and Cockburn concerns the siting of Oxfordshire and Berkshire. Ives has them in the Oxford Circuit in 1485, but Cockburn states that they were moved from the Western Circuit in 1540 to the Oxford, raising the question of whether this circuit was known as the North Western until 1540.

As well as being able to identify the circuits distinctly, Ives notes a heirarchy within the circuits. From 1485 to 1506 the Home was led by the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and the Norfolk by the Chief Justice of the King's Bench, whilst a King's Serjeant headed the Western commission. The Northern Circuit was regarded as the most inferior of the six.

By the 1540 statute of 32 H VIII c4 Wales and the Welsh Marches were brought under the jurisdiction of English courts and three years later 34 & 35 H VIII placed on statutory footing the twelve shires that were to be served by the twice yearly Great Sessions. The justices of Chester were to hold sessions in Denbigh, Flint and Montgomery and those of North Wales in Caenarvon, Merionith and Anglesey. The statute did not assign the venues for sessions for Radnor, Brecknock and Cardigan and for Camarthen, Pembroke and Cardigan. These four circuits survived for almost 300 years until the abolition of the separate Welsh judicature system in 1831. Monmouthshire was specifically excluded from Wales and annexed to Shropshire, Hereford and Gloucester on the Oxford circuit.

Apart from the statute of 18 Eliz I c12, 1576, when trial of nisi prius in the county of Middlesex was moved to the London, Middlesex and Westminster Sessions, and increased London's immunity from the itinerant judiciary, a lack of evidence to the contrary does suggest that the circuits remained settled from the mid sixteenth century. Prest shows that many barristers gained the majority of their work out of term and out of London in his study of the first half of the seventeenth century, which lends strength to the concept of local bars at this time, at least informally.

Clarke's New Law List of 1787 shows six English and four Welsh circuits, with the Isle of Ely and Middlesex still shown independently (the number of counsel listed as members of each circuit are shown in brackets):

Home: Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, London (35)
Midland: Rutland, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Northamptonshire (17)
Norfolk: Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk (16)
Oxford: Worcestershire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire (42)
Northern: Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, Lancashire (17)
Western: Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Bristol (30)
Isle of Ely: Ely, Wisbeach (3)
Middlesex: (23)
Chester: Cheshire, Flint, Montgomery, Denbigh (17)
South Wales: Cardigan, Pembroke, Carmarthen (15)
North Wales: Angelsey, Carnarvon, Merionith (10)
Brecon: Brecknock, Glamorgan, Radnor (16)

This list largely corresponds to Ives' for 1485. The exceptions are the inclusion of London in the Home Circuit; Durham and Lancashire as part of the Northern; Monmouth within the Oxford; and the addition of the Welsh circuits.

After the integration of the Welsh judicature system in 1830 the Law List of 1831 shows two new South Wales and North Wales circuits formed from the original four, both meeting at Chester. Eight circuits are therefore listed (with Ely in addition):

Home: (75) Norfolk: (31) Midland: (38) Oxford: (81) Northern: (116) Western: (91)
Ely: (3) South Wales: (not given) North Wales: (not given). The number of counsel on the South Wales circuit was 18 in 1834 and for North Wales was 17 in 1838, when they are listed.

In 1834 the Central Criminal Court was established in London and a considerable portion of the criminal jurisdiction of Essex, Kent, Surrey, Middlesex was transferred to it. By 1837 43 counsel were listed as attached to it, while 25 were stil listed under the London, Middlesex and Westminster Sessions.

The criminal powers of Ely were abolished in 1836 by 6&7 Wm IV c87 and included in the Cambridge assize, finally appearing in the 1841 Law List as part of the Norfolk circuit.

The Judicature Commissions and the Acts of 1873 and 1875

By Order in Council of 8th December 1863, inaccurately reported in the Judicature Commission of 1874, but correctly recorded in the Law List of 1864, York was taken from the Northern Circuit and annexed to the Midland Circuit, and Leicester, Rutland and Northampton were moved from the Midland to the Norfolk Circuit.

The Judicature Commission First Report in 1869 gave notice of a recommendation to reduce the eight circuits to seven and the Commissioners Fifth and Final Report of 1874 in the Second Appendix gave form to this recommendation. The Home Circuit was to be abolished and, with the exception of Surrey, transferred to the Norfolk Circuit. In the event an Order in Council on 5th February 1876 created seven new circuits, importantly including the almalgamation of the Home and Norfolk to create the new South Eastern Circuit:

South Eastern: Hertfordshire, Essex, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Ely, Huntingdonshire (and Yarmouth) (485 counsel listed)
Midland: Bedfordshire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire (182)
Northern: Lancashire, Cumberland, Westmoreland (192)
North Eastern: Durham, Northumberland, Yorkshire (47)
Oxford: Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, Staffordshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire, Worcestershire(131)
Western: Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire(141)
North and South Wales: (in two divisions)
North West: Montgomery, Merionith, Carnarvon, Anglesey, Denbigh, Flint, Chester (20)
South West: Carmarthen, Glamorgan, Pembroke, Cardigan, Brecknock, Radnor (48).

With the exception of a change in the 1938 Law List to the North Wales and Chester and South Wales and Chester Circuits and the eventual appearance of the unified Wales and Chester Circuit in 1946, this was the shape of the circuits for almost one hundred years.

The Beeching Commission and Modern times

The Report of the Beeching Commission in 1969 concentrated on the arrangement of Court Centres for administrative purposes in reviewing the circuit boundaries. It did consider creating a separate London circuit, but rejected the idea because civil work from the Home Counties came naturally to London. The report was enthusiastic in its support of the development of local Bars, but its recommendations did include the joining of the Oxford and Midland Circuits, and a rough map showing the proposed new boundaries included Lincoln and Grimsby in the North Eastern Circuit.

The six circuits that emerged from this review are the current ones. In the 1972 Law List the number of counsel on each circuit was:

Midland & Oxford: (443), North Eastern: (224), Northern: (328), South Eastern: (862), Western: (299), Wales & Chester: (133).

Taking account of the changes made to Local Authorities by the Boundary Commission and their effect on the counties the present circuit system can be described thus:

Midland & Oxford: Cambridgeshire (that part formerly Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough), Derbyshire, Hereford and Worcester, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
North Eastern: Cleveland, Durham, East Riding of Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, Northumberland, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, West Yorkshire
Northern: Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside
South Eastern: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire (that part not in M&O) East Sussex, Essex, Greater London, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, West Sussex
Wales & Chester: Cheshire, Clwyd, Dyfed, Gwent, Gwynedd, Mid-Glamorgan, Powys, South Glamorgan, West Glamorgan
Western: Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Somerset, Wiltshire.

The most recent Review of Criminal Justice Boundaries was initiated by the Home Secretary in 1998 in an attempt to align the boundaries of the Crown Court with the Magistrates Courts, the police, prison and probation services and the Crown Prosecution Service. The Lord Chancellor has consulted with, amongst others, the judges and the Bar.

Chris Bayley
Bar Council 2000

Bibliography

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