Medieval town or borough court records have rarely been printed in extenso because they are so long and contain more names than details of legal matters. As a result, many of the borough courts in print consist of extracts, abstracts or abbreviated summaries. These transcriptions and translations can, however, still offer instructive material, so this appendix provides annotations on town courts in print or available online in order to illustrate their wide variety, provide examples of the types of business they treated, and stimulate more comparative studies. Town courts are defined here as meetings identified as ‘courts’ by contemporaries, which included ‘legal’ matters (such as presentments, indictments or pleas) and operated under the authority of town officials – a definition that excludes most guild courts, unless they were meetings of a guild merchant that essentially served as the town's government. The bibliography, which is organised alphabetically by town, encompasses town courts in England, Scotland and Wales, up to about 1500. The second part of the appendix lists references to extracts of borough courts printed in the appendices of the Reports of the Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts.

Those interested in borough courts for which no or few records are extant should also be aware of detailed references to business in these courts collected by scholars of English common law, who have tracked writs of error that required the local court to provide a record of a particular case to the appellate central court.

Annotated List

Aberdeen

Aberdeen Guild Court Records 1437–1468, ed. Elizabeth Gemmill, Scottish History Society, 5th series, 17 (Edinburgh, 2005). Transcription of the proceedings of the court of the guild of the burgh, which handled both guild and burgh business, including admission of new guild members and burgesses, enforcement of guild and burgh trading regulations, leasing of burgh property and presentments of offences (particularly forestalling), but no personal pleas. The alderman and/or dean of the guild presided over the court, which met at least once a week in between meetings of the town council (which was elected by the guild). Entries in Latin and increasingly in Scots.