A tradition of justice
Laws in this country are made and enforced on behalf of the people. It is a tradition that ordinary people, untrained in the law, should take part in the legal process - either as members of juries or as magistrates.
The part played by lay magistrates, also known as Justices of the Peace, in the judicial system of England and Wales can be traced to the year 1195. In that year, Richard I commissioned certain knights to preserve the peace in unruly areas. They were responsible to the King for ensuring that the law was upheld. They preserved the "King's Peace", and were known as Keepers of the Peace.
In 1264, Simon de Montfort appointed men to keep order in their area. The title Justice of the Peace (JP) first appeared in 1361, in the reign of Edward III. By this time, JPs had been given the power to arrest offenders and suspects. They could investigate crime and, in 1382, were finally given the power to punish. For centuries, justices had local government responsibilities.
The office went through many changes. From 1439 onwards, for example, a JP had to have a certain amount of property in the county. This had two effects. It ensured that JPs could support themselves as the office was unpaid. It also meant that JPs came from the higher social classes. This is far from the case today and magistrates are drawn from a broad cross section of society.
Before 1835, justices in towns were appointed in accordance with rights granted by charter. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 provided for them to be nominated by the Lord Chancellor for the boroughs in consultation with local advisers, while, for the county benches, he continued to confirm the nomination of the Lord Lieutenants, who had their own methods for finding suitable candidates. The appointment of both was vested in the Crown acting on the Lord Chancellor's advice. The exception to the rule was Lancashire, where both county and borough magistrates were nominated by the Chancellor of the Duchy. (In today’s regional arrangements, this means Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire).
Appointments
The system of appointment, which led to a preponderance of Conservatives on the benches was challenged by the Liberal Government in 1906. The property qualification was abolished for county magistrates. Lord Loreburn, as Liberal Lord Chancellor, nominated 7,000 magistrates of whom 3,197 were Liberals. The Royal Commission on the Appointment of Justice of the Peace 1910 recommended the institution of an Advisory committee system. A year later Advisory Committees on which Liberals and Conservatives were equally represented had been set up in most counties to advise Lord Lieutenants on nominations. A few years later the boroughs had also formed advisory committees. Originally appointment to these committees was for life but in 1925 Lord Cave introduced appointment for 6 years and ordered half the committees to retire by rotation every three years.
Women in the magistracy
It was not until The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 came into force on 23 December 1919 that women became magistrates.
The first woman magistrate, Mrs Ada Summers, Mayor of Stalybridge, sitting ex-officio was sworn in on 31 December 1919. At that time Mayors of Boroughs were justices as well as chairmen of borough benches by right of office. Mrs Summers was therefore probably the first woman also to adjudicate in court. Her picture appeared in the weekly journal Great Thoughts, 5 June 1920, alongside an interview on The First Woman JP on her work.
Mrs Summers was the widow of a local ironmaster. She was an active suffragist and Liberal and used her wealth and position to support a number of schemes designed to improve conditions in the town of Stalybridge Cheshire. These included a maternity and child welfare clinic, clinics for the sick and poor and an unofficial employment centre.
On 1 January 1920 at least six women were appointed and included:-
For County of London
Margaret Etrenne Hannah, Marchioness of Crew (died in 1967)
Beatrice Webb (name removed from the Commission at her own request in 1927)
Gertrude Tuckwell (became residentially disqualified in 1950)
For Caernarvonshire
Margaret Lloyd George (died in 1941)
For Hertfordshire
Mary Augusta Ward (died in 1920)
For County Durham
Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry (name removed at her own request in 1952)
The Times, 20 July 1920, carried a report that the following recommendations made by a committee of women chaired by Lady Crewe, the Lord Chancellor's office had issued a list of women appointed to serve in England (other than Lancaster) and in Wales.
In the first five years after the Act was passed, 1,200 women were appointed to Commissions and, during the next decade, about one hundred were appointed each year. By 1929 all county benches included at least one woman magistrate, although 55 borough benches were all male.
By 1942 only nine divisions were without a woman magistrate.
By 1947 the Magistrates' Association recommended to the Royal Commission of Justices to the Peace that immediate steps be taken to ensure all benches had adequate numbers of women magistrates.
Youth Justice (Juvenile Courts)
An Act of 1908, known as the 'children's charter', established the specialised juvenile courts. Since the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 magistrates, with special qualifications for this work, are elected by their colleagues in each PSD.
For the following 600 years, and still continuing today, Justices of the Peace have undertaken the greater part of the judicial work carried out in England and Wales.
Change
As this site is being published, changes are imminent. Many of these changes have been planned and are going through implementation stages - such as the unification of the Courts System. Some are plans as yet not legislated.
It is to be hoped that the past 600 (or 900 years depending on your view) count for something and that the immense service and dedication shown by lay magistrates over these years - particularly recently - is not thrown out in the interests of either pragmatism or ideology. The system works, is practical, inexpensive and is fair.
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