The Liberties Act 1850 ( 13 & 14 Vict. c.105) was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

that provided a mechanism to enable the various

liberties Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society f ...

or independent jurisdictions in England and Wales to be merged into the geographical counties in which they lay.

Background

Throughout England and Wales there were numerous liberties which were for historic reasons, to varying degrees, independent of the administration of the authorities of the county in which they lay. By the nineteenth century it had become clear that their continued existence was causing inefficiencies in local government and frustrating the effective administration of justice. Liberties generally had a

commission of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and gaol distinct from those of the county, and the Inspectors of Prisons, in their annual report of 1850 noted:

The Act

The Act applied to any liberty that possessed a separate commission of the peace, be they divisions of a county, counties of a town or city or sokes. The

justices of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

of any liberty, or of any county in which a liberty lay, were given the right to prepare a

petition A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer called supplication. In the colloquial sense, a petition is a document addressed to some offici ...

seeking the union of the liberty with the county. Notice of the resolution to prepare the petition was to be published for three successive weeks in both a London newspaper and one circulating in the county involved. The petition was to lay out the reasons for the proposed union, and to set out in detail the arrangements for taking over the property of the liberty, and the payments to be made, or continued employment by the county of those holding franchise or office in the liberty. If the petition was approved by the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

, a notice to that effect was to be published in the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

''. The notice would detail the areas involved, and the parishes formerly in the liberty would be annexed to existing

hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

s and

petty sessional division A petty sessional division was, in England and Wales, the area that a magistrates' court had jurisdiction over (before the abolition of quarter sessions, specifically the petty sessions). Petty sessional divisions were gradually consolidated in ...

s of the county. Following the union: *The inhabitants of the liberty were to become liable for

jury service Jury duty or jury service is service as a juror in a legal proceeding. Juror selection process The prosecutor and defense can dismiss potential jurors for various reasons, which can vary from one state to another, and they can have a specifi ...

in the county *The gaol of the liberty was to become a county institution *Prisoners were to be sent for trial at the county

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

assizes The courts of assize, or assizes (), were periodic courts held around England and Wales until 1972, when together with the quarter sessions they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court. The assizes e ...

*The records of the liberty were to be delivered to the

custos rotulorum ''Custos rotulorum'' (; plural: ''custodes rotulorum''; Latin for "keeper of the rolls", ) is a civic post that is recognised in the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and in Jamaica. England, Wales and Northern Ireland The ''custos rotulorum'' is t ...

of the county *The treasurer of the liberty was to pay over all monies to the county treasurer Where

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

s incorporated under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1835 The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 (5 & 6 Will 4 c 76), sometimes known as the Municipal Reform Act, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in the incorporated boroughs of England and Wales. The legisl ...

had been granted a separate court of quarter sessions, they were expressly exempt from the legislation.

Unions effected under the Act

Notices of the following unions of liberties with counties were published in the ''London Gazette'': *21 March 1864: The Liberty of

Cawood Cawood (other names: ''Carwood'') is a large village (formerly a market town) and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England that is notable as the finding-place of the Cawood sword. It was historically part of the West Rid ...

, Wistow and

Otley Otley is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish at a bridging point on the River Wharfe, in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically a part of the West Ridi ...

united with the

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. *1 July 1892: The Liberty of Havering atte Bower united with the County of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. *25 June 1894: The

Liberties of the Tower of London The Liberties of the Tower, or the Tower Liberty is a small neighbourhood in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, East London, which includes both Tower Hill and the Tower of London. The area was defined sometime after 1200 to provide an open are ...

united with the

County of London The County of London was a county of England from 1889 to 1965, corresponding to the area known today as Inner London. It was created as part of the general introduction of elected county government in England, by way of the Local Government A ...

References

{{UK legislation United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1850 1850 in law