Quarter sessions

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QUARTER SESSIONS. A court bearing this name, mostly invested with the trial of criminals. It takes its name from sitting quarterly or once in three months.
2. The English courts of quarter sessions were erected during the reign of Edward III. Vide Stat. 36 Edward III. Crabb's Eng. L. 278.

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The first Court of Quarter Sessions was held at Kingston on 14 April 1789.

Loyalist law and order in Upper Canada

Eighty-nine cases were identified before the Police Court, 133 cases before the Court of Weekly and Special Sessions, and 76 cases before justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the city of Montreal.

The law of servants and the servants of law: enforcing masters' rights in Montreal, 1830-1845

2) Part of the expansion of what one contemporary termed "cheap and expeditious justice,"(3) individuals suspected of purloining materials faced the summary jurisdiction of local justices of the peace rather than an indictment in an assize court or court of quarter sessions.

"Intended as a terror to the idle and profligate": embezzlement and the origins of policing in the Yorkshire worsted industry, c. 1750-1777