| Description | The principal theme of these papers is th growing inadequacy of the local magistracy, and apart from a few relating to incidental matters like the proposal to repeal the Act (2&3 Edw. VI c. 54) restricting the venue of the Quarter Sessions to Beaumaris (795-801), the main bulk hav to do with complaints about the lack of resident magistrate in the more populous areas of the island, and the general unwillingness of the county gentry to sit on the bench. HOlyhead, for instance, had no resident Justice of the Peace in 1825, and the burden of examining and "passing" the hordes of Irish vagrants seeking repatriation had to be borne by a single magistrate, the Rev H. Wynne Jones of Treiorwerth (see 789, 794, 802-4). Amlwch again, was in a similar plight in 1843, and only at Bodedern were Petty Sessions being regularly held that year. (873-876). Matters seem to have reached a pitch by 1846, when there is every evidence of a serious rift between the magistrates, originating it seems in a protest made in 1843 against the frequent absence from duty of John Williams of Treffos, chairman of the Bench. Attempts to force his resignation and to secure in his place a truly resident chairman split the bench completely; member after memebr tendered his resignation; three went in September 1846, to be followed by another three in November. By the latter month, the situation was so serious that a Government enquiry was called for, which however, did not materialise thanks to the intervention of the Marquess of Anglesey, who by the end of the year appears to have the situation well in hand, and to be strenuously engaged on a resconstitution of the magisterial body. |