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Attorneys in Early Modern England and Wales
Litigiousness in Early Modern England
The 1607 Summer Circuit
This map shows the progress of the 1607 Summer Circuit to the extent I have ascertained it. The Welsh circuits are incomplete, because rolls
have not survived for all the counties and sessions. In Wales there were supposed to be two sessions during the Summer, so the justices should
each time have retraced their path; the data I have is insuffient to demonstrate that pattern in 1607. The English circuits seem normal, except
that the West Circuit seems confused and too extended. The data here comes from the Trinity term rolls of Common Pleas and King's Bench and
from the rolls of the Great Sessions preserved in the National Library of Wales. The English circuits are analyzed in Cockburn, A History of
English Assizes, 1558-1714.
A comparison with the Summer circuit of 1531 would indicate that the circuits had slowed down somewhat
and become more regular.