This file of the Summonister Court Record Explanation & Available at PRONI forms part of the vast archive of 3,000+ pages of genealogical records relating to COUNTIES TYRONE, DONEGAL, LONDONDERRY & FERMANAGH provided without charge or subscription by CoTyroneIreland Welcome to the Premier Website & Research Tool for Cos. Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry & Fermanagh Genealogy (cotyroneireland.com) A complete list of records pertaining to the TYRONE SUMMONISTER’S ROLLS on this website can be found at the foot of this file.
The office of ‘Summonister and Clerk of Estreats, in the Court of Exchequer of Ireland’ was in existence from at least the reign of James I as we have reference to the appointment of Edmund Beaghan to the post on 3 September 1618. The summonister rolls were copies of fines imposed and recognizance’s forfeited at Assizes, Quarter Sessions and in the King’s courts. The rolls record, among other things, the names of people fined for non-attendance at quarter sessions, that is, the courts that dealt with less serious crimes similar to today’s civil courts. Names and residences are recorded. The original rolls were lost in the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland in 1922 but copies of some exist because of the work of the genealogist Tenison Groves.
The surviving transcript for counties L'Derry and Tyrone appear to be fairly intact apart from a lengthy interval from 1641-1653, which reflects the impact of the Irish uprising upon administration. The rolls are a useful source of surnames containing as they do, hundreds of names of those English, Scottish and Irish who came to the attention of the courts. The rolls provide a local window through which we can view life in seventeenth century in north west Ulster. They provide a fascinating insight into the economic, social and political workings of local government in the early plantation period. These provide the names and residences of hundreds of individuals including many local Gaelic families as well as the new colonists from Scotland and England. The use of townland and parish names is frequent in the records and a valuable source of information for the local historian as well as the family historian.
In date order, the Summonister Records in PRONI are as follows:
Counties Cavan, Londonderry and Tyrone, 1610–24 – T808/15131
County Londonderry, 1611–69 – T808/15130
County Tyrone, 1615–38 – T808/15090
County Tyrone, c.1615–21 – T808/15126
County Tyrone, c.1618–38 – T808/15120
Counties Londonderry and Tyrone, c.1637–40 – T808/15132
Counties Londonderry and Tyrone, c.1640–70 – T808/15133
Counties Londonderry and Tyrone, 1656–62 – T808/15134
Counties Londonderry and Tyrone, 1623–38 – T808/15135
Counties not specified, c.1620–84 – T808/15139
E-book Available
Mr Forrest has transcribed all the Summonister Records for County Londonderry at PRONI which are available in his Ebook:
SCOTS-IRISH ORIGINS, 1600-1800 A.D.
1. PHILLIPS’ SURVEY OF 1622 AND THE 1630 MUSTER ROLL OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF LONDONDERRY.
GENEALOGICAL GLEANINGS OF THE SCOTS-IRISH IN COUNTY LONDONDERRY, IRELAND.
PART TWO – THE PLANTATION OF LONDONDERRY, c.1600-1670
INCLUDING APPENDICES:
2. THE SUMMONISTER ROLLS/COURT RECORDS OF COUNTY LONDONDERRY, 1615-70. By Bob Forrest, B.A. Hons; Economic and Social History (Queen’s University, Belfast). 84 pages + 3 maps + 1 illust. Instantly available for download at: CoTyroneIreland.com/estore
Further records for the TYRONE SUMMONISTER’S ROLLS can be found at:
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