Learning Zone - Crown Counsel Procedure Books
Quick facts
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (now known as the COPFS) is Scotland’s public prosecution service and sudden or suspicious death investigation authority. Although modern records are closed, we can access historical records and these can be a great resource if you are tracing your Scottish family history. Records for preservation are held by the National Records of Scotland.
We have indexed historical cases reported to the Crown Counsel for an opinion, this is the AD9 collection held by the National Records of Scotland. These are cases where someone was accused of a crime and the Crown Office was asked for an official ‘opinion’.
As is the case today, some went on to the High Court, some to the Sheriff Court or another lower court, and some were dropped. This means that the Crown Counsel Procedure Books acts as a finding aid to other records. Click on the image below to enlarge.
Indicted
‘Indicted’ indicates that the case was heard by the High Court, either in Edinburgh on circuit throughout Scotland. We have already indexed the High Court records for this period so when you see ‘Indicted’, search Scotland's Criminal Database on our site and look for a corresponding entry in the ‘High Court - Crown Office Precognitions’ and/or the ‘High Court of Justiciary Trial Papers’.
Sheriff Court
During the 19th century, there were two categories of criminal trials at Sheriff Courts. These are jury trials (also known as solemn trials) and summary trials. The Crown Counsel Procedure Books will usually specify if it was to be a jury trial. Occasionally we simply see ‘to Sheriff’ and this can mean either type of case.
A jury trial was heard before a jury with a judge. A summary trial was heard by the judge alone and these were reserved for less serious crimes.
Records vary from court to court, but generally speaking more records remain for jury trials. Often we find indictments and other written evidence in the processes, or case papers.
When you order an entry from the Crown Counsel Procedure Books we will advise you if Sheriff Court records survive and how much we would charge to make a search for you.
No Proceedings
Many cases did not proceed, for a variety of reasons. From 1825 to 1855 records of some cases survive. From 1825 to 1833 the coverage is very good but from 1834 to 1855 the survival rate is patchy.
Although the bundles of opinions do not survive in every case we have found some exciting records in those that do. The video below is from our September 2023 conference where genealogist Emma Maxwell explains why these records are so useful.
Sudden Deaths
From 1823 to 1848 the Crown Counsel Procedure Books also include Sudden and Suspicious Deaths. You can search these using our Deaths/Burials Index. These are not included in Scotland's Criminal Database.
Search Tip
If you have read the above you probably agree with us that these records need to be indexed. We are therefore very happy that the indexing so far has been sponsored. If you would like to contribute please see our ‘Sponsor an Index’ page.
Sadly the Crown Counsel Procedure Books do not include an age. You may be able to find out more in a newspaper or a prison register. Findmypast is a fee paying website that provides access to a large collection of newspapers which is very similar to the collection available from British Newspaper Archive. Both are excellent websites with different payment structures and search options.
