Donegal, Grand Jury Presentments 1753-1899

Search Donegal, Grand Jury Presentments 1753-1899

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Do you have ancestors’ from Donegal who sat on a Grand Jury? Explore this collection of Grand Jury presentments and discover your Irish heritage today.

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Since Norman times, Grand Juries have existed, the Grand Jury was the forerunner of the modern County Council. The original records are held by the Donegal County Council. The Grand Jury was the most important local body in rural Ireland during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, they were empowered to raise money by means of county rates.

Selected by the Sherriff of the county, the Grand Juries were selected and made up from landowners, Grand Juries had no corporate existence and the jury was discharged by the Judge of Assize. Presentment sessions were called in each of the six baronies of Donegal before the assizes, proposals for work to be carried out were considered and then submitted for the Grand Jury for ratification.

Services provided and paid for by Grand Jury Cess was a rate payable by occupiers, included making and the repairing of roads and bridges, construction of courthouses and the levying for support of district hospitals, schools and prisons. As an administrative body, the Donegal Grand Jury was replaced by Donegal County Council under the 1898 Local Government (Ireland) Act.