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This series consists of 24 volumes of plaint and procedure books from sittings at Richfield, Williams Lake, Soda Creek, Barkerville, Quesnel, Ashcroft, and 150 Mile House, 1862-1910; cash book, 1862-1883; sheriff's fee book, 1864-1865; bench books, 1864-1867; and Gold Commissioner's Court case books, 1864-1893. Note that a single volume may have been used for multiple purposes.

This series contains bench books from various judges/justices, geographic locations and levels of court in British Columbia.

This series comprises mostly of bench books for civil and criminal cases heard by various judges and chief justices in the Supreme Court, County Court, Court of Appeal, Admiralty Court, Circuit Courts and Assizes. The series also includes notes on commissions of inquiry as well as miscellaneous court information. Civil and criminal cases are often included in the same volume and records from different judges, different levels of courts, different time periods and geographic areas may be mixed in the same volume, particularly for the earlier period..

For loose material removed from the volumes in GR-1727 see GR-2783.

The series consists of five minute books of cases heard in the Supreme Court of British Columbia before Mr. Justice William Alexander Macdonald. The indexed volumes 1 to 3 are from 1913 to 1923; volumes 5 and 6 are from 1925-1931. The original volume 4 in the series (1923-1925) is missing.

Series consists of bench books for civil and criminal cases heard by Matthew Baillie Begbie in the British Columbia Supreme Court of Civil Justice, 1859-1873. The volumes include Begbie's notes of proceedings and may include draft copies of judgements and reasons for judgement. They focus primarily on cases heard on the Cariboo District court circuit. County Court cases may be included as are appeals from the Gold Commissioner's Court. The volumes cover Begbie's term as Justice for the Colony of British Columbia and the unified Colony of British Columbia as well as the early years of his tenure as Chief Justice of British Columbia after the colony became a province of Canada. There is a single entry for a case heard by Henry P.P. Crease at Victoria, 1871.

Volumes 3-8 were originally numbered by Begbie as volumes 1-6.

Series consists of two bench books for Colony of British Columbia Supreme Court of Civil Justice civil cases heard before Judge Joseph Needham between 13 October 1865 and 27 February 1869.

Volume 1 (Oct 1865 - May 1867) is indexed, but Volume 2 (Jun 1867 - Feb 1869) is not.

Series consists of two bench books for Colony of Vancouver Island Supreme Court of Civil Justice criminal cases heard by Judge Joseph Needham between 4 November 1867 and 4 December 1869.

Series consists of one bench book for Colony of Vancouver Island Supreme Court of Civil Justice chancery cases heard by Chief Justice David Cameron between January 1863 and August 1865.

Series consists of one bench book for Colony of Vancouver Island Supreme Court of Civil Justice civil and criminal cases heard by Judge David Cameron at Fort Victoria from November 1853 to January 1856 and one criminal case at Nanaimo in May 1854. It also includes civil cases heard at Victoria in the Inferior Court of Civil Justice in 1856. The volume additionally served as a criminal record book for 1853, a cause book for 1856, and a Registrar's record book for 1853. It opens with a notation that Judge Cameron's commission was read and that he took his seat on 6 October 1853. The Registrar also notes that he received the court seal from Judge Cameron.

Series consists of one bench book and minute book for Colony of Vancouver Island Supreme Court of Civil Justice civil cases heard before Chief Justice David Cameron between 18 October 1863 and 9 May 1864.

Series consists of two bench books for Chilliwack County Court cases heard before Judge William Norman (W.N.) Bole between August 1898 and Apr 1905. Volume 1 also include entries from the Chilliwack Small Debts Court between 1898 and 1902.

Series consists of one bench book for Chilliwack County Court civil and Supreme Court chambers cases heard before Judge William Norman (W.N.) Bole between 1889 and 1891. The volume includes records relating to cases heard at his residence in New Westminster. It also frequently includes his reasons for judgement.

Series consists of Chilliwack County Court bench books for civil and criminal cases between 1912-1954. Cases were heard before Judges Howay, Ruggles, Ellis, Swanson, Sullivan, and Grimmett. Volume 1 includes lists of applications for naturalization. Volume 3 also includes notes by Judge Howay regarding his final day on the bench at Chilliwack in 1937. Only volume 4 is indexed.

Series consists of one bench book in the hand of Stipendiary Magistrate Winfield Maxwell. Entries are primarily from the Revelstoke Small Debts Court (1938-1945), but also from the Revelstoke Magistrate's Court, the Revelstoke Police Court (1940 and 1942), and Revelstoke Juvenile Court (1944-1945).

Bench books of the Revelstoke District Police Court and the Revelstoke Police Court in the hand of W. Maxwell (Stipendiary Magistrate) [with entries by J. Lee (Stipendiary Magistrate) in July 1929 and July 1930 and in 1947 there is a Juvenile Court note in an unknown hand]. There are also entries from Magistrate's Court (Malakwa), 1927; Police Court at Malakwa, 1927, Police Court at Sicamous, 1928, Police Court at Arrowhead, 1928 and 1931 and Juvenile Court, 1934, 1938-1941, and 1947.

Bench books for County Court civil, criminal and chambers actions and Supreme Court chambers actions.

Bench books, cases heard by Judge John D. Swanson, 1930-1941, and Judge James Ross Archibald, 1942-1946.

The series consists of bench books for both civil and criminal cases from the Nelson County Court. There are occasionally cases from the Supreme Court and from chambers. Volume 16 contains some reasons for judgement and Judge Eric Powell [Dawson]'s oath of office. The judges who used these books are J.A. Forin, W.A. Nisbet, J.R. Brown, H.W. Colgan and Eric Dawson.

The series consists of loose material removed from bench books in GR-1727. Records include correspondence and reasons for judgement.

Box 1/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 1-93.
Box 2/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 94-236.
Box 3/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 241-386.
Box 4/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 387-538.
Box 5/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 539-599.
Box 6/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 600-706.
Box 7/7 loose material removed from GR-1727 vols 707-777

The series consists of nine volumes of judges’ bench books from the Vernon County Court and the County Court of Yale holden at Vernon. The series includes both civil and criminal court cases and includes two 1934 volumes of the records of County Court Judge J.D. Swanson.

Series consists of one Revelstoke County Court bench book for 1911.

Series consists of five record books kept by Clement Francis Cornwall during his time as a County Court judge for the Cariboo district from 1891 to 1906. The circuit included stops at Revelstoke, Donald, Lytton, Kamloops, 150 Mile House, Ashcroft, Quesnel, Lillooet, Clinton, Soda Creek and Richfield/Barkerville. The entries in the record books are arranged chronologically and consist of detailed notes of the cases he heard including details of judgements and sentencing. Most of the cases heard are County Court level and focus on small claims and recovery of debt but there are also naturalizations and criminal cases (including speedy trials) for theft and other criminal matters.

Henry Pering Pellew Crease (1823-1905) was born at Ince Castle, near Plymouth, England, educated at Cambridge, and called to the bar in 1849. He traveled to Upper Canada with his family and explored the Great Lakes area for mining potential before returning to England in 1851 or 2. He then worked briefly as a conveyancing barrister before becoming manager of the Great Wheal Vor United Mines in Cornwall. Following business difficulties, he emigrated to British Columbia in 1858, practicing law in Victoria and becoming a member of the Vancouver Island Legislative Assembly in 1860. In 1861 he was appointed Attorney General of the mainland colony and moved to New Westminster; he was appointed Attorney General of the united colonies in 1866 and returned to Victoria in 1868 when it became the capital of the colony of British Columbia. In 1870, he was made a supreme court judge. Crease was knighted in 1896. British Columbia. His family joined Crease in Victoria in 1860 and four more children, one of whom died in infancy, were born in British Columbia. Crease was interested in business and politics as well as the law. Both as a barrister and a supreme court judge he traveled throughout British Columbia on circuit. His wife accompanied him on some of these journeys. The Creases were prominent socially, and their house, Pentrelew, was a centre for Victoria society. Five of the Crease children lived into the 20th century, and three, Lindley (1867-1940), Susan (1855-1947) and Josephine (1864-1947), never married and lived at Pentrelew until their deaths. Susan was involved with the local Council of Women and Josephine with the Island Arts and Crafts Society. Both painted in watercolours, as did their mother. The two Crease sons, Lindley and Arthur, were sent to school in England and then practiced law in Victoria. Arthur served in France in the Canadian Army in the First World War.

The collection includes diaries, 1834-1900, correspondence inward, 1830-1904, and outward, 1830-1903, miscellaneous records and notebooks, including the minute books of the Colonial Securities Co., 1866-1868, of Sir Henry Crease; diaries, 1872-1913, correspondence inward, 1851-1922, and outward, and miscellaneous notebooks and records of Lady Crease; diaries, 1877-1937, correspondence inward, 1877-1940, and outward, 1893, and miscellaneous records of Lindley Crease; diaries, 1890-1960, account books, 1909-1954 and miscellaneous records of Arthur Crease; diaries, 1865-1943, correspondence inward, 1862-1891, 1902, and 1937, and miscellaneous records of Susan Crease; diaries, 1878-1942, correspondence inward, 1883-1890 and miscellaneous records of Josephine Crease; some correspondence inward of the other two Crease daughters, Mary Maberly (Walker) Crease and Barbara Crease; diaries, 1853, 1870, and 1898, and correspondence inward, 1847-1899, of Emily Howard Crease, Sir Henry Crease's sister, who taught school in British Columbia, and correspondence between members of the Crease and Lindley families in England and the Crease family in Victoria.

MS-2879 is an extensive collection of family papers which, in addition to the information it provides on the lives, activities and opinions of individual writers of letters and diaries, is a rich source of information on such topics as family life, childhood and the lives of women, and a major source on the economic, political, legal and social history of post-1858 l9th century British Columbia. The correspondence inward series to Sir Henry Crease includes letters from important figures in colonial and post colonial British Columbia. The collection contains some records relating to Sir Henry Crease's legal and business interests. It includes transcripts of Crease's private letter book, 1870-1873, Sarah Crease's diary of her trip to Cariboo, 1880, and her letters to her husband, 1849-1859. MS-2879 may be used in conjunction with MS-0054, MS-0055, MS-0056, and MS-0573.

Henry Pering Pellew Crease was born 20 August 1823 at Ince Castle, Cornwall, England, the son of Captain Henry Crease, R.N., and Mary Smith Crease. He graduated from Clare College, Cambridge on 29 April 1846 and on 21 May 1846 was admitted to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple to study law. From June to September 1847 Crease resided in Smyrna (Izmir), Turkey under medical treatment for a pulmonary infection, then returned to complete his legal studies at the Inns of Court and was called to the degree of the Upper Bar on 8 June 1849. He proceeded to Toronto, Canada in the same year and while there joined an exploring expedition on Lake Superior with the purpose of surveying a proposed ship canal between Lake Huron and Lake Superior. He returned to England in 1851, where he continued to practice law as a conveyancing barrister and managed The Great United Wheal Vor Mines near Helston in Cornwall. On 27 April 1853, he married Sarah Lindley (daughter of Dr. John Lindley, a renowned British botanist and sister of Lord Nathaniel Lindley, a British judge of some merit who was eventually to become senior judge in Chancery, President of the Court of Appeal and finally Lord of Appeal in Ordinary with a life peerage). As a result of the commercial depression of 1857, Crease gave up his management of the Cornish mines and returned to Toronto in 1858, but continued on to Victoria. Here he became the first barrister qualified to practice in both Vancouver Island and British Columbia, when he was admitted and enrolled as a Barrister of Her Majesty's Supreme Court of Civil Justice of Vancouver's Island at Victoria by Chief Justice David Cameron and British Columbia by Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie on 18 December 1858. Crease sent for his wife and three daughters (Mary, Susan and Barbara) and they arrived from England in February 1860. On 2 March Crease took his seat in the House of Assembly (Second Parliament) as a member for Victoria District. He accepted the additional responsibility of Attorney General of the Colony of British Columbia on 14 October 1861, and subsequently resigned his seat in January 1862 when he moved to New Westminster. He was a member of the first legislative council of British Columbia, which sat on 21 January 1864, and he served on the Executive Council to Governor Frederick Seymour. From the unification of the two colonies in 1866 until his elevation to the Bench in 1870, Crease continued to serve as Attorney-General and member of the Legislative Council. The Crease family had resided in New Westminster from 1862 but at the end of November 1868 they returned to Victoria. During his years on the mainland, Crease also represented the Colonial Securities Company Limited (later the Canada Agency Association) of London and was also elected in 1868 as a Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute. Crease was appointed a Puisne Judge on 13 May 1870. in addition to that responsibility, he served as Chairman of the Royal Commission for the Revision of Laws of B.C. preparatory to Confederation with Canada (1870), served with fellow justices Begbie and John Hamilton Cray on the Royal Commission inquiry into the acquisition of Texada lsland (1874), and chaired the Royal Commission for Consolidation of the B.C. Statutes (1877). Judge Crease retired from the bench on 21 January 1896. He died 27 November 1905. The collection of H.P.P. Crease's Legal Papers (contained in 14 transfer cases) consist of indentures, judgements, and other legal documents pertaining to Crease's career as lawyer and later as puisne judge. There is also a small amount of related correspondence.