Justice of the Peace: Joseph H. Schooley Papers, 1922-1949
RECORD GROUP: Clerk of the Court
RECORD SERIES #: 3100.4
SERIES: Justice of the Peace: Joseph H. Schooley Papers
DATES: 1922-1949
VOLUME: 5 cubic feet, 12 volumes and 5 manuscript boxes
Left, Trenton Evening Times, November 25, 1914, p.2
Right, Photo courtesy Anna Van Hise, via John Fabiano, Monmouth County Historical Commission
The types of documents found among the loose papers include summons, letters to the judge (from witnesses, insurance companies, attorneys, and Department of Motor Vehicles, et al.), bills, receipts, affidavits, checks, writs of attachment, demands for jury, counter claims, and all sorts of notes pertaining to these civil cases. The criminal case papers include complaints, warrants, convictions, court vouchers, and many of the same items found in civil cases (letters, bills, receipts, checks, etc.) Sometimes interesting items such as sample ballots, photos, calendars, newspaper clippings, sketches of motor vehicle accidents, and even advertisements from companies like Campbell Soup and Sears and Roebuck can be found in both civil and criminal records.
The main value of this series is for the study of social history. Insights into human behavior are conveyed by the different kinds and quantities of cases that were prevalent in this period. The records are also virtually unique for the study of the history of the judicial process as carried out by a Justice of the Peace in Monmouth County, an office which no longer exists. Although the Monmouth County Archives holds other justices’ docket books and a substantial volume of loose papers, the Schooley papers and docket books are the largest set of complementary books and loose papers in the Monmouth County Archives for a single justice. As such, they provide an unparalleled day-to-day record of a justice’s work. The records document the way such cases were handled. The series also contains genealogical and local history value through the names of plaintiffs, defendants, attorneys, witnesses, etc.
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