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Rhode Island Court Records 1647-1662 (Volume I)

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With the union of the towns of Portsmouth and Newport in 1640, circuit quarter courts were established, which met alternately in the two towns. The records of most of these sessions are preserved in a manuscript volume entitled "Rhode Island Colony Records 1646-1669," which is in the custody of the Secretary of State. These records have been printed as Chapter XV of the second volume of Chapin's Documentary History of Rhode Island, and cover the years 1641 to 1646. In 1647 the Code of Laws was adopted and the Colony Court of Trials was established, superseding the Island quarter court. …