Court Roll 1685

Die Transkription lautet:

Sammaledes Publicerades Konglige Maijestetz Placat af den
15 9bris 1684, Barnamord angående, med alfwar
förmaningh, att hwar och een som wederböhr sigh der
effterrätta, så frampt dhe dett straf som Uthi beröröde
Placat förmähles, Undvij ka wela.

As was published His Royal Majesty's declaration on the
15th of November 1684 about infanticide, with a serious
warning that each one who is concerned for herself should
obey it if they want to avoid the punishment which is
announced in this declaration.

The district court protocol series for Finnish territory from the seventeenth century are kept in the Finnish National Archives. The district court protocols from the sixteenth century to the 1850s are called judgement books in historical research, which is why judgement book series are often mentioned. The later district court protocols are called session protocols (käräjäpöytäkirja). It should be noted that the district court protocol series only concerns rural court sessions. Towns had two types of court, the town courts (raastuvanoikeus/rådstuvurätt) and magistrate’s courts (kämnerinoikeus) for smaller economic, criminal and civil cases. The magistrate’s courts were abolished in 1868. The protocols of these courts are also often called judgement books. The entire judgement book material is freely accessible in the digital archive maintained by the National Archives.

Judgements and their grounds began to be recorded in protocols at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The originals have not been preserved, however. The oldest preserved judgement books from Finnish territory date from the early and mid-sixteenth century, and they have been published in print. Some district court protocols from the period before the Turku Court of Appeal was established have been preserved in the bailiffs’ accounts and related general documentation, appeal court material and miscellaneous papers (strödda handlingar) from the early seventeenth century in the Swedish National Archives. The example text extract is from the Pielisjärvi and Liperi winter session on 20-23 February 1685 and the pages from the judgement book can be found on the following link: http://digi.narc.fi/digi/view.ka?kuid=3723505. The parishes of Liperi and Pielisjärvi were in the northernmost corner of the area which was annexed to the Kingdom of Sweden in the peace concluded with Russia in 1617. Today, these areas are part of the easternmost province of Finland, North Karelia.