A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

The works of the preceding authors provide the guidance for the wrrent
study. The writers' concerns with the context of records creation prompt an
inquiry into the history of Manitoba's court and judicial system. Their attention to
the interrelationships among records provides tools for analysis of single
documents and groups of documents. Their emphasis on record keeping
systems pemits identification of categories of related and interconnected
materials. Their recognition of records as produds of actions and procedures
I i berates research from the narrowness of individua t documents and elevates it
to the holism of entire aggregations. Their exarnples of administrative histories
derived from and describing certain court and legal holdings inspire this
investigation into the history and records of the late nineteenth œntury Manitoba
Court of Queen's Bench in Equity.
The present writer's interest in Equity records began to develop when it
was discovered that Iittle use had been made of these important materials, and
that that was probably due to lack of understanding of this genre of records. It
was also apparent that Equity documentation was part of a much larger body of
court and judicial records that spanned the whole of the province's history. If
light could be shed on Equity materials, that light might be refiected to other
materials as well. A vast corpus of records could be revealed in a new
perspective and clarified for the use of genealogists, historians. and the
archivists under whose care court and legal records were retained.