A STUDY IN LEGAL ADMINISTRATION AND RECORDS SHARON ...

the equity maxims and it may have been drawn from knowledge, perhaps
Thorn's. of English law and practice.
A succession of capable recorders served the Red River Settlement until
it entered a new political era at the end of the 1860s. At least two of these
recorders dispensed justice according to what might be tenned equitable
principles. Of Dr. John Bunn it was said that '[hlis rare blend of energy.
intelligence and empathy more than compensated for the absence of a fomal
Jegal education. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that his lay cornmon sense
sometimes improved upon the ~aw."~' Among other things Bunn insisted that the
testimony of lndians be accepted even though they were not baptized and
therefore could not give swom testimony. Recorder John Black made his goal
"humane adjudication rather than observance of the strict letter of the la^.'^ In
a letter to The Nor'-Wester he declared that "frontier courts should avoid 'subtle
refinements and ingenious technicalities,' and strive instead to achieve
'substantial justice.'"" Black was the last recorder of the Red River Settlement
era, a period when administration of the law in the colony was still in its
developmental and flexible stage.
It was during Black's tenure that the role of recorder in the General
Quarterly Court became predominant and the roles of the govemor and
magistrates eventually disappeared." By the end of the 1860s the recorder's
position was cornplemented by that of two clerks who assisted with the general
functioning of the court. A sheriff, whose office had existed from the earliest