Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
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Hicks Hall was the first purpose-built sessions-house for the Middlesex justices of the peace. The building was built by Sir Baptist Hicks (or Hickes), first VISCOUNT CAMPDEN (1551-1629), a wealthy fabric merchant. The house stood in the middle of St John Street ("the High-street of Saint John") in Clerkenwell in Middlesex (now London). It was opened in 1611 on land that had been granted to the magistrates by James I in 1610. The justices of Middlesex resolved in their first session there to name their new sessions house "Hicks-hall". It was in use until 1778, by which time it had fallen into a state of disrepair and was thought to be no longer adequate to the task, and it was demolished.
Hicks Hall is mentioned in Samuel Pepys's diary, and several other contemporary reports. One of the most notable cases was the grand jury trial of several of the regicides of Charles I on 9th Oct 1660.
The Middlesex Sessions House at Clerkenwell Green replaced it for official use. The Clerkenwell Green building continued in use for judicial purposes until 1921 when all remaining business was transferred to the Sessions House in Newington.
I’m not sure exactly what Hickes’s Hall was, but it can be seen marked on this 1746 map (bottom right): http://www.motco.com/map/81002/SeriesSearchPlatesFulla.asp?mode=query&title=Peters+Lane&artist=384&other=269&x=11&y=11
The modern-day map link shows the site is now occupied by a public loo!
Hickes’s Hall
The only reference to Hickes’s Hall I could find on the web is from a newspaper in 1726:
“16 July 1726
On Monday at the Sessions at Guild-hall, (which began there and at Hickes’s-Hall that Day) one Joseph Cuttler was try’d and convicted of a Misdemeanor, for attempting to extort Money from a Shopkeeper in Fleetstreet, threatning, in case of refusal, to swear Sodomy against him. He was sentenced to pay a Fine of 10 Marks, to suffer half a Year’s Imprisonment, and to stand in the Pillory in Fleetstreet, over-against Shooe-Lane End.” (The London Journal)
Here is a notation for Hick’s Hall from the following site:
http://www.londonancestor.com/stow/stow-strx-s.htm
Saint John’s street, without West Smithfield Bars, L. Here is Hicks’s Hall, where the Justices of the Peace hold their Sessions; and the Grand Jury finds Bills against Criminals to be tryed at Old Baily.
This may be a stretch but I found the following at:
http://www.colonialdancing.org/Easmes/Source0/S007883.htm
Early American Secular Music and its European Sources, 1589-1839:
Source Data-E75.119
Title: Hick’s Hall Has Broke Us All (t)
Number E75.119
Short Title Johnson CD-6, 1751
Just a wonderful title!
Last one:
http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/newgate/app1-6.htm
From The Memoirs of Sir John Reresby
“February 27th. — The bills against the three murderers of Mr. Thynne had been found against them as principals, and against the Count as accessory at the sessions at Hick’s Hall, which had begun on the 2oth of February, and ended on the 28th ; all the rest of the persons apprehended or bound over for that offence being reserved as witnesses till the trial. On the 28th they were tried at the Old Bailey, where, after a trial that lasted from nine in the morning till five in the afternoon, and a very strict prosecution by the relations of Mr. Thynne, the three were brought in principals of the said murder, and received sentence of death accordingly. The Count was acquitted as not accessory by the same jury, it being per medietatem linguae, according to the privilege of strangers. I carried the King the news the first of this, who was not displeased to hear that it had passed in this manner. The party of the Duke of Monmouth, who all appeared to countenance the prosecution, were extremely concerned that the Count did escape.