Discrete Item F414 - Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the County of Waterloo

Oyer and Terminer is the name of a court authorized to hear and determine all treasons, felonies and misdemeanors; and, generally, invested with other power in relation to the punishment of offenders. Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and General Gaol Delivery were issued to the senior judiciary, generally one or more of the Justices or Judges of the Court(s) of King's/Queen's Bench, sometimes along with senior Justices of the Peace. Members of the Courts were usually referred to as Commissioners.
In Upper Canada the jurisdiction of the courts were generally specified by the commissions that established them. In the case of Courts of Oyer and Terminer it extended in practice to all major pending criminal cases for a particular district that were not under the usual jurisdiction of the Courts of Quarter Sessions of the Peace. This meant that the Courts had the same criminal jurisdiction as the Court(s) of King's Bench, and were effectively extensions of the criminal terms of the latter. During the Rebellions of 1837-38, an 1838 ordinance allowed the governor to establish special Courts of Oyer and Terminer where no Courts of King's Bench were in operation, with jurisdiction over high treason, misprision (concealment) of high treason, treasonable practices, sedition, arson, and murder, committed in any district.