This volume covers a part of the long period in Tennessee history when the county court, composed of the justices of the peace, was known as the court of pleas and quarter sessions, and before successive legislative acts stripped the court of its common law jurisdiction leaving in its place two almost distinct administrative agencies- one legislative and the other judicial, with Jurisdiction centering largely in matters of probate. the Knox County court of pleas and quarter sessions, in the year 1792, designated all of the county officials who were not appointed by the Governor of the Territory, appointed administrators, marked public roads, granted licenses to "ordinaries," levied taxes, heard civil actions of great variety, and tried all persons committing offenses against the peace and dignity of the State. It represented a decentralized government; it was, with its inclusive functions and jurisdiction, an administrative agency in which were found most of the functions and authority which concerned a citizen with business to transact with the government.