The Minutes of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions cover many different items - bringing in fathers to pay maintenance for their illegitimate children was my original interest, but the binding out of children, sometimes as young as 6 months, and the appointments of guardians give information on parentage. This book contains all of these and in addition includes mentions of deaths, persons who are out of state, officers of the town and county and other miscellaneous bits of information, giving a peek into life in the early 19th century.