Each town has two or more justices of peace, who hear and determine, without a jury, all causes under 2l.
Each county has five judges, who try by a jury all causes above 2l.
Five judges preside over the superior court of the province, who hold two sessions in each county every year. To this court are brought appeals from the county courts when the verdict exceeds 10l. appeals from the courts of probate, writs of error, petitions for divorce, &c.
The General Assembly is a court of chancery, where the error or rigour of the judgments of the superior courts are corrected.
The General Assembly, and not the Governor, has the power of life and death.
The courts of probate are managed by a justice of peace appointed by the General Assembly.
Each county has its Sheriff, and each town its constables.
By charter the Governor is Captain-general of the militia. Fourteen Colonels, 14 Lieutenant-Colonels, and 14 Majors, are appointed by the General Assembly. The Captains and Subalterns are elected by the People, and commissioned by the Governor.
The ecclesiastical courts in Connecticut are: 1. The Minister and his Communicants; 2. The Association, which is composed of every minister and deacon in the county; 3. The Consociation, which consists of four ministers and their deacons, chosen from each Association; and always meets in May, at Hertford, with the General Assembly. An appeal from the Consociation will lie before the General Assembly; but the clergy have always been against it, though with less success than they wished.—The General Assembly declared
“Sober Dissenters” to be the established religion of the province.