Reading entry from Quarter Sessions Order Book of Dorset, England 1682-1693?

Question

The clipped image below comes from the Dorset, England, Quarter Sessions Order Books, 1625-1905 via Ancestry.com:

Name: Arthurus Bewsey
Event Date: 1682-1693
Event Place: Dorset, England
Reference Number: QSM 2/1

My 8th great grandfather Arthur Bewcy, a Yeoman, was buried on 29 Mar 1719 at Holnest, Dorset, England

Arthur BEWCY buried 29.3.1719 - see Dorset Online Parish Clerk records for Holnest

I have not tried to read a Quarter Sessions Order Book previously and I am only about 80% sure that I have picked out his name (at bottom left).

I think the last line starts:

Arthurus Bewsey & John ...

but that is all that I can read of it.

According to Ancestry.com:

The records document Quarter Session judges’ decisions in matters that include settlement inquiries, highway rates, criminal trials, registers of settlement, orders of removal, bastardy examinations, apprenticeships, licensing, contracts, lists of justices, and other matters related to the business of running the county.

so I am very keen to understand what brought my ancestor to a Quarter Session and how he fared there.

Is anyone able to read more or all of the entry related to Arthurus?

For anyone able to use it, this is a link to the image on Ancestry.com, and the entry above is the one at the bottom of the left hand page.

Dorset County Council has posted a PDF guide to quarter sessions which has lots of interesting information about this recordset and says that:

The records for the early to mid 17th century are largely in Latin but thereafter you will usually find them in English. From 1731 the records are legally required to be in English

Since this is late 17th century the above suggests that it might be in English but as @HarryVervet has commented this is in Latin.

Answer 1

Building on the previous answer, the section is headed:

Recogn' contin' Respect' & capt' apud ult' sess'

(roughly translated: recognizances respited and taken at the last sessions)

The entry in question

comp' & ex'
Arthurus Bewsey de Holnest agr' pro b. b. pro b. g.

(appeared and discharged
Arthur Bewsey of Holnest, farmer, for good surety, for good behaviour)

These were recongnizances appearing at the Epiphany quarter sessions on January 13-15th 1684 (NS 1685), held at Blandford Forum.

So there must be a previous entry in the previous Quarter Sessions – Michaelmas, October 7th-9th, 1684, held at Bridport – and indeed there is one:

It is under the heading:

Recogn' modo Retorn'

(Recognizances now returned)

com' R' &c m — xl s
Arthurus Bewsey de Holnest agr' pro b. g.

(appeared, plead guilty [Reus] etc., fined 40 shillings
Arthur Bewsey of Holnest, farmer, for good behaviour)

Unfortunately in these plea book entries there does not appear to be a specific mention of why Arthur Bewsey was taken to court.

Answer 2

The text is indeed Latin, although most words are English names, and some other words are English as well. What I read is this:

Arthurus Bewcy de holnest agij. pro b.b. pro b.g.

This agij could also be agr, although the r normally seems to be written differently. But other entries state the trade of the person, like "labourer" and "spinster", so could agr stand for agricola "farmer"? Perhaps that word was used to indicate a yeoman at the time? I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with 17th-century English spelling, nor with insular abbreviations. The Latin word de means "from", and Holnest is a parish in Dorset.