RootsChat.Com
General => The Common Room => Topic started by: wookietoo on Friday 15 October 10 17:30 BST (UK)
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Hi all
Does anybody know if any prison or court records are available anywhere please?
I appear to have a relative who died in Tothill Fields Prison in 1855 and I'd love to know how she got there!
Thanks
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You could try the national archives and see what comes up. Try
http://www.genuki.org.uk/search/. type in crime into the search box.Not sure where Tothill field prison is it in London ?
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Yes London
ok I'll give that a try then thanks
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Hi
Tothill Fields Bridewell/prison was the Westminster House of Correction. This was a local prison. Prison records in general have a poor survival rate. If he served time in Westminster House of Correction then he was likely to have been sentenced at Westminster quarter sessions or perhaps at a police court (outside of London called petty sessions and nowadays known as magistrates courts).
What records survive for Westminster quarter sessions will be held at Westminster Archives
http://www.westminster.gov.uk/services/libraries/archives/
Regards
Valda
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The National Archives at Kew has quarterly returns for prisons which state prisoner's name, offence, sentence and their state of health.
You might also find local newspaper accounts of the crime and trial, once you've got a clearer idea of the exact date.
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Hi
Not sure which series of records at The National Archives gives quarterly returns for all prisons?
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=253
Do you mean HO8?
'HO 8 1824-1876 Convict Prisons: Quarterly Returns of Prisoners - Sworn lists of convicts on board the hulks and in prisons, giving age, conviction, sentence, health, behaviour, mental state, remarks (removed, released, etc.) The Catalogue lists the hulks included in each document, and its geographical location. '
and in more detail
HO8
'Title Home Office: Convict Hulks, Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums: Quarterly Returns of Prisoners
Scope and content Sworn lists of convicts on board the convict hulks (until 1861) and in the convict prisons (from 1848). Criminal lunatic asylums are included from 1862.
Some returns for hulks at Bermuda are included.
Give particulars as to their ages, convictions and sentences, health, behaviour, etc.
Covering dates 1824-1876'
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, government prisons were built and run by the prison department of the Home Office. These prisons housed convicts. All prisoners given sentences of transportation or a period of penal servitude - two years or more hard labour, were called convicts or in reality government prisoners. All other gaoled offenders were prisoners not convicts. In 1853, there were only twelve government prisons. Tothill was a local county prison/Bridewell - a House of Correction for prisoners not convicts.
C19th censuses give the status of those in prison - clearly differentiating between those that were prisoners in county gaols and those that were convicts in prisons such as Millbank or Pentonville.
In 1877, the county gaols were brought under government management through the Prison Commission which became responsible for all prisons in 1898.
There were fewer local newspapers in London until 1856. An ordinary person's death was likely to go unnoticed in newspapers (because there were so many in London) unless there was an inquest and even then many were not covered by newspaper reports unless they were of sufficient interest.
Local newspapers did not flourish until the paper tax was lowered in 1836. When the tax was abolished in 1855 hundreds of newspapers started up across the country and in London.
What was her name?
Regards
Valda
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Ancestory.Com has female prison records from 1853-1871
http://search.ancestry.com/browse/default.aspx?dbid=1979&iid=31790_A019834-00000. If you will give me her name I will see if I can find her.
Robin
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Hi Robin
Welcome to Rootschat
It is not allowed on Rootschat to ask for look-ups from subscription sites as such look-up requests breach the terms & conditions of those sites.
The database you are referring to is a parole database - women who were released early from prison and their sentences there. As the woman concerned died in Tothill Fields prison in 1855 she won't be on these parole records.
Regards
Valda
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Hi , Could i direct you to my posting on WILTSHIRE LOOKUPS then find JACOB SILVERTHORNE we have a thread going on there on this subject you might find some of the content useful ?
GOOD HUNTING
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Valda,
Pointwell taken about about subsriber sites. As far as finding this person in these records, there is still a decent chance as many violated their parole and were returned to prison. Also, many were repeat offenders. She may be listed there for another crime (most were very petty in nature).
Robin
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Hi
The Penal Servitude Act 1853 ended transportation (except in cases where a person could be sentenced to transportation for life or for a term not less than fourteen years) and substituted longer sentences in prison as a subsitute. The use of the ticket of leave, however, was kept, and prisoners with good conduct could be freed after serving a designated part of the sentence. If another crime was committed, the prisoner would be required to complete the full term of the original sentence. Thus the start of parole and parole records.
There is not much time between the start of parole records in 1853 and her death in 1855 and as it was a brand new system the numbers of women are quite low to begin with.
1853 - 10 (2 women convicted and sentenced in a London or Middlesex court - 20%)
1854 - 32 (6 women convicted and sentenced in a London or Middlesex court - 19%)
1855 -115 (16 women convicted and sentenced in a London or Middlesex court - 14%)
1856 (peak year) - 222 (36 women convicted and sentenced in a London or Middlesex court - 16%)
Transportation ended completely in 1857.
It is worth noting these parole records also contain paroles for women sentenced and convicted in Scotland.
The records for men are not online but are held at The National Archives. The numbers for male prisoners are substantially higher.
The records are very detailed
'Home Office and Prison Commission: Female Licences
Notes of licences to female convicts to be at large, and notes of revocation of such licences, under the Penal Servitude Acts 1853 and 1864 endorsed on old captions and, in some cases, transfer papers. Each file can include a photograph (from 1871 onward), letters or notes from the prisoner, a Medical History sheet, reports of misconduct whilst in prison, the court of conviction, details of crime and of previous crimes.'
Regards
Valda
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Hi
Thought this site might help, it's free, I find it useful and it's interesting even if your ancestors aren't on there:
http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/
Erin :)