Family History Skills and Strategies (Int.) Victorian Crime & Punishment

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Victorian Crime & Punishment,

Courts Police and Prisons

Lesson Five - Punishment

In this final lesson we shall look at how Victorian prisons were built; what life was like inside; the different punishments inflicted on the prisoners and a change in attitude towards criminals in the 19th century. The topics covered are:

A brief history of prisons

Debtors and Bankrupts

Transportation & Hulks

Prison staff

Life inside the Victorian prison

Researching a Victorian prisoner We shall look at some of the early reformers and how their work changed the face of prisons, look at plans and pictures of the major Victorian prisons and discover what life was like inside some prisons. By the end of the lesson you should be able to:

1. Identify some Victorian prisons and use online resources to explore life inside the 19th-century prison.

2. Find some records of Habitual Criminals online 3. Locate records of individual prisoners at a local and national level.

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A Brief History of Prisons The earliest prisons were typically a castle dungeon – a place where prisoners could be placed and the key almost literally thrown away. In the 16th century, large numbers of idlers, vagrants and sturdy beggars were roaming London and young King Edward was persuaded to give up his Royal Palace of Bridewell as a place of correction for such malcontents. The ‘House of Correction’, or Bridewell (the terms are used inter-changeably), was set up as a place of confinement for rogues and vagabonds from the 1550s. A “Bridewell” is still used today as a common term for some of the large custody centres now used in many police forces. Houses of correction were initially found in London but, under the 1601 Poor Law Act, widely spread across the country. The 1662 Settlement Act also encouraged parishes to send their ne’er do wells to the local house of correction where they would be put to hard work and ‘corrected’ in their idle and lewd ways. Apart from the houses of correction, early prisons such as the county goal, were not regarded as punishment in themselves; punishments were usually corporal, such as whipping, branding or the stocks. Prisons were a place to keep people prior to trial and to keep them out of society. Until the 19th century, children, women and men were all housed together. John Howard, High Sheriff of Bedford in 1773 was appalled when, on his first official visit to Bedford Gaol, he found not only disgusting conditions but also learned that prisoners having served their sentence or, worse yet found not guilty at their trial, could not be released until they had paid the gaoler’s fee ! His evidence before Parliament resulted in the passing of the Gaol Act of 1774. His campaign to improve conditions in prisons continued over many years up to his death in 1790 and the work is carried on today by the Howard League for Penal Reform. Most prisons came under local or county control, and the only centrally run government prisons were in London. Newgate is a famous example, it was the main prison for serious offenders and for the Old Bailey. It was from here that prisoners condemned to death were taken along the Oxford Road (now Oxford Street) to Tyburn for execution, or later hanged outside the prison itself. Elizabeth Fry’s reforming work at Newgate from 1813 onwards improved the living conditions of women prisoners. Thus by the 18th century in England & Wales local JPs could send convicts to the local gaol or House of Correction for a short sentence of imprisonment or, for more serious crimes, they would either be hanged or transported.

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In the 1790s Jeremy Bentham, a reformer and philosopher, recommended a new type of prison – the panopticon – a ‘round-the-clock-surveillance’ machine where the prisoner cannot see the observer who watches from a central position.

The overall effect was one of constant supervision and thus no need for bars or walls as the prisoner felt constrained by the observation process. Jeremy Bentham designed the new Millbank Prison close to Vauxhall Bridge in London in 1816 – said in 1820 to be the most costly prison building ever constructed.

Using elements of Bentham’s idea and developing it further the Victorian government started a program of prison building, often using convict labour. These new prisons were designed to keep prisoners separate and solitary. By 1848 there were 54 new prisons, all built on the same plan. Single cells were arranged in tiers in separate blocks, radiating out from a central hub. Apart from Dartmoor (begun in 1806 as a Prisoner of War camp) and Wormwood Scrubs built in 1874, nearly all the major prisons were built between 1840 and 1860. Holloway, built in 1852, was regarded as one of the most noble edifices, in the castellated Gothic style.

Holloway Prison - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36479560

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Some of the older Houses of Correction were rebuilt and extended. For example HMP Cold Bath Fields, originally built in 1794 to house men and women was enlarged in 1850 to take only men. It was a typical example of the new prison system; segregation, silence and hard work. This prison was enlarged again in 1884 to accommodate 1,000 men. The plan on the left shows the old buildings in grey and the new additions in pink.

The prison stood near to the Mount Pleasant Post Office Sorting Office in N. London. The system of county gaols remained in place, remaining under county control until 1877, when the Home Office took them over thus bringing all prisons under government control.

EXPLORE FURTHER – Prison Reformers: A biography of John Howard is at the BBC History website This biography of Elizabeth Fry explains her interest in the prison system.

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Death Penalty Through the C19th, as we learnt back in Lesson One, the number of offences carrying the death penalty had been reduced significantly – but executions continued to be a regular feature of the judicial process.

Public executions drew huge crowds and were almost a form of entertainment.

Over time, this was challenged by a number of prominent thinkers, including Charles Dickens who wrote to the press on the subject a number of times. https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/mr-charles-dickens-and-the-execution-of-the-mannings-reprinted-from-the-times Change finally came in 1868 when the Capital Punishment Amendment Act stopped the spectacle of public executions (for murder) and decreed that the process should take place within the prison walls. The last man to be publicly hanged was Michael Barrett, outside Newgate prison on the 26th May 1868 – he had was a “Fenian” who had been convicted of his part in the Clerkenwell bombing the previous year. The last woman to be hanged in public was Francis Kidder, at Maidstone on the 2nd April 1868.

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Debtors and bankrupts You may also have heard about the infamous debtor’s prisons. In London, Fleet is the most well-known, Marshalsea and King’s Bench others, and Newgate housed both debtors and criminals. There were also smaller debtor’s prisons in other parts of the country. The system really only applied to the first half of the Victorian period. Insolvent debtors – individuals with debts they could not pay - were subject to common law and could be imprisoned until the debts were paid. This could be an indefinite prison sentence, although they had more liberty than criminal prisoners. From 1861 insolvent debtors could apply for bankruptcy, and then in 1869, debtors were no longer held in prison. However, traders, merchants and business men could always declare themselves bankrupt and thus avoid court proceedings. The definition of 'trader' covered a multitude of occupations and although farmers were exempt they too can appear as bankrupts. Many 'traders' were little more than peddlers but were able to describe their business in such a way as to fall within the legal definition. Once declared bankrupt, the court took over all assets and distributed the money raised (or even the goods themselves) to the creditors in proportion to the size of the debt. The first place to search for information about debtors and bankrupts are newspapers and specifically the London Gazette – freely available online Records of bankrupts are held at TNA and are often very brief, merely listing names of people involved, amounts and the date. More information will be found at a local level in prison records and in newspapers. From 1842 District Bankruptcy Courts were set up to deal with cases outside London and the records should be found in local record offices. Imprisonment for debt ended in 1869 and anyone owed more than £50 could petition for the debtor to be declared a bankrupt. These petitions are held at TNA in a variety of classes. Between 1870 and 1883 there is a surname-indexed list in B 6/184-197 covering London and the county courts. Full details relating to insolvent debtors and bankrupts can be found in the Research Guide published by TNA.

EXPLORE FURTHER http://www.londonancestor.com/leighs/pri-intro.htm - interesting brief history of the various London prisons including the debtors prisons. There is an extensive description of Bedford Gaol and the House of Correction at this page http://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/GuidesToCollections/BedfordsGaolBuildings.aspx

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Transportation & Hulks Transportation as a formal punishment started in the 17th century with the government authorising shipment of convicts to the British plantations overseas – the West Indies and new American colonies. When the American Revolution of 1776 and the ensuing war soon brought an end to transportation there, the British government had a problem – what to do with the convicts? The Hulk ‘Warrior’ Image from www.portcities.org.uk One solution was to send them to the west coast of Africa. However, this failed miserably with all but a handful of the convicts dying within weeks of landing. Another solution was to hold the convicts in prison, but of course there were insufficient prisons available for the number of people convicted of serious crimes, and so derelict hulks of wooden ships, still afloat and initially moored in the Thames estuary, started to be used as prisons. Eventually there were hulks in many locations around the coast. Conditions on the hulks were notoriously bad. Prisoners were put to work, dredging the Thames and improving the embankments. They spent much of their time chained together. The discovery of the new continent of Australia and the desire to populate a colony there, gave the government the opportunity to re-introduce transportation and in early 1788 the “First Fleet” of convicts arrived in Australia, and it remains the ambition of many Australian researchers to find an ancestor listed on it. By the time transportation was stopped, about 160,000 people had been transported to Australia. Some convicts continued to be sent to Gibraltar and Bermuda as well, so you shouldn’t assume that all transportation was to Australia. This didn’t stop the hulks being used as prisons. In 1798 over 1,400 of the 1,900 people awaiting transportation were confined within hulks and it was not unusual to end up spending your whole sentence there, particularly if you were very old or very young as it tended to be only the fit and healthy over a certain age who were actually transported. Once again, The National Archives holds the original Home Office returns for the hulks as well as the records of transportation, but many of the records are also available on subscription websites. They can provide a useful short-cut to the original trial records. Ancestry has indexed the series HO 9 (prison hulk - returns of prisoners). Their database contains a letter book covering the period 1847-49 relating to the administration of the hulks and the register of prisoners held on 19 hulks for the period 1802-1849 providing the name of the prisoner, date received, age, date of birth and place/date of trial.

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Included in the Ancestry criminal database are the records for the First, Second and Third Fleet convicts and the muster rolls, each one of which can be searched separately. Findmypast has prisoner records for the hulks from 1811 to 1834 along with a selection of records from Parkhurst prison which was set up as a holding prison for convict boys as an alternative to keeping children in the hulks. Check the website to see the extent of their database, which is regularly added to and which can be searched without a subscription, although to see the document you need to subscribe. In the first lesson we looked at how Robert Peel reduced the number of capital offences and recommended transportation as an alternative punishment, usually for 7 years, 14 years or life depending upon the crime ( but could be other lengths too), and the peak of transportations were really slightly before our period. Transportation to New South Wales stopped in 1840, and in 1850 convicts were shipped to Western Australia instead. In 1868 the final convict ship landed in Western Australia and transportation to the colonies came to an end.

EXPLORE FURTHER http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/chapterId/414/Prison-hulks-on-the-River-Thames.html A very comprehensive piece all about the history of the hulks and life on board the hulks.

The National Archives holds the original records of the Hulks in many classes, but mainly HO 8 and HO 9, and HO 10; Settlers and Convicts sent to New South Wales and Tasmania are in HO10 and Convict Transportation Registers in HO11 cover the periods 1787 to 1870. HO 9, HO 10 and HO 11 records are available to download as (unindexed) images from the TNA website (free of charge)

EXERCISE 1 The State Library of Queensland, Australia has surname-indexed the HO 11 transported convict registers 1787 - 1867 with free access. http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/info-guides/convicts See if you can find Henry Martin in 1852: a) where & when was he tried and what was his sentence? b) check your surname, or one you are interested in, in the database. Any matches ? Post your results in the forum.

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Prison Staff The prison governor and his family lived on the premises. There were restrictions on when and for how long he could leave the prison, so in some ways he was as much a prisoner as his charges. The governor’s house was usually well appointed with garden and carriage house and live-in servants who may be recorded in the census returns. Other staff also lived within the prison walls, usually comprising a chief warder, assistant warder, several other warders and often a surgeon. Prison staff can be found on the census returns from 1851 through to 1911 usually at the start of the enumeration schedule of the particular prison. Below is Sir Lawrence Dundas, governor of Maidstone prison in 1901 with his wife Lady Mary Dundas and three live-in servants. This was a mixed prison with male and female staff. James and Emily Taylor hold the positions of Principal Warder and Matron.

Maidstone Prison 1901 – ref. RG13/769 ff.114 p.1 – http://www.ancestry.co.uk/ What is interesting in this example is the two assistant warders, both married, but with no sign of any wife. This suggests that, as with lunatic asylums, working shifts covered several days when the warder lived inside the prison.

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Staff records for county and borough prisons are usually held at the local archive office. Those for Cambridge Borough gaol record the names of all the staff and provide a potted history of their movements whilst in the prison service. The entry for William Dobson is typical. William Dobson was born on 3rd December 1859 and joined the prison service in June 1885 as assistant warder at Holloway prison with a salary of £60 per annum. He subsequently moved to Millbank prison in May 1886 and was promoted to warder at Newcastle prison in January 1895 with a rise in salary to £70. He then went south and was at the newly formed Borstal in Kent in 1902 and moved to Maidstone prison in 1904 where he was principal warder with a salary of £85 per year. In 1906 he moved north to Wakefield and transferred to Cambridge in 1912 where he held the post of Governor with a salary of £250 pa. The final note in the register for William Dobson shows he moved to Lincoln gaol in June 1916. Start any search for prison staff with census returns to isolate where they were serving at a set time and then check the local archive office for records of that prison. Also bear in mind that some records may be retained by the prison and that staff can move between census returns, as the Dobson case shows. Life inside the Victorian Prison With the phasing out of transportation, being held prison and subjected to hard labour became the primary form of punishment. This was formalised by the Penal Servitude Acts of 1853 and 1857. This had been developing for some time. In 1837, Lord John Russell, having read much about the penal system in America, circulated a paper to JPs recommending a different punishment to transportation – that of solitary detention in prison. Charles Dickens described his visit to one of these prisons in the USA in his 1842 book “American Notes”. http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva344.html As a result two new forms of punishment were introduced to prisons here – the Solitary Regime and the Silent Regime. These two similar systems were designed to break the spirit of the prisoner and are described here: http://vcp.e2bn.org/justice/page11683-an-overview-of-separation-and-silence.html Life inside the prisons was harsh and the work often pointless, for example, walking on a treadmill or turning the crank - a handle attached to paddles in a barrel of sand. The crank mechanism could be tightened by staff turning a screw – allegedly this is where the derogatory term originated for a prison warder. At Dartmoor, George Bidwell, an American sentenced to life imprisonment for fraud in 1873, had to turn the crank 1,800 times before breakfast, 5,000 before dinner and a further 4,000 before receiving any supper.

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At least working a treadmill could in some prisons provide power for grinding corn or ventilation of the prison. William Cubitt, the civil engineer, is accredited with designing the prison model treadmill. The wheel was large enough to accommodate several prisoners side by side in separate compartments. Prisoners usually did a 6 hour stint, in groups, so that whilst one group was resting the other would climb. It was estimated that at York prison some 6,000 feet were climbed by each prisoner each day. This is a late C19th image of a treadmill at HMP Kingston, in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Image © Historic England

Solitary confinement and silence were enforced as a means of encouraging the prisoners to reflect on their crimes and mend their ways. Separate confinement initially lasted for 18 months of a sentence but cases of suicide and mental illness rose, so the term of solitary was reduced to one year in 1848 and by 1853 to 9 months. During this period, hard labour was carried out alone in the cell, possibly the crank or perhaps picking oakum or sewing and knitting. Oakum picking caused fingers to split and crack, leading to sores and infections and men's large fingers were not good at picking out the tar from the hemp ropes. Similarly trying to sew using blunt needles through layers of thick cloth was hard work. Army greatcoats, as well as the famous mailbags, were one of the garments produced. The solitary system was revised in the 1860s as the enforced isolation led to many prisoners suffering severe mental problems, not surprisingly.

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One of the most boring and pointless punishments was shot drill. Here the prisoner lifted up a balls of lead weighing between 24 and 32lb and carried them across the room. When all the lead balls had been moved from one side to the other, he then returned them back to their original place. A variation was to have the prisoners stand in a circle and pass the lead shot from man to man like an endless game of pass the parcel. This was carried out in 4-hour shifts with a short break every 30 minutes. Prison chaplain’s reports often tell of the anguish of these prisoners and the hopelessness of their cases. Even so, lack of education and opportunity meant many would re-offend immediately upon release. Indeed, it was said that the food and accommodation inside prison were superior to those in the workhouse. Sir James Graham, Home Secretary in 1843, laid down a basic prison dietary which comprised 6 items – bread, meat, potatoes, soup, gruel and cocoa. For more information on this and prison food in general - http://vcp.e2bn.org/justice/page11567-an-overview-of-food-in-19th-century-gaols.html

EXERCISE 2 Punishment – How has it changed? Using the information contained within this course plus some online research, take 3 different but typical crimes and compare punishments in Victorian England & Wales with that of today. How and why have these punishments changed? Post your thoughts in the forum Punishment thread. Keep your answer to a 500 word limit.

EXPLORE FURTHER http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications5/prisons-09.htm Information about Coldbath Fields prison and the inmates’ regime. Interesting overview of Victorian crime & punishment from the BBC History website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/crime_01.shtml

The local county gaols kept the more minor criminals and the inmates were known as prisoners rather than convicts. Their sentences ranged from a few days up to a maximum of two years, with or without hard labour. Conditions inside a county gaol were overseen by the local JPs – if they saw prison as a deterrent, then life could be very hard; if seen as a means of reform, then education and religious work might appear in the regime. Unlike the government prisons, prisoners in the county gaol had to serve their full term; convicts in the government prisons could get remission for good behaviour.

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Researching Victorian Prisoners As we come to the end of the course, you should now have a good idea of where you can start to look in order to find people who were in prison. This section gives you a summary of the main ways to build up a complete picture, and discusses some records we have not yet touched on.

Census returns. Many prisons did not list the full names of inmates, just their initials. This means that an online census search will fail unless you are able to use just initials. However, It might be worth trawling through the census return for the prison (usually enumerated separately at the end of the district) to see if you can identify someone from the other details given – age and birth place for example. If you do this type of search you will find that many prisoners are not in a prison close to their place of birth.

Criminal Registers in HO 26 and HO 27. In lesson 2 we looked at local courts and the Assizes and used the Criminal Registers in HO 26 and HO 27 to locate where a trial took place. Look back at Lesson 2 now to remind yourself how to access these records.

Quarterly Returns of Prisoners Home Office: Convict Hulks, Convict Prisons and Criminal Lunatic Asylums: held at TNA in HO 8, and partly available on FindMyPast.

Prison calendars held in the Quarter Session papers show those people in the local county gaol. (see example). To check which Calendars of Prisons and Prison Registers are available, county by county, you can use TNA Discovery to search by date or place, in HO 23, HO 24, HO 140 and PCOM 2 for both registers and calendars of prisoners. These are arranged by prison or by county and individual prisoners’ names do not usually appear in the catalogue.

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Huntingdon Gaol Calendar 1852 – QS Box 34 –Huntingdon Archive Office.

In addition to those starting points, a number of other records will help you to build a much more complete picture:

The Gaol Keeper's Journal This daily journal records the number of prisoners in the gaol each day, and lists any prisoners leaving or arriving, with details of their crime and sentence to be served. It also acts as a diary of events such as prison inspections, repairs and the occasional prison break-out.

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Here is an extract covering 5 days in October 1847 from the Huntingdon Gaol Keeper's Journal 1847-51 ref HCP/2/32/2

Monday 18 Oct 1847 - Journal exhibited in open Court at the General Quarter Sessions held this

day. Signed James Rust – Chairman.

Discharged William Scholefield and Harry Preston – misdemeanours

Thomas Lawrence – convicted of having, in company with one John Ekins, carried about and

exposed to view two stuffed figures representing man and woman and being an indecent

exhibition at Warboys – 3 cal mo HL by Rev W Finch and P Tillard Esq

Tuesday 19th October – debtors 1, other prisoners 52, total 53

Discharged John Lawson – a Misdem.

William Starkey – Surrendered to bail, charged with having stolen one adze, one saw and divers

other working tools, the property of Thomas Bott at Hemingford Grey – held for Court of Quarter

Sessions

Wednesday 20th October– Debtors – 1, other prisoners 54 – total 55

John Baldwin – surrendered in Court charged with having assaulted John Cox a constable of

Ramsey. – held for Court of Quarter Sessions

Charlotte Lenton – charged with having stolen from the Dwelling House of Ann Wilkinson at

Brampton 3 silver tea spoons, a pair of sugar tongs, and a cotton gown piece, her

property. Committed by D Veasey Esq

Maria Hodge – convicted of having assaulted Charlotte Langley at Elton – 1 cal mo or pay £1

16s. Committed by The Earl of Aboyne and Rev H Strong

Viewed the prisoners in the cells at a quarter before 11 o’clock at night, found all in a proper

state.

Thursday 21st October - In consequence of the increased number of convicted felons (31)

confined in Ward no 1 and the treadwheel being insufficient, 8 were this day removed into ward

no 6 and employed at the Capstan.

Friday 22nd October - 1 debtor 56 other prisoners, total 57

Locked up James Hensman during this day for repeatedly attempting to converse with prisoners

of another class. Also locked up Thomas Bradbury in the Refractory cell for inciting a fellow

prisoner to disobey orders to observe silence in Ward no. 4 – 6 hours

Note those 'held over for the Quarter Sessions' i.e. “on remand”.

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Prison Receiving Book or Register of Prisoners The county or borough gaol kept a register of prisoners or ‘Receiving Book’. This can provide a wealth of information including a physical description and list of property brought into the prison.

Here is the page for George Wright, alias Smith, alias Robinson who was imprisoned for assault.(Cambridge Gaol

ref. 127/05/1 : Cambridgeshire

Archives). George was sentenced to serve a calendar month of hard labour or to pay the fine of £2 6s 6d. He had been held in custody on several occasions both at Cambridge, Hertford and ‘other gaols’. We learn he is married and that he is 26 years old; 5ft 10.5 inches tall with brown eyes and light hazel hair and a strange facial ‘tick’; and can deduce that he smoked a pipe and needed glasses. He had a collection of knives and a pair of scissors, plus 3s 6d in cash on his person when admitted to the prison. In addition we see he was literate although his signature is rather shaky and that he went by several aliases which might be helpful when looking for earlier cases against him and finding him in the census returns. These records are not online but held locally.

Some prison registers are held at TNA, but all are held locally after 1878 and may still be with the prison.

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The Prison Commission, PCOM The Prison Commission was set up in 1877 when all the prisons in the country were brought under the control of the Home Office. The National Archives holds a large number of records in the Prison Commission (PCOM) series, most of which can be searched for online by date and surname. Apart from a very small collection of PCOM 2 Habitual Criminal records, all the original records have to be viewed at TNA Kew but any catalogue entry is still valuable and should provide sufficient information to allow you to work out if the criminal mentioned is ‘yours’.

Habitual Criminals Register held in PCOM 2 was started with the idea of recognizing persistent offenders. By using a photograph and detailed description of the criminal, prison authorities could circulate details and catch their man (or woman) if they re-offended in a different location. These records often contain details of previous offences and punishments which can lead you back to earlier court cases. Remember Lucy Jolly in the first lesson? The National Archives have put a selection of PCOM 2 files in their Online Documents area – the index is free to search but there is a small fee to download a ‘hit’. These photographs and details relate to prisoners in Wandsworth Prison from 1872 to 1873. The volumes which are available are catalogue references PCOM 2/290 and PCOM 2/291.

Female Licences Victorian prisoners could be released ‘on licence’ before the end of their sentence as a result of good behaviour. This also relieved the overcrowded prisons, and was the modern-day equivalent of being released on parole. This

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Licence to be at Large, also known as a Ticket-of-Leave was given to the prisoner and the official order placed on their prison file. The early files (1853-1862) do not contain much information, the later ones will include names used by the prisoner, age, crime and sentence, date of conviction, next of kin, religion and any occupation, whether married and any children, literacy, general health and a physical description. From 1871 a photograph was generally added as well. There is an index to Female Licences in PCOM 4 covering the period 1854-1871 and 1883-87. These are licences for female convicts ‘to be at large’ and contain a wealth of information on the prisoner and their crime. The index is searchable online within Discovery by surname and date and will bring up a catalogue entry giving brief details of the prisoner and crime. The originals still have to be seen at TNA – the catalogue only provides you with the bare essentials to order the document.

Male Licences The series PCOM 3 contains licences for early release granted to male convicts from 1853 onwards. The information is similar to that in PCOM 4 mentioned above. This series of records can also be searched online using the Discovery catalogue. The catalogue gives brief details but you have to view the document at TNA to get the full information.

Appeals & Petitions There was no official Court of Appeal for criminal cases until the early 20th century but there was nothing to prevent any convicted criminal from appealing against their sentence by writing direct to the Home Secretary or engaging someone to petition on their behalf. If the court records record a sentence of death or transportation, but the criminal does not appear later in the appropriate set of records and turns up in prison elsewhere, consider the fact that an appeal was successful. We have already looked at the case of William Wilson in the series of Petitions and Judges Reports HO 17 at The National Archives covering the period 1817-1858. This series includes petitions sent to the Home Office either by prisoners themselves or their friends and relatives pleading for mercy.

EXERCISE 3 Parts of the Habitual Criminals Registers for the counties of Huntingdon & Bedford have been placed online at the Victorian Crime & Punishment website. providing free access to details of local criminals, their crimes and punishment. What was crime and punishment of Henry Machness ? Find the entry on the Habitual Criminal Register online and post your answers in the Habitual Criminals thread.

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CONCLUSIONS Life in the Victorian prison was harsh – it was meant to be a salutary lesson, to deter you from re-offending and to keep criminals off the streets. People could fall foul of the law very easily and petty crimes often resulted in severe punishments such as transportation, incarceration in the rotting hulks or penal servitude with solitary confinement in prison. We have investigated not only prisoners and their records, but also looked at police officers, prison staff and their life. Records of both prisons and individual prisoners can be held in a number of different places. Prison records were not created nationally until 1878, so it is often best to start looking in local archives. Prisoners were often moved between prisons where there was space, rather than being imprisoned near their home or where the offence was committed. Prison licences, popularly known as ‘tickets of leave’, allowed convicts of good behaviour to be released before the completion of their sentences. There are a growing number of websites that now host searchable databases on prisons and prisoners. You may well find more. Most of these databases, especially the online catalogue at The National Archives, only lead you to the document references. A visit to The National Archives or appropriate repository will be required to investigate the full set of documents but at least you can now discover that there ARE records to investigate. More importantly, new series of records are being uploaded to the internet regularly so keep a look out for new developments.

* * *

Family History Skills and Strategies (Int.) Victorian Crime & Punishment

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WEB SITES and extra links http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/howard_john.shtml - biography of John Howard http://www.biographyonline.net/humanitarian/elizabeth-fry.html - good biography on Elizabeth Fry. http://www.londonancestor.com/leighs/pri-intro.htm - brief history of London prisons including the debtors prisons. http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-Records/england-and-wales-crime-prisons-and-punishment-browse-1770-1935 FindMyPast Criminal records Collection http://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/GuidesToCollections/BedfordsGaolBuildings.aspx Extensive description of Bedford Gaol and the House of Correction The Hulk ‘Warrior’ Image from http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/Prison-hulks-on-the-River-Thames.html https://www.thegazette.co.uk The London Gazette http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/bankrupts-insolvent-1710-1869.htm Researching Bankrupts http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/resources/family-history/convicts : database for HO11 held by State Library of Queensland http://search.findmypast.co.uk/search-world-records/prison-ship-hulk-registers Details of the database for the hulks on Findmypast website. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/criminal-transportees/ – TNA research guide on transportation of criminals http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/ConNarrative.56/chapterId/414/Prison-hulks-on-the-River-Thames.html - very comprehensive piece all about the history of the hulks and life on board the hulks. http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/convicts/res-03.html - excellent website on transportation and convicts in Australia. http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/prison.asp - TNA online documents for PCOM 2 Habitual Criminals at Wandsworth Prison http://vcp.e2bn.org – Habitual Criminal Registers for Hunts & Beds and other criminal databases.