NSW, Gaol Description & Entrance Books, 1818-1930

[sharonkai]

Does anyone have any knowledge of these books? The first columns have the person who is being incarcerated, and then there is a heading "COMMITTED".  UNDER this heading, there are three other columns with the headings, "BY WHOM", "WHEN" and "WHERE".

I assume, "BY WHOM" would be the magistrate; "WHEN" would be the date the person was charged; but what would go in the column "WHERE"?  On the line for the person I'm looking at, it has CPO in this column.  Some others on the page also have CPO, and others have Bathurst PO and WPO.

Does anyone know what CPO means?  As he was in Sydney at the time, would it mean Central Police Office?

[majm]

PO .... the current NSW equivalent is the Local Court.    So Bathurst PO would now be known as Bathurst Local Court.   

So, yes, It is likely that CPO could be Central PO if so, then that would be Sydney. 

Those books are part of the archives physically held by NSW State Archives at Kingswood NSW.  You could contact them to confirm that the online images currently available from some of the commercial family history subscription websites are INDEXES, and that in some instances there can be further information available.

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/
https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/contact-us

JM


 

[majm]

Agh,  I see Ancestry has digitised some of these NSW State Archives  books  


About New South Wales, Australia, Gaol Description and Entrance Books, 1818-1930

This collection of gaol description and entrance books from prisons in New South Wales contain two different, but similar, records. The first were kept before the New South Wales government required record keeping. These include records from both Sydney and Darlinghurst gaols (Sydney held prisoners until 1841, when they were transferred to the new gaol at Darlinghurst), as well as Albury (1861–1867), Berrima (1840–1847), Goldburn (1848–1867), Maitland (1860–1867), and Newcastle (1840–1859).

The other series of books started after a proclamation in the New South Wales Government Gazette in 1867 required that description books be kept for incoming and outgoing prisoners. This collection contains books from 12 different prisons, or gaols, in New South Wales. The descriptions include individual records for each prisoner with pictures and personal information used as a detailed prisoner file. This collection contains records from:
•Albury (1876–1929)
•Armidale (1894–1915)
•Bathurst (1874–1930)
•Berrima (1883–1888)
•Biloela (1885–1906)
•Broken Hill (1904–1929)
•Darlinghurst (1869–1914)
•Deniliquin (1895–1929)
•Dubbo (1889–1920)
•Goulburn (1867–1930)
•Maitland (1867–1930)
•Trial Bay (1892–1901)

The earlier books aren’t as detailed and may not contain a photograph, but they will have most important pieces of information. The records may contain the following details:
•number
•name
•aliases
•date portrait was taken
•native place
•birth year
•ship and year of arrival
•trade or occupation
•religion
•standard of education
•height
•entrance and exit weight
•hair color
•eye color
•marks or special features
•crime
•trial information
•details of previous convictions

This collection also contains a few volumes that are indexes to entrance or description books.

 

JM

[sharonkai]

Hi Majm

The information you posted is very helpful - the gaol would probably be Darlinghurst.  The offence was in 1874.

THANKS.

[Armi2350]

I had a relative in Newcastle Gaol are we able to access those portrait photos?

[CassT]

HI

Have a look at this site, the photos are indexed , so you might find a photo

Cass

https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/archives/collections-and-research/guides-and-indexes/gaol-inmates-prisoners-photos-index