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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Topic started by: ScottishAncestry on Tuesday 09 October 18 14:57 BST (UK)
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I have just written an article about Scottish prison records that you may find useful.
https://www.scottishindexes.com/learningprison.aspx
When we discover that our ancestors came upon difficult times, we have a greater opportunity to delve into their lives and find out more about them. As a large proportion of the ‘working class’ Victorian population was in prison at one point or another, there is a high chance that one of your ancestors will appear in a prison register.
I hope this guide proves to be useful.
Emma
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Excellent work there Emma. If any paperwork surfaced for the boys correction ship the Empress, I'd be most interested. I've a step relative connected to my family who was sentenced as a youth to years on this ship at Govan P.C. Dec 1915. It was the start of his life long criminal career.
Will keep a close eye on this collection as I've researched Victor extensively and have all his court cases from Kew in London and would love to compare his claims in the book about his 1st conviction against the court case itself.
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Just my luck - my several-greats-grandfather was in prison in Dundee in the 1851 census, but Dundee Prison isn't on your list :(
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Thanks for this information Emma.
An ancestor of my late husband was sent to prison in Peebles around 1848 and the record is there :)
He was a carter from Bonnyrigg. I will get the actual record now and see what he was imprisoned for.
Dorrie
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Hi Everyone
I'm trying to access the Scottish prison records via the link. I'm not having any success as it comes up that there is an error.
Is anyone else having trouble. ::)
Rosie
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Hi Rosina,
I have not had a problem and have received the record I wanted.
Dorrie
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My 3x grt grandmother was imprisoned in Ayr prison. She was sentenced to 10 years after her and her husband had stolen some food. He got 6 years even though the court reports he was equally involved and equally guilty. The judge ruled that she should serve a longer sentence as it was all her fault. Her husband would not have felt the need to do it had she "not allowed herself to get pregnant". I am unclear on how the judge came to think that her husband was not also an equal partner in creating the pregnancy not am I sure how he expected her to avoid pregnancy.
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Thank you I'm there now.
Rosie
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As an aside...
Was fascinated by these when I discovered them!
http://87.106.105.143/inverarayjail/index.php
An example...
"Archibald McLACHLAN
Prisoner No unknown
AGE 15
CRIME Theft of a turnip from a field
SENTENCE 20 days imprisonment or 16/8" :o
"TRIED 14 November 1846
by D. McNeill JP
Marital Status Single
Address Born & Resident: Lochgilphead
Occupation Labourer
Further Information
Admitted 14 November 1846
Released 4 December 1846 (20 days in Inveraray Jail)"
Annie
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Suppose someone were interested in sponsoring some indexing, how would that person find out how much it would cost them?
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I have now looked at the prison record.
He was charged with a "road offence" between Bonnyrigg and Peebles in 1848. His occupation was a carter. He was fined and released after 2 hours having paid up. ;D ;D
Was he speeding down the road or drunk in charge of his horse and cart ;) ;)
He did tell a lie on the record saying he was single when in fact he had a wife and 7 kids at home. :-X :-X
A somewhat trivial offence really but criminal nontheless.
Rosinish - Poor laddie being sentenced to 20 days in prison for pinching a turnip - he was probably starving.
Pharma T - That was a shocking sentence for your 3 x great grandmother to receive for what we would consider a minor offence. The fact that her husband received a much shorter term of imprisonment is beyond belief. It just puts into perspective how bad things were in those days.
Dorrie
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Pharma T - That was a shocking sentence for your 3 x great grandmother to receive for what we would consider a minor offence. The fact that her husband received a much shorter term of imprisonment is beyond belief. It just puts into perspective how bad things were in those days.
Dorrie
The bit that annoys me the most is that they committed the exact same offence at exactly the same time and appeared in the same court yet she got the harsher sentence because she was a woman.
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I totally agree with you PharmaT and to blame HER for getting pregnant leaves me speechless.
What became of her and her family?
Dorrie
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I totally agree with you PharmaT and to blame HER for getting pregnant leaves me speechless.
What became of her and her family?
Dorrie
The 16 year old was forced to take on responsibility for looking after the younger ones and supporting them but they lost their croft and had to move into the nearest town. The baby who was born in prison died at 10mon old. by the time she was released she was a gran but her daughter and granddaughter died soon after she was released. She went to live with her son who moved to Edinburgh for work. In Edinburgh 2 more of her children died including my grt grt grandfather (he'd been 5 when she went to prison) and her daughter in law moved back up north with those 2 children so she could live with her parents. She ended up dying at 65 herself. The last record I can find of her husband was him being released from prison after 4 years (sentenced to 6), he was told not to make contact with the children on his release papers (they were a corrupting influence apparently). I still haven't established what happened to him in the end.
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What a sad story. Life was very harsh then. :'(
Rosie
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That is very sad. The whole family suffered because of an unrealistic sentence.
Just horrible.
Dorrie.
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Hi Forfarian,
I’ve been looking into your post. Records of the Dundee Prison are held at the National Records of Scotland, however few survive. The only registers of criminals are 1900-1902 (Reference: HH21/72/1); 1902-1905 (HH21/47/9); 1905-1908 (HH21/47/11); 1911-1915 (HH21/47/15); 1922-1927 (HH21/47/17). We will update our website with these references but it’s a shame none survive from the 1850s period.
Sponsorship is £20 per hour, this is per hour of indexing, the time is not used to photograph the records and put the data online etc., it is a solid hour of indexing. Of course, you can also volunteer to index if you have any time to do so.
Feel free to get in touch to find out more: https://www.scottishindexes.com/contact.aspx
Emma
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Thanks, Emma. I'll just have to be content with the court case papers then, I suppose!