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Dear Amy,

Unfortunately my William Thomson was born in 1852 and was in Perth prison for the 1881 census. I know he wasn't there in either 1871 or 1891 because I have his census records for those years too.  Accordingly to a very old family rumour (unsubstantiated) he was there for stealing sheep.

I find the National Archive website almost impenetrable and have wandered about it without success. It is Byzantine in it's complexity.

Regards,

Peter Bolton alias Jessie Thomson

Serious crimes were tried in the High Court of Justiciary, and these records still exist, except that most often you only get the name of the panel (accused), the alleged crime, the name of the judge, sometimes the names of the witnesses, the where and the when, and the verdict; but no detailed record of the trial, i.e. the evidence of and cross examination of the witnesses.

However, it's near certain that there will be a near verbatim report in a newspaper somewhere, depending on where the crime was committed, and where the High  Court was sitting.  The index to these in on-line.

On top of that, all the productions, i.e. interviews with those involved, maps, digrams, descriptions, etc., in the runup to the trial, is still there in Edinburgh at West Register House, and can make fascinating reading, but you need to visit WRH.

Lesser crimes, for the era in this thread, were tried in the Sheriff Court.  Sadly, with very few exceptions, kept as an example of the records, the Sheriff Court records have not been kept.

ibi

I'd like to access the newspaper on-line index if you could point me in the right direction. William Thomson, the prisoner, was an inmate in 1881 and came from rural Aberdeenshire so the records would be in "The Aberdeen Journal". I guess he was a lesser criminal belonging in the Sheriff Court record arena - even with the help of "black cat" nothing could be found. However an on-line newspaper index could prove to be very fruitful.

Many thanks - Jessie Thomson

Thanks. I've got a bit further but the NAS website is not the greatest for even intuitive thinking. Had a look at the results thrown up by NAS but there did not appear to be anything that could lead me further - but I am inexperienced!
I thought that a crime warranting imprisonment was fairly serious and perhaps unusual for a relatively remote rural area. I know that William Thomson was at home in July 1876 because he has signed his grandfather's death certificate.
In 1881 he was no longer at home according to the Census but in jail in Perth.
He was back at Wardhead, Coull, the family home in 1891 according to the census.
Despite putting in a large date range on the NAS website I don't seem to have had much success.

Clearly I am going wrong somewhere........ any further hints?
Much obliged for the help so far though.

Hi again,

Only found two records for a William Crumley. However, he's a lot younger than your William (born c. 1844) and this one was found not guilty. The reference numbers for his records are AD14/71/16 and JC26/1871/19. Other info included is that he was a tinsmith.

hume24