Old Bailey's Online - Records Behind Entries?

[eKeith]

I found some interesting entries in the proceedings of the "The Old Bailey" online that I want to explore further.  Where would the records for those entries be located?

[PrueM]

Hi eKeith 

When you say you have found some entries, do you mean in the index, or have you read the trial transcripts?  What further information did you want to find?

Cheers
Prue

[Valda]

Hi


The Old Bailey was the major assize court for London area which also had quarter sessions courts - for the City of London, Middlesex, Westminster and Surrey sessions and the petty sessions (magistrates) known in London as police courts.

The starting point for researching criminals is reading The National Archives information

Looking for a criminal trial or conviction

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/criminal-trial-or-conviction.htm?WT.lp=rg-3111

Prisoners

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/prisoners.htm?WT.lp=rg-3150

Transportees

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/transportees.htm



and the London Metropolitan research guides

My ancestor was a convict

http://217.154.230.218/NR/rdonlyres/8D19D54C-D0B6-4E94-A3BD-C9F4520EAF19/0/42MYANCESTORWASACONVICT.pdf

Middlesex sessions

http://217.154.230.218/NR/rdonlyres/43C352A8-3F2A-4B20-83A4-26070196B9DE/0/39ABRIEFGUIDETOTHEMIDDLESEXSESSIONSRECORDS.pdf

session records for the City of London and Southwark

http://217.154.230.218/NR/rdonlyres/3D1EB9E4-C733-474B-9678-FA8FEC4908A0/0/40SESSIONSRECORDSFORTHECITYOFLONDONANDSOUTHWARK.pdf


Regards


Valda

[eKeith]

Hi eKeith 

When you say you have found some entries, do you mean in the index, or have you read the trial transcripts?  What further information did you want to find?

Cheers
Prue

Prue:

The entries (not in index) are seemingly brief which led me to think that maybe the material online are abstracts of sorts.  It would seem to me that serious matters like the execution of an individual would generate more records that what appears.

Keith 

[jorose]

Newspaper records often give more juice than the official records.
You could have a go at:
http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

Many people were originally sentenced to death but not, in the end, executed. There may be petitions (they sometimes pop up on the NA catalogue).

[Valda]

Hi


Taken from the Proceedings website

http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Value.jsp

'While the richly detailed evidence presented is generally accurate, the Proceedings do not provide a full transcript of everything that was said in court....'

The Proceedings are not official court transcripts. They were written as a commerical exercise to be published as broadsheets. They eventually ceased because of competition from newspapers. Official court transcripts do not exist before the C19th and I have only seen survival of that sort of material from important murder cases, usually in the form of the judge's handwritten notes at The National Archives.

Court proceedings (really newspaper reports/accounts) from quarter sessions, petty sessions and all other assize courts you have to turn to  C19th newspapers.

A court hears the evidence presented and passes a sentence. The person leaves the court - that's the end of the trial. What has happened pre the trial and after the trial appears in other records.


Regards

Valda