Woking Invalid Prison in Surrey

[iluleah]

Thanks Valda

Just before I looked back at rootschat I sent an email to  the website you are suggesting...it makes it so much easier to get a broader picture especially when working alone to 'chat' on here and get good feedback and suggestions, as well as having some great members who know and share their particular areas of research or parts of the Country.

I will do a search on the local Lincolnsire newspapers and see what I can find ( not thought of that one and it is obvious) and maybe add something to the Lincolnshire forum and link it to this thread.

Regards

[Pandy]

Hi
I have come into this chat rather late - I have been working on Woking prison records - using the quarterly returns at Kew.  Information is thin and photographs were not taken until after 1872.
The convict I have been tracing was convicted at the Central Criminal Court, having been held at Bow Street and then Newgate.  He went to Millbank - but did not stay long, being incapacitated.  He went straight from there to Woking and served out the rest of his sentence there.
I too would like to see Woking registers - there ought to be something in addition to the quarterly returns - but they may have perished.  Is there really nothing in Woking area?
Have you tried looking at the male licences?  This isn't an easy task - it really helps if you know more or less when he was released.  A sentence of 14 years = licenced after 10 (if well behaved).  You have to do a bit of maths to find the right box at Kew - I was lucky first time!  Licences were always issued on the last day of the month and had to be executed during the next month - so there was usually a delay of a week or two before the prisoner was released.  Information about the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society would be good - they were used to get financial support to th discharged prisoners and also worked to find their family and link them up - in an effort to prevent reoffending.  I have found nothing relating to Woking yet.
The other place you can look is at Corinne's blog on the prison - put Woking Prison in your search engine.  It's very interesting - Corinne lives in one of the old prison officers' houses.
Happy hunting!

[iluleah]

Hi Pandy

Thank you for your input. In a way I am 'pleased' it is not just me having issues getting records on Woking Invalid Prison as it doesn't make me feel so isolated, and I have made a note of the registers should I someday get the chance to go to Kew agan

It was several years ago that I got a copy of Wm Blay's Lincoln Azzises papers from Kew and at that time I asked advice about what other documents they held as I had found he was at Woking from the 1881 census...so did they have prison records or any records which could give me more information and was told no and told they would be held at Surrey records office...maybe I spoke to the wrong person for the advice/support I needed I don't know.

Yes Corrine's blog is great which Jane signposted me to and has given me lots of background information

Wm Blay was sentenced in Mar 1876 for 7 years  at Lincoln...from there I have no idea where he was sent, 1881 he is at Woking and by 1888 he died back in Lincolnshire.

I have found lots of other information while looking, such as several years before this his brother married someone who was already married after her husband was transported( don't know if he knew or not) but he died the following year and when she died she was buried using her '1st' husbands name, she spent 2 months doing hard labour prior to her 'second' marriage for 'stealing from the school master' and one of his sisters was 'a bad girl'...still investigating this one....so it seems lots of 'interesting' people in this family..and I have just found out this morning another brother ( I think) paid for the church clock and bell, so slowly I am building the 'flesh on the bones' but would still love to find more about William Blay

Thanks

[Jane Masri]

Hi Valda, thanks for your reply.  You must have a load of books on your shelves as you always come up trumps on all sorts of topics 
iluleah, it looks as if  there's lots of support & interest in the prison so keep digging,

Jane

[Pandy]

Hi
if he left Lincoln in 1876 there should be a record of where he went.  If he ended up at Woking he probably went to  government run prison from Lincoln.  Try to find out his prison number (changes with each prison).  1876 + 3/4 of 7 years brings you to 1876 + 63 months.  Sentence start begins on the day of conviction - so you need to start your search soon after the 1881 census. If you know the date of sentencing you can get even closer.  It would be worth your while searching the quarterly returns for that period - you would only need to search a few to find him.  The details of his offence, sentence, sentencing court, health and behaviour will all be noted there + his Woking number.  If he was licenced it will tell you where to and the date.  Then you track him down in the male licences and you get a lot more information (if you are lucky!)
I have struggled at Kew myself - the people there try to be helpful, but they are not all reliable and seem to know different things - so it is very much the luck of the draw.  Of course, new material keeps coming on line and available - so it's hard to keep up to date.
I hope you find out what you want to know - this roguish ancestors are fun aren't they?!

[iluleah]

Jane and Pandy


First thank you for the support it means a lot and asking daft questions on here has helped me sort out in my own head how, where, what to look for, from the information on copies of the Azzises records I have had for ten years which at that time I tried my best to find more...then got side tracked on other ancestors, then for a long time I have not done any FH...life, house moving, country moving,disaster of losing all my FH ( twice, one computer stolen and another crash...the records are still there because of the size of the file but I can't get them) and having the determination to get it all organised again from my paper files ( thank goodness I kept everything, including those scribbled note books)

With what you have said Pandy he must have been at Lincoln even if it was only for a week or two as the first charge: date of warrant was 10 Feb 1876, recieved into custody 12 Feb 1876, second charge it says Detained, date of warrant 25 Feb 1876 and faced both charges on 17 March 1876.

I have just recieved a wonderful photograph of his headstone back in the village where he was born worked and lived and reminds me when you look at these headstones in peaceful sleepy rural villages which tells you someone died aged 58 years you have no idea of their lives  I would attach it however I have no idea how to and clicking the Attach a photograph or image and other options).. below does help me in explaining.......maybe I am being 'slow'.......... William Blay is certainly a challenge and great fun..............

[Jane Masri]

There is mention of his crime in the Liverpool Mercury, Tuesday March 21 1876.

'At Lincoln Assizes on Saturday, William Blay, postmaster at Stickney, was sentenced to seven years penal servitude for having embezzled 20 pounds, which had been paid to him by a depositor in the P.O. Savings Bank.'

But you probably know all that  

Jane

[iluleah]

Wow Jane thankyou...and no I didn't know that..........It must have been a big story for Liverpool to print anything when it happened across the country in Lincolnshire

[Jane Masri]

More meat for the bones 

Jane