Woking Invalid Prison in Surrey

[Pandy]

The punishment - 7 years - reflects the view of Victorians regarding embezzlement - this was a betrayal of trust which was held every bit as serious as the theft of the money itself.  Bear in mind that a clerk's starting salary was not much more than £80 pa and you get a picture of what the crime meant.  There was an enormous amount of fraud and embezzlement in the middle of the 19th century.  At times anything up to half the clerks in a bank might be away from work, giving evidence in various court cases!
If you keep looking you may find that newspapers all over the place - even in Australia - might have picked up the story.
Sorry to hear you have had such problems losing your research - better luck now.

[iluleah]

Hi Pandy

Yes you are right, I hadn't grasped just how different thinking was back then and after reading Valda's post and the explanation given I did lots of research into Victorian thinking/crime and certainly conditions in prisons at that time, which with todays standards and thinking was barbaric to say the least, yet even the Victorians realised that the treatment they dished out was causing mental instability for 'convicts' from official reports I have read....and to make it worse the £20 was the first charge, his second one was for another £10.....so £30 in total

[CommonSensor]

Would anyone know how to find out what happened to a prisoner at Woking Invalid Prison if (i) he died there and (ii) he was transferred elsewhere when it closed? I have checked at TNA and in the prison register the prisoner I am interested in was admitted in May 1865 but there is no corresponding official note of how he left (died or transferred). All the other prisoners in the register, so far as I could see, had a note of what happened to them after admission ie at the end of their sentences or transferred if before. Is there a burial register for the prison and if a prisoner died where routinely were they buried?

Second question, was Woking Invalid Prison only for prisoners who were physically disabled in some way or were there connotations of mental incapacity too? Was it akin to a mental asylum for prisoners?

Grateful for any help.

[iluleah]

Close to Woking Invalid Prison was a mental asylum for pauper lunatics whose deceased patients were also buried at Brookwood Cemetery.

http://www.brookwoodcemetery.com/

[Pandy]

Presumably you found the name in the prison quarterly returns.  You can also look at Licences - where prisoners had completed their 'tariff' - 3/4 of the their sentence, they were released 'on licence'. Licences contain all the information concerning prison earnings, state of health etc. and detail where prisoners were transferred to and when released.
The licences are available at the NA at Kew.
You will find lots of information about Woking Prison on http://wokingprison.blogspot.co.uk/
The blog has had no new posts for some time, but holds a lot of good information about the buildings, the set up and the prisoners.  It certainly suggests that the primary purpose of the prison was to hold mental patients - but whether they were ill before entering the 'separate, silent system' or whether they became so because of it, is for you to decide!

[CommonSensor]

Thank you - really helpful.

[InstitutionalH]

Hi @CommonSensor, @Pandy is absolutely right, the Quarterly Returns are your best port of call.

Aside from going to the NA, Findmypast has added these to their online resources (however the transcription is a bit shoddy and you have to normally go back a number of pages to find out which prison/quarter is being reported on).

If you're interested, i'm currently working on a research project exploring the history and individual lives of inmates who served time at Woking Convict Invalid Prison.

[Pandy]

Hi,
Just seen your reply to someone about the Woking Invalid Prison. I did a lot of research for a book about one of its inmates and would be happy to share my findings with you. Contact me via ROOTSCHAT with anything you would like me to address.

[iluleah]

I am  trying to research a person who was sentenced and spent time at this prison.

I have a copy of the Calender of Prisioners from Kew which I got several years ago, however they informed me they didn't hold the prison records.

I then wrote to Surrey records office as I wanted to find out where the actual prison records are kept and never got a straighforward answer of if they had them or not, just opening times and address to visit ( not possible right now)

I was hoping someone who knew Surrey records system and possibly knew where these records are kept or likely to be kept. I would dearly love a copy of his prison record where hopefully there will also be a photograph of him but I first need to find them

TIA

WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOO FOUND IT!

Thanks to Rootchat someone posted that FindMyPast was not allowing images to be downloaded in the free weekend...I didn't know there was a free weekend... so off to look and found William Blays prison record along with a photo of him, boy does he look like a shifty character....I am thrilled

I have been looking for the best part of 20 years for that particular record...Thank you Rootchat and for several very helpful members who PM'd me with lots of additional information.... now off to read and digest the record I was able to download
So not sure why others can't download or why FindMyPast had told them they had switched off the download option... I just right clicked image and 'save image as'