Pentonville Prison 1881

[raewyngillian]

Hi All,

If someone is found on the 1881 census to be in Pentonville Prison,  is there any online database or records to find out why that person was in prison and what the charge and sebtence were??

Hoping someone can help

Gillie, Brisbane    

[Little Nell]

Hi Gillie,

It is possible that there was a newspaper report of the trial and the sentence.  A good place to start might be the following link:
http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/free4_tda

Type password "trial" in the box that comes up.  This is the Times digital archive.  Kevan, Suey and Boongie Pam have also recommended this link on RootsChat   and it is potentially a gold  mine. If you search on the persons name within the time frame in the whole article, you may be lucky and find out why that person was in prison.  I found out from the 1901 census that a 2x great uncle was in Pentonville and the archive gave me the answer that he had assaulted a police officer, having managed to avoid punishment for apparently stealing a pony and cart.  The reports are quite illuminating and the report about my 2x great uncle caused great hilarity in the family, imagining what my grandmother would have said, had she known.  I also found a 19th century conman who was probably a cousin several times removed and many sad stories of women who killed their babies and were transported.

Another web site to try is the Black Sheep Index:
www.lightage.demon.co.uk

Names etc extracted from press reports about all sorts of "black sheep", but you have to pay for a copy of the report itself to get all the information you might require.

Good luck

Nell

[raewyngillian]

Many thanks for your reply.  I shall try out those links.

Gillie