Crime and Punishment

Old Bailey Court Records

London’s Central Criminal Court was known as Old Bailey. This was an important court from which to document the Irish who settled in London.

Records of Old Bailey

The records have been indexed in a searchable database, with digitized images, from 1674-1913. These are known as the Old Bailey Proceedings. Also on the database are the Ordinary of Newgate’s Accounts from 1673-1772. The database provides accesses to 197,000 trials along with biographical information on the 2,500 executions of men and women at Tyburn. The Old Bailey Proceedings databases are free of charge.

Additional Old Bailey Research Helps

Due to their historical nature, the website has a Glossary which can help you understand the older English as well as the legal terms. There are also guides to help you sort through what constituted crime and punishment as seen in the records. If this wasn’t enough, then check out the section on “Gender in the Proceedings.”

Searching the Old Bailey Database by Category

Aside from the general name search, there is a category search. You can search by offence. From different types of theft to different types of sexual crimes; this section alone provides a rare window into the world of the people on trial. It also can help us understand what a “religious offence” was all about. One interesting offence category is labeled “Miscellaneous” with attached sub-categories to it. Here we get a glimpse into the lives of people charged with infanticide, illegal abortion, piracy and return from transportation. An offence category under “Violent Theft” includes “Highway Robbery.” That was not just an expression in the world these people lived in.

As far as thought provoking databases, this one is hard to beat. Even if your ancestors never went to London make sure you explore this resource. Their world was very foreign to us; yet at the same time, these Proceedings teach us how little things have changed. People are still people and we just have new ways of doing what they did back then.

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Hanging as a Cultural Concern in 1811

28 Jan By Dwight Leave a Comment

In our modern society, we don’t think in terms of hanging as a method of execution. If fact, most of us in the modern industrialized West seldom think of execution at all. However, in the United Kingdom and Ireland of 1811, a convicted criminal’s options may have been either a sentence of time, transportation to the penal colonies or commonly the gallows. As a result, a culture developed around hanging and the gallows as an event. Even a language developed which encapsulated how the common people saw this very real aspect of their lives. Just the large number of terms associated with execution by hanging demonstrates the subject was a concern to them.

Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811)

The list below comprises terms which the common, semi-literate or illiterate people used to understand this method of execution. It is taken from the Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811). This reference tool defines words and terms which were in usage among these common people throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland. However, because this insightful period source is literally in an A to Z format, topics such as these are lost and inaccessible without already knowing the term.

Hanging and Gallows Terms in 1811

This glossary provides some insight into the common people and their thinking. It gives them a voice into their daily concerns which would be difficult to find elsewhere. I have added some clarification to some definitions to make them comprehensible to the modern family historian.

Bed: This has several meanings. The root is to be dead. It was common for those being hanged to put up a ladder “to bed” and when the ladder was taken away they were “turned off.”

Beilby’s Ball: He will dance at Beilby’s ball where the sheriff pays the music; means he will be hanged.

Climb: To ascend the gallows.

Cockles: To be hanged as in “To cry cockles.” It is thought the term comes from the noise made while strangling

Collar Day: Execution day.

Colquarron: A man’s neck. His colquarron is just about to be twisted, meaning He is just going to be hanged.

Crop: To be knocked down for a crop is to be condemned to be hanged. Cropped means hanged.

Dance Upon Nothing: To be hanged.

To Dangle: One meaning is to be hanged.

To Dawb: To bribe. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb; meaning the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe.

Deadly Nevergreen: The gallows a reference to “Deadly Nevergreen that bears fruit all the year round.” Also referred to as Three Legged Mare.

Die Hard: To die hard is to show no signs of fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak. This advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the law, by their old comrades, anxious for the honor of the gang.

Drop: An instrument for executing felons by means of a platform which drops from under them. Also termed the Last Drop or Morning Drop.

Frisk: To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.

Frummagemmed: Choaked, strangled, suffocated or hanged.

[Die] Game: to suffer at the gallows without showing any signs of fear or repentance.

Gaoler’s Coach: A hurdle (portable barrier or cage) usually conveyed from the gaol (jail) to the place of execution on a hurdle or sledge (vehicle drawn by draft animals).

Hempen Fever: A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever (hemp was used to make ropes).

Hempen Widow: One whose husband was hanged.

Jack Ketch: The hangman. Also called Derrick and Ketch.

Jammed: Hanged

Ladder: To go up the ladder to rest is to be hanged.

Leaf: To go off with the fall of a leaf; to be hanged. Criminals in Dublin being turned off from the outside of the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge, like the leaf of a table.

Neck Verse: Formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin manuscript psalter; this saved them from the gallows. It was Psalms 51:1.

New Drop: The scaffold used for hanging criminals (at Newgate Prison), which dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of a cart in the process was unnecessary.

Newman’s Lift: The gallows.

Noozed: Hanged or married.

Nubbing: Hanging. The Nibbing Cheat is the gallows. The Nubbing Cove is the hangman and the Nubbing Ken is the sessions house.

Paddington Fair Day: An execution day. To Dance the Paddington Frisk is to be hanged.

Picture Frame: The sheriff’s picture frame is the gallows or pillory (stocks).

Piss: He will piss when he can’t whistle; he will be hanged.

Pit: The pit is a hole under the gallows where poor rogues unable to pay the fees are buried.

Quinsey: Choked by a hempen quinsy means hanged.

Scapegallows: One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows. See Slipgibbet.

Scragged: Hanged.

Scragg’em Fair: A public execution.

Sheriff’s Ball: An execution. To dance at the sheriff’s ball, a loll out one’s tongue at the company is to be hanged or go to rest in a horse’s night cap, i.e. a halter.

Sheriff’s Journeyman: The hangman.

Sheriff’s Picture Frame: The gallows.

Slipgibbet: One for whom the gallows is said to grin.

Stretching: Hanging: He’ll stretch for it means he’ll hang for it.

Sus Per Coll: Hanged. Persons who have been hanged are thus entered into the jailor’s books.

To Swing: To be hanged. He will swing for it means he will be hanged for it.

Topping Cheat: The gallows.

Topping Cove: The hangman.

Trine: To hang.

Trining: Hanging.

Trooper: You will die the death of a trooper’s horse, which means with your shoes on. This is a jocular method of telling anyone he will be hanged.

Tucked Up: Hanged

Twisted: Executed, hanged.

Wry Mouth and a Pissen Pair of Breeches: Hanging.

Wry Neck Day: Hanging day.

Click Here if you would like to learn more about your common ancestor and their times.

Two Little Known Penal Colonies Where Irish Were Sent

7 Jul By Dwight Leave a Comment

Court records at the National Library of Ireland: www.nli.ie detail prisoners who were transported to the penal colonies at Bermuda, Gibraltar and Tasmania (Van Dieman’s Land). Classified as Ms. 3016, this amazing set of transportation records covers 1849-1850. They show the Irish court a person was convicted in, the addresses of friends and relatives, religion and the prisoner’s age. While transportation to Australia is well known, the other penal colonies, including Bermuda and Gibraltar remain relatively unknown.

In Bermuda, the convicts were used for labor in the dockyard and aboard ships anchored in the bay off Boaz Island. Convict labor was also used to build the dockyard and Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island. Conditions were harsh and many prisoners died of yellow fever. This lead to prison revolts and the execution of many of those involved.

The “convict establishment” was closed in 1865. The men were taken to England or carried to Australia on “tickets of leave.” Records documenting the lives of these convicts are in the Assignment Lists and Quarterly Returns of the Hulk Establishments (Series HO11) at the National Archives, Kew: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk The HO series have been indexed on a searchable database on the State Library of Queensland as “Convict Transportation Register Database”: www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/fh/convicts

The British used prisoners to work on the docks in Gibraltar. They began sending convicts to labor on fortifications in 1842. These prisoners lived on ships in the harbor and were not allowed to associate with the local population. When one escaped the town bells would ring until he was recaptured. They were shipped back to Great Britain and Ireland after their terms expired.

The history of Irish convicts is both fascinating and heart wrenching at the same time. The reasons people were transported can be both sobering and mindboggling.

Irish Petty Court Session Records

4 Jul By Dwight Leave a Comment

A fascinating resource is the Petty Court Session records. These are on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL): www.familysearch.org and now online and indexed as “Petty Session Order Books, 1851-1910”: www.findmypast.ie The originals are at the National Archives of Ireland: www.nationalarchives.ie for the Republic of Ireland only. This archive of records covers some 5.2 million cases. The goal of Findmypast is to also digitize the court records for Northern Ireland.

I know it is difficult to find social history for a given townland, which leaves gaps in trying to write about the lives of your ancestors. The Petty Sessions Court records tell the townland the parties were residing, the accusation, and the sentencing. This means you can piece together a very intimate history of your townland by exploring the court cases involving the residents. Remember, townlands are small, and everybody knew everything. Your ancestors would have known about a court case involving the neighbors! Whether it’s theft, violence, or any other seedy activity, the Petty Sessions Court can give you details found no place else.

An area was served by a court seated in a town. A list of the towns can be found on the Findmypast website. You can use the “County” field in the search which brings up everybody with the name you are looking for. At that point, it will give you the details andyou can purchase the entry or look at the FHL microfilm. The index will give you the names of witnesses, defendants and complainant.

In conclusion, these records are worth your time, not only when looking for a particular person or case, but also when trying to reconstruct the social history of a townland and its people. These are a truly amazing if not seedy source!

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