Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (72 page)

Whether we like it or not, there is a strong chance that at least one of our ancestors in the dim and distant past was involved in criminal activity. Sometimes these stories are passed down the family, leaving you with tantalizing clues about nefarious activity; in other instances you can stumble across the evidence, revealing a completely different side to relatives you thought you knew already. This chapter introduces you to the various sources available to investigate some of these rumours and begin to piece together the evidence for your ancestors' crimes and punishments.

Perhaps one of the more interesting revelations in your family tree (depending on the nature of the crime and when it took place) is the discovery of a criminal ancestor. Over time, hundreds of thousands of people were convicted of crimes, especially for theft or poaching when the only other option facing many poor people was to starve to death. The punishment meted out to such individuals was extremely harsh by modern standards (capital punishment being used in many cases). Indeed prisons were not used as a means of punishment until the nineteenth century, but simply to hold individuals awaiting trial. Until that date many crimes were punished by execution or transportation, the latter seen as a humane alternative despite the fact that a large percentage of transported convicts died en route to their penal colony.

As exciting as it may be to find a criminal ancestor in the family tree, the drawback is that criminal records are rather complicated to use. The individual may have been tried in any one of a number of different
courts, depending on the nature of the crime, the time period and the location. The general rule is that the more serious crimes would be tried in the higher courts (the assizes or palatinate courts) and the less serious crimes in the lesser courts (quarter and petty sessions). However, it is important to remember that this was by no means always the case. Another complicating factor is that most cases were recorded in Latin until 1732 and thereafter often used legal abbreviations and terminology. Below is a background to the history of the various courts used to convict criminals in the country following the Norman Conquest.

‘
There is a strong chance at least one of your ancestors was a criminal
.'

Initially after the Norman Conquest, the manorial courts of individual lords of the manor were responsible for dealing with less serious criminal offences. By the fourteenth century, however, this system was replaced by using Justices of the Peace (or magistrates) who would settle matters such as petty theft, drunkenness and assault amongst others. These men were given authority by royal commission and were prominent members of the local community rather than professional lawyers or judges. They would meet four times a year in every county of England and Wales in what became known as ‘quarter sessions' and their jurisdiction increased through the centuries. They could also give judgment in certain cases without the need of a jury. When judgment was made without a jury it was termed ‘summary jurisdiction' and after the eighteenth century this became a popular method of dealing with minor crimes and was given the term ‘petty sessions', as JPs would meet to decide these cases outside the quarter sessions. In urban areas such as towns and cities quarter sessions were known as ‘borough sessions'.

The more serious crimes between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries were not tried at the manorial courts, but at the hearings of the General Eyre (‘eyre' being derived from the Latin word for journey,
iter
). This court was made up of a group of judges appointed by the King who would travel around the country from their base in London
administering the King's justice in a wide range of civil and criminal matters. They would visit the various counties every few years to fulfil this duty, although the frequency and number of judges travelling would often vary.

Lesley Garrett had often wondered why little information about her paternal Garrett ancestors had passed down to her. Equally, her father, Derek Garrett, knew little about his great-grandfather Charles Garrett – so Lesley decided to investigate further. Putting together the family tree was relatively easy, by ordering certificates and cross-referencing with census returns. All these documents suggested that Charles had been a master butcher, with a shop in Finkle Street, Thorne; and this was confirmed by entries in trade directories, found in the local archives when Lesley visited to find out more about her elusive ancestor. So she was surprised to find that he had actually been one of the leading men of the town, rising to councillor and seen by his peers as one of the pillars of the community. Therefore why had no memory of such a prominent man passed down through the generations?

The answer came when Lesley did some further digging around Charles and his family. It became apparent that his wife, Mary Ann Garrett, had died in 1899; but the death certificate showed that it was not from natural causes! Indeed, she had died from poisoning by carboxylic acid, a chemical regularly used by butchers to swill away blood and other animal products from the workplace at the end of each day. The death certificate showed that a coroner's inquest had been held. By cross-referencing the date of the inquest recorded on the certificate, Lesley was able to search the local newspaper, where details of the inquest were reported.

According to the transcript, Charles Garrett had poured his wife her tonic drink but had mistakenly given her carboxylic acid instead of wine. The coroner absolved the ‘distraught' Charles from any blame, but certain questions remained unanswered – such as how could a man, used to handling such a potent chemical on a daily basis, make a fatal mistake when carboxylic acid was clearly stored in a poison bottle, and why did he smash the offending bottle afterwards? Because no charges were ever brought against Charles, he continued with his business; but Lesley felt sure that members of his family suspected him of poisoning his wife on purpose – Charle's son, Tom, and his daughter-in-law, Mary, broke off contact with Charles. This may explain why so little information about him has filtered down to her today.

The Eyre system was replaced by the Assize (the word ‘Assize' is derived from the Norman-French for ‘sitting') system during the course of the fourteenth century. Assizes would become the main courts for criminal trials until their abolition in 1971. The assize system was based on its predecessor, with judges from Westminster visiting the various counties of England. These judges would often travel in pairs on circuits for different parts of the country (the Western or Midland circuit, for example). The authority of these judges rested with the commissions of gaol delivery (to try prisoners) and peace and, from the 1530s onwards, of ‘oyer and terminer'. The term ‘oyer and terminer' literally means to ‘hear and determine' and refers to felony cases that could not be tried in local courts (cases of treason, murder, rape, rebellion, burglary, etc.). The judges would hold court alongside a jury of 12 men.

By 1340 six assize circuits had been established: Home (the counties surrounding London), Western, Oxford, Norfolk, Midland and Northern. Certain parts of the country fell outside the jurisdiction of these circuits. The City of London (and later Middlesex), Wales, Bristol and the palatinates of Chester, Durham and Lancaster all had separate systems and will be discussed below.

The highest court in the land, with overriding jurisdiction over any of the above courts, was the King's Bench. This court was situated in Westminster, being established in the twelfth century, and dealt with both criminal and civil matters. Criminal cases were dealt with under the ‘Crown side' and civil cases under the ‘plea side'. It served as a court of appeal for any supposedly erroneous convictions made by the lesser courts and was reformed as the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in 1875.

As has been seen, there were numerous courts dealing with criminal matters. In order to search the original records it is necessary to have a rough idea of where and when the trial occurred. Often the best course of action is to start searching through published sources including newspapers and pamphlets, as they provide the crucial pieces of information necessary to search the original records.

1
.
Newspapers

Local newspapers would often report and give useful summaries of criminal trials occurring in the locality and may also list the exact date of the trial and which court the trial was held at. If the crime was particularly newsworthy it may also be featured in national newspapers such as
The Times
and it is always worthwhile searching these sources if the crime occurred the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (when newspapers began to be published).

2
.
Law Reports

These were published summaries and judgments of key civil and criminal cases that were used to decide matters of law. As they were only compiled for those casing affecting the drafting of law they only cover a very small percentage of total cases. Nevertheless, if the case of interest is included, the report will also give the exact details of the trial to allow easy access to original sources. They can be found in large reference libraries and legal libraries and institutes.

3
.
T. B. Howell's
A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason
(Longman et al., 33 vols, 1816–26)

This is a published collection of criminal trials from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries, relating in the most part to those being tried for crimes against the state. The source is now available to search on CD-ROM.

4
.
British Trials 1660–1900
(Chadwyck-Healey)

This publication is sourced from the numerous contemporary pamphlets that were printed reporting the more sensational criminal cases. The source is available in a microfiche format and is indexed by names of victims and defendants, location of the trial and the nature of the crime. The microfiche can be found in The National Archives, the British Library, London Guildhall Library and other large reference libraries. The original pamphlets themselves are scattered amongst national and local archives.

5
.
Notable British Trials

This is an 83-volume collection of the more famous and interesting trials that occurred in England and Scotland, published from 1905 to 1959. It includes details of the trials themselves along with witness accounts, and therefore provides the required details needed to access the original records.

As mentioned above, the trial records themselves, where they do survive, can be complicated to use. Prior to 1732 they were recorded in Latin and there are no comprehensive name indexes to the records (although indexes exist for certain sections of the records). The records themselves can be found either in The National Archives or local repositories, dependent upon which court the individual was tried in. The records are also subject to closure rules, also dependent upon when the trial occurred, and some may not be in the public domain.

These were the oldest courts dealing with less serious criminal matters following the Norman Conquest. The records survive in the form of court rolls or books detailing the minutes of the courts. Three types of manorial courts existed:

1.
The Court Leet:
This court would try certain offences including assaults, poaching and other nuisances. Its judicial role came to be superseded by the Justices of the Peace after the fourteenth century (see below).

2.
The Court Baron:
This court was responsible for disputes between the lord of the manor and his freehold tenants.

3.
The Court Customary:
The Court had the same function as the court baron but for disputes between the lord and his customary tenants. The court baron and court customary would usually sit together and would be known as the court baron; they were not primarily interested in criminal matters.

The records for manorial courts are scattered in numerous archives. They may be at The National Archives, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, local record offices or even private collections. The collections begin from around the thirteenth century but many do not survive in their entirety. The best place to begin searching is by using the Manorial Documents Register held at The National Archives. The Register details exactly where records for each manor are located along with what exactly survives for a specific manor in England and Wales. It has been partly computerized for certain counties and can be searched online on The National Archives' database. However, not every county has been placed on the online database at the time of publication and it may only be possible to search the register onsite by visiting the archive.

‘
Trial records can be complicated to use
.'

From about the fourteenth century onwards, the function of the manorial courts gradually became replaced by judicial sessions held by Justices of the Peace, known as quarter or petty sessions (detailed above). Indeed by the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the JPs had a number of administrative functions aside from less serious criminal trials, including licensing certain trades and overseeing the enforcement of the Poor Law. The JPs continued to meet quarterly per annum until 1971 and surviving archives for such meetings originate from the records maintained by the Clerk of the Peace.

Surviving records for quarter or petty sessions are to be found in local record offices or archives. The type of information retained by archives includes order and minute books, indictments and sessions' rolls. As surviving records may be scattered amongst different archives of the county it is advisable to refer to Jeremy Gibson's book,
Quarter Sessions Records for Family Historians
(1995). Gibson provides a detailed list of the exact location of surviving records, including for which dates the material survives. Additionally, it is always worthwhile referring to the local county record office's website as many such institutes are placing their catalogues online.