Oxfordshire History Centre blog

The second part of this blog will take a look at local criminal trials, sentencing, and the conditions and punishments experienced by those incarcerated. The focus will be on those committed to the Oxfordshire’s common gaol at Oxford Castle.

The Courts

As is the case now, criminal offences were historically dealt with by different courts, according to their severity. Minor crimes like nuisances, trespass, certain poor law offences and licencing breaches were often dealt with summarily by local justices in ‘Petty Sessions’, with those convicted often fined or admitted to the local House of Correction. More serious cases such as assault, indecent assault and theft were typically heard in the County, City or, occasionally, Borough Quarter Sessions. The most serious offences, including murder, grand larceny and highway robbery, were normally referred to the Assize Courts. These operated in multi-county ‘circuits’, with a judge from the higher courts in London travelling around major towns in his circuit and hearing cases, aided by local magistrates.

Quarter Sessions collections are a good source of information for many local trials. Sessions bundles generally contain Certificates of Conviction – these are certificates issued by magistrates around the county in summary prosecutions (Petty Sessions) and deposited with the County Justices. Calendars of Prisoners in the Castle Gaol for trial at Quarter Sessions can also be found within most of the Sessions bundles – they typically detail the names, ages and offences of the accused. Post-trial ‘Sentences of the Prisoners’ provide the verdict of the court, and other papers related to Quarter Sessions trials, such as indictments and depositions (witness statements or examinations), also form part of these bundles. Although records of the Assize courts are not held locally, it is not unusual for 19th century Calendars of Prisoners to include key details on those held at the County Prison pre or post trial at Assizes.

Sentencing and Punishment

Punishment for offences could vary from a fine or incarceration up to execution for the most serious crimes. Custodial sentences in the 19th century could be for a matter of days - for certain thefts and assault, sentences of one to twelve months were common. For example, at Summer Assizes 1826 48-year-old Elizabeth Widdowes was tried for maliciously cutting Hannah Robinson at Churchill, with an intent to cause bodily harm. She was found guilty and received a sentence of four months imprisonment in the Castle Gaol.

Sometimes a sentence would specifically include a form of corporal punishment. In an example from 1800, John Tubb, convicted at Assizes of penury and sentenced to a year in prison, is to be placed upon the pillory in the Market Place in Oxford for an hour. In the same calendar, Jane Bourton, convicted of theft, is sentenced to be privately whipped, presumably with no further sentence to be served. More permanent reminders of crime could also be levied – in 1789, George Ham was convicted of stealing a silver tablespoon from Pembroke College kitchen. Along with two years of hard labour, he was to be branded on the hand.

Hard labour was commonly used as punishment for incarcerated convicts. This might involve useful labour such as construction projects, but often comprised tasks that served no purpose aside from punishment and exhausting the prisoner. Treadwheels or treadmills were employed in UK prisons from the early 19th century until abolished in 1902, and involved prisoners walking on an ‘everlasting staircase’. Cranks followed a similar principle, with a handle being constantly turned by hand. Both were employed at Oxford Prison - a Report by Visiting Justices in 1828 notes that work had begun on the erection of a new treadwheel at the Castle, which they hoped would be operational by the next Sessions. A capstan – a large rotating wheel operated by up to 24 men at a time – was used to pump water from the Mill Stream for use in the prison.

Rules for the Gaol issued in 1851 defined the allowed forms of hard labour at that point as the tread wheel, capstan or work in the corn mill for male prisoners. An 1875 Report of the Visiting Justices of the Gaol adds to this, listing ‘shot drill’ for first class hard labour prisoners – this involved lifting a heavy cannon ball, carrying it for a distance, putting it down and repeating the sequence. Oakum picking, shoemaking and painting were among the punishments for second class hard labour prisoners, while washing, ironing and needlework were deemed appropriate labour for female prisoners.

Although many sentences of hard labour were served in the gaol itself, a number of individuals convicted at the Assizes in the 1770s were to carry out their sentence elsewhere. One such was John Peter Le Maitre or ‘Mara’, who was suspected of the robbery of gold medals and coins from the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in February 1776. He was apprehended in Dublin and conveyed to Oxford for trial in March 1777. This was a high profile trial, with special broadsides printed to recount details of the case. Though he denied the offence, Le Maitre was found guilty and sentenced to five years hard labour on the prison hulks on the Thames. This type of punishment was made possible by the Criminal Law Act 1776 or ‘Hulks Act’ – making it a temporary alternative to transportation, which had stalled at the outset of the American War of Independence.

Child Prisoners

Until the Juvenile Offenders Act of 1847, children were tried in the same courts as adults as a matter of course. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, they could be incarcerated in adult prisons, physically punished and in theory even executed for their offences. One example in the Oxfordshire records is William Francis, aged 12. He was convicted of stealing 2 ½ guineas in gold, three half-crowns, two silver shillings and twopence belonging to John Almond. He was sentenced to be imprisoned at Oxford Castle for six months at Lent Assizes 1792. In October 1841, the nominal register for Oxford Prison records the committal of Joseph Rockall of Watlington, aged 9. He was convicted of stealing a number of faggots or ‘kindlers’. He was sentenced at Michaelmas Sessions 1841 to 4 days in the Castle Gaol, and to be once whipped.

The introduction of Reformatory and Industrial Schools in the mid-19th century meant that youths were increasingly sent to specific juvenile institutions, Many, however, continued to be incarcerated in adult prisons, at least temporarily. The youngest child thought to have been committed in Oxford was Julia Ann Crumpling, just 7 years old. She was convicted of stealing a pram in March 1870, and sentenced to 7 days hard labour in the House of Correction at Oxford Castle.

Life Inside

Conditions in the Castle Gaol are reflected in the records in our Quarter Sessions collections.

For much of the 18th century, the gaol was run by private gaolers, with the County Justices paying an annual charge and, seemingly, covering expenses associated with medical provision, prisoner transport and other costs. Bills of the Keeper of the Gaol and of surgeons visiting the prison were regularly presented to the Quarter Sessions for payment and can detail outbreaks of disease, medical treatments, general provisions and burial arrangements for individual inmates. In an example from 1710, a bill is presented for costs associated with a coroner’s inquest for, and burial of, Thomas Sprignell ‘a pore felon lay under sentence of death’. It goes on to itemise expenses relating to a number of poor debtors and criminals who had suffered in an outbreak of smallpox, noting some attempt to limit the spread of disease,

‘Mary Charles ... is now sick who I have put out for fear of a new infestation amoungst those [tha]t naver had [th]e small pox’
[QS A 1710 T2]

Conditions were often poor and unsanitary – as John Howard’s ‘Report on the State of the Prisons’ notes of Oxford Castle Gaol:

‘No infirmary; no bath: no straw: the prisoners lie in their clothes on mats. The men’s dungeon swarms with vermin…The wards, passages and staircases are close and offensive’.
[Report on the State of the Prisons, originally published 1777]

From time to time, appeals and petitions from impoverished prisoners can be found, revealing the grim plight of many inmates. These are typically requests for financial assistance from the local community or the court itself, as prisoners of the era would have had to pay fees to their gaolers. Even in the 1770s, Howard’s report records there being ‘No free ward: for lodging even in the tower on their own beds they must pay 1s. 6d a week’. In one example from 1706, six petitioners - mainly women - complain of lying ‘under a most deplorable condition’ in the Castle Gaol, claiming that were it not for ‘some small charity w[hich] [th]e University bestows on us, and a little of o[ur] Keepers Helps, We must of necessity perrish’. They appear to have been successful, being granted a small allowance of a penny each per day until the next Assizes.

In 1785, the old Castle Gaol was acquired by the County Justices. It was largely rebuilt and enlarged in the following years, bringing a number of improvements. Throughout the 19th century, Reports of Visiting Magistrates provide regular summaries of the physical state of the prison and works being undertaken. They often include comments on the condition and attitude of prisoners and outbreaks of disease and sickness.

In an example from Epiphany 1829, smallpox is again reported, the sufferer being an 11-month old child living in the prison with his mother, incarcerated for felony. The magistrate goes on to express the unsuitability of children living in the prison,

‘Serious inconvenience has been found to result from children being in the gaol, as the mother cannot be employed while she has the care of a child and her imprisonment therefore ceases to be a punishment – and it is difficult to keep the female wards so clean as they should be while children are in the prison’
[QS P 1829 Ep]

Minutes of the Visiting Justices occasionally make comments on individual prisoners and punishments meted out to them – in 1874, Joseph Britton is brought before the Justices for insubordination to the Prison Warder during shot drill and breaking 14 panes of glass in the prison. The Justices recommend a punishment of ‘twelve stripes with a birch rod’.

More positive treatment can also be found in the minutes, including appeals made by Justices to the Secretary of State to commute the sentences of sick prisoners. In 1875, a copy letter from Clerk of the Peace John Davenport to the Discharged Prisoners Aid Society notes that the good behaviour of William Crompton during his incarceration had so impressed the Justices that they were contributing £5 towards his emigration.

Modernisation

The 19th century gradually ushered in an era of reform in many areas of life, including the running of prisons.

Rules of the Government of the Prison, available from the 1830s onwards, define in detail the roles of Oxford prison staff, including the Governor, turnkeys, surgeon, matrons, school mistress and chaplain. They cover regulations relating to the treatment of prisoners, from their separation into distinct classes according to their crime, numbers of men to a cell and suitable tasks for those sentenced to hard labour, to the provision of exercise time, cleaning and maintenance, medical examinations and visiting days. They reflect some moves towards improving the lives of the inmates, for example by providing instruction in reading and writing to both male and female inmates. They also show some evidence of a more humane way of treating inmates, including a general ban on putting prisoners in chains:

‘No prisoner shall be put in irons, except in case of urgent and absolute necessity…and the Keeper shall not continue the use of irons on any prisoner longer than four days, without an order in writing from a Visiting Justice’
[Rules of the Government of the Prison, QS1835/4/A9/1]

Prison diet was clearly defined, being regular (if largely bread and gruel-based!) and varying according to the nature of the sentence being served and the amount of labour being performed. The rules went so far as to define the precise ingredients for the soup or gruel to be provided.

The gaoler was periodically required to submit a Return, detailing numbers of prisoners, prison officers and other details, to confirm the prison was being run lawfully.

The prison was enlarged and remodelled throughout the 19th century, with the addition of yards and new women and men’s wings, providing greater space and improved heating and ventilation.

In 1877, the Prison Commission was established and thereafter UK prisons were brought under the control of central government. The County Gaol at Oxford Castle ceased to be the responsibility of the county and became HMP Oxford. The Criminal Justice Act 1948 abolished sentences of imprisonment with hard labour. After a number of decades of serious overcrowding in the post-war period, Oxford Prison closed for good in 1996.

In the final part of this blog, we’ll look at a few examples of those sentenced to transportation and execution at Oxford….

Sources:

• Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions and Assize Calendars, collection QSP/I.
• Oxfordshire Quarter Sessions bundles – indexes 1697 to 1830 are available in hard-copy in the History Centre searchroom. Bundles are catalogued online from 1831-1867 (project ongoing).
• Oxford Prison Nominal Roll Book, 1840-1844, O29/A1/1.
• Minute Books of the Visiting Justices of the Prison, QSC/VI/1-3.
• Rules and Dietary Table of the Prison, 1867, SZ 548.
• John Howard, Report on the State of the Prisons, originally published 1777 – 3rd edition, 1784, extract in PA OXFO/365/(HOW).

Posted by: Katherine Kinrade, Archivist