Richard Meunier from Bath Record Office shares a book recording arrested criminals
INTERVIEW BY ROSEMARY COLLINS
GEM FROM THE ARCHIVE
Discovering a criminal in your family tree is exciting and sometimes shocking. Historic records of the justice system are important for tracing our criminal ancestors. Bath Record Office (BRO) holds an example of one of the common forms of criminal record in the 19th century – a Bath City Police prisoners’ book, recording people who were arrested and brought before the petty sessions. These were the lowest level of criminal court and dealt with people accused of small-scale crimes, often involving theft. BRO’s manager Richard Meunier tells us more about the book.
HOW DID THE RECORD OFFICE GET THE BOOK?
We received it from Bath City Police some years ago, a force that is now defunct – it was fortunate because I think the book was going to be thrown away in a skip. The people recorded were arrested and brought before the petty sessions, the equivalent of today’s magistrates’ court. It covers 1892–1910, so quite a long period, and there’s a lot of people in there, something like 150–200. They can be searched by name on our online database Bath Ancestors (bathancestors.org. uk), and the actual entry can be ordered for a small charge.
WHAT SORTS OF CRIMES ARE FEATURED?
It’s relatively minor stuff. Theft crops up: one man, John Collins alias John Whittaker, stole some boots and then a month later stole some trousers, broke into a shop, and broke into someone’s house. False pretences appear as well, while one 16-year-old, Frank Davis, was accused of embezzlement in 1905, and in the same year a 28-year-old called Annie Williams was put up for larceny in Bath. None of these crimes was very serious, so they wouldn’t have gone up to the quarter sessions or assizes court afterwards.
I should mention that the people arrested weren’t necessarily permanent residents of Bath, because it was quite a transient place where people often lived for only a brief period. Some of them had already committed crimes elsewhere in the country too, as far away as Edinburgh or Newcastle, and those details are included.
Some of the convictions are quite interesting as well – you’ve got people convicted of stealing a top hat, stealing a garden spade, stealing 100 cigars, stealing a police uniform, or sending threatening letters. One man, William Clements, is described as an “incorrigible rogue”. A mother-and-daughter duo, Jane and Annie Flint, are “wanted i
