In this issue,
R K Vyst
has her cage well and truly rattled,
as she answers questions on
prisons

Question 1. I am a local historian researching prisons in my home town. Where will I find the records?

Answer: prisons were largely the responsibility of burghs before 1839, and almost entirely the responsibility of central government after that, so the two main places to look for material on a particular prison are burgh records and central government records. Burgh records should be with the local authority archive service, or local authority library service, or the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), or (in the case of some Fife burghs) with St Andrews University Library. Most burghs used cells in tolbooths, but from the 17th century onwards some towns built ‘houses of correction’ on the English model of the ‘Bridewell’, where vagrants and criminals could be imprisoned and given manual work for short periods of time. Records relating to burgh prisons and tolbooths consist mainly of warding and liberation books, which record the incarceration and release of individual prisoners with few other details. Information about the building, maintenance and staffing of burgh prisons and tolbooths must be gleaned from burgh minute books and accounts. In some cases these (or excerpts from these) have been published. Central government records are the most important source of information on prisons, especially after 1839 when superintendence of Scottish prisons was placed in the hands of the General Board of Directors of Prisons in Scotland and county boards. Some non-Scottish government department records relating to prisons in Scotland and Scottish prisoners serving sentences in English prisons are held by the Public Record Office, but most records produced by Scottish prisons from the mid-19th century (and some earlier records) are held by the NAS. As one might expect, there is a larger quantity and a more diverse range of records for larger prisons (such as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Peterhead and Perth). For these (and a few other prisons) surviving records include letter books, registers of punishments, and so on. For smaller prisons little survives but registers of prisoners and governors’ journals (which typically record incidents occurring in the prison, staff appointments, dismissals and suspensions; punishments awarded to prisoners and so on). The records of most county prison boards appear to have been lost in a fire in the offices of the Prison Commission for Scotland, but minutes survive in the NAS and in local archives for the following county boards: Forfarshire, 1840-1865 (Angus Archives, ACC 1/5/1); Kinross-shire, 1840-1878 (Perth & Kinross Council Archives, CC2/1/4/1-2); Lanarkshire, 1845-1857 (NAS, HH12/5); Orkney & Shetland, 1840-1868 (NAS, HH12/3); Perthshire, 1840-1878 (Perth & Kinross Council Archives, CC1/1/3/1B-7); and Renfrewshire, 1861-1870 (NAS, HH12/15).

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2. How do I trace the record of a prisoner in a burgh tolbooth or jail?

Answer: records relating to burgh prisons and tolbooths consist mainly of warding and liberation books, which record the incarceration and release of individual prisoners with few other details. These are rarely indexed, except where they have been indexed by staff or volunteers in the appropriate record office or published and indexed by an antiquarian society. Warding and liberation books for burgh tolbooths and prisons tend to be with the burgh records, normally with the appropriate local authority archive or library service. In the case of several Fife burghs, the records are held by St Andrews University Library. Another exception is the case of Edinburgh Tollbooth, whose warding and liberation books, 1657-1816, are held by the National Archives of Scotland (HH11). Typically warding and liberation books are arranged chronologically with entries such as:

Edinburgh 27 July 1815, Margaret McDonald residing in Forresters Wynd was this day incarcerated in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh by warrant of the court of Police on complaint of James Brown, Superintendent, accused of riotous conduct, to remain till she find Caution for her good behaviour for twelve months under the Penalty of Forty shillings. Warrant this date John Duncan, serjeant . . .
3 August 1815 Margaret McDonald liberated on Caution & Certificate.

The search may be time-consuming depending on the number of prisoners handled by each tolbooth or jail, and records prior to 1750 can be difficult to read because of the nature of the handwriting for that period.

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3. My ancestor was a prison warder - where can I find his employment record?

Answer: if he served after 1893 then look in the staff registers of the Scottish Prison Service, held by the NAS (HH87). If he was in service before 1893 the search for a record of his service will be time consuming and probably unrewarding. Governors’ journals of individual prisons (HH12) should record members of staff starting and leaving (or being dismissed), and absences due to illness or other causes. However, as the journals are a form of logbook, the search through these for details of individual staff members can be tedious. For the period prior to 1839 the main source of information on burgh jails, tolbooths, lock-ups etc will be the minute books of the burgh or town council concerned. A search through these for information on the appointment of individual warders is likely to be even more tedious and unrewarding than the search through governors’ journals.

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4. I’m a teacher planning a class project on the history of prisons. Can you recommend any books and Web resources, and are there any former prisons open to the public, in which I can threaten the unrulier elements of the class with incarceration?

Answer: you should get hold of Joy Cameron, Prisons and Punishment in Scotland (1983); Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Tolbooths and Town-Houses, civic architecture in Scotland to 1833 (1996); T. A. Markus, ‘Buildings for the Bad, the Sad and the Mad in Urban Scotland, 1780-1830’ in T. A. Markus (ed), Order and Space in Society (1982). Have a look at the websites of H M Inspectorate of Prisons, National Statistics Office, the Scottish Prisons Service, and the Scottish Archive Network. At least two museums offer experience of prison conditions for individual (paying) members of the public and group visits: Inveraray Jail, Church Square, Inveraray, Argyll, PA32 8TX (tel. 01499 302 381), and Stirling Old Town Jail, St John Street, Stirling, FK8 1EB (tel. 01786 450 050). Alternatively it may be possible to visit cells in former burgh tolbooths. The Royal Commission’s book, Tolbooths and Town-Houses, mentioned above, should have details of tolbooths in your area which have been preserved. You will need to contact the local council to arrange access.

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5. I’m starting a PhD thesis on the treatment of suffragettes in Scottish prisons. Where should I look for information about this topic in general and on individual cases?

Answer: there are several published works on the imprisonment of suffragettes: June Purvis, ‘The Prison Experience of the Suffragettes in Edwardian Britain’ in Women’s History Review, volume 4, no.1 (1995); Leah Leneman, A Guid Cause: the women's suffrage movement in Scotland (1991); and Elspeth King, The Hidden History of Glasgow Women (1993). A selection of original historical sources relating to the women's suffrage movement has been published in the form of a resource pack by Glasgow City Archives: Scottish Women and the Vote. A guide to record sources on suffragettes in the NAS: Investigating Suffragettes in the National Archives, can be obtained from the Outreach Branch, National Archives of Scotland, HM General Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YY. These include a register of suffragettes received into prison in Scotland, 1909-1914 (HH12/22) and the treatment of suffragette prisoners, including forced-feeding of hunger strikers, is covered in criminal case files among the Home and Health Department records in the NAS (HH16/36-47). Details of individual suffragettes will be recorded in prison registers, almost all of which are in the NAS, and for each prisoner generally contain the date of admission, age, height, place of birth, occupation, religion, health, offence, particulars of trial, sentence if convicted, and date liberated or removed. There are registers for the following prisons in Home and Health Department records in the NAS (HH21): Aberdeen, Airdrie, Ayr, Banff, Beith, Campbeltown, Cromarty, Cumnock, Dumbarton, Dumfries, Dunbar, Duns, Edinburgh, Fort William, Glasgow, Greenlaw, Greenock (see also HH12/56/7), Haddington, Hamilton, Hawick, Helensburgh, Inveraray, Inverness, Jedburgh, Kelso, Kilmarnock, Kirkcudbright, Lanark, Largs, Leith, Lerwick, Linlithgow, Maxweltown, Musselburgh, Paisley, Peebles, Perth, Peterhead, Pollokshaws, Port Glasgow, Rothesay, Saltcoats, Selkirk, Stewarton, Stonehaven, Stranraer, Tobermory, Wick, and Wigtown. In addition there are registers in sheriff court records for some prisons: Angus (SC47/55/2), Ayr (SC6/57/1), Fort William (SC28/32/1), Jedburgh (SC62/72/1), Kirkcudbright (SC16/28/2), Selkirk (SC36/63/3), Stirling (SC67/47/5-6). Perth & Kinross Council Archives hold prison registers for Kinross prison (CC2/1/4). In the late-19th century many prisons adopted a registration system whereby prisoners received a two-part number based on the year of admission and a running number – e.g. the 498th prisoner admitted to a prison in 1908 would have the number 498/08, and his or her details were recorded under that number in the register. The registers may be indexed internally, indexed in separate volumes, or not indexed at all, depending on the prison.

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6. Where should I look for information about a Prisoner of War camp in Scotland during the two World Wars?

Answer: during the First World War (1914-1918) the War Office and the Foreign Office both had POW departments, but the former was attached to the Home Office, which ran internment camps, of which there were about 25 in Scotland. During the Second World War (1939-45) the War Office was responsible for all POWs, including those in over 20 camps and prisons in Scotland. For information about records relating to Scottish POW camps apply to the Public Record Office (PRO) for Military Records leaflets number 19 (Prisoners of War and Displaced Persons 1939-1953) and number 29 (Prisoners of War in British Hands, 1698-1919), either by writing to the PRO at Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, TW9 4DU or via the website of the Public Record Office.

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R K Vyst is grateful to Iain Gray (Aberdeen City Archives), Iain Flett (Dundee City Archives), Ian Levitt (University of Central Lancashire), and Steve Connelly (Perth & Kinross Council Archive).