H.M. Prison Wakefield, Convicts Reception Register (C1303)
1858 - 1862
From Counterfeiters to Jewel Thieves, the Convict’s Reception Register has them all!
Through this register we gain an insight into the types of crimes committed that allows us to see the social and economic conditions of the period.
As people became aware of the terrible conditions that prisoners faced, some because they were debtors not criminals, calls for change were made and England was one of the leading countries in Prison Reform. We build up a physical picture of the prisoner to accompany his crime but it also leaves us imagining what hardships the families that these prisoners left behind had to face.
As people became aware of the terrible conditions that prisoners faced, some because they were debtors not criminals, calls for change were made and England was one of the leading countries in Prison Reform. We build up a physical picture of the prisoner to accompany his crime but it also leaves us imagining what hardships the families that these prisoners left behind had to face.
For example...
Entry for Aaron Mellor
We know that in the 19th century Aaron Mellor, aged 33 had a fair complexion, brown hair, grey eyes and was 5’ 4 1/2” and ‘proportionate’. He also had a large cut on his throat, right cheek and his left little finger was contracted – and he had a mole on his belly! He was sentenced to death for murder but was eventually committed to penal servitude for life.
Thomas Whittle was convicted of forging an endorsement on a bill of exchange on 11 August 1858 at Liverpool Assizes. His description has him as ‘sallow skin, dark hair and brown eyes’, with a scar on the right eyebrow, lost all upper and lower front teeth and the end of his 3rd finger of the right hand. He also has various moles! A mason by trade, it is noted that he reads and writes well, is married to Ellen, has 3 step children and his father, Richard Whittle lives at Thorp Green in Preston.
Arguably one of the more ‘high profile’ entries in this register is that of convict number 5133 William Parks, alias Sparks. This fresh faced, sandy haired 43 year old man was a notorious jewel thief who had escaped from the Hulks and ended up in a Parisian prison! Condemned at Chester to 6 years penal servitude, he escaped the Hulks a year later and fled to France where he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for taking part in the great jewel robbery of 150,000f at Fontana’s in the Palais Royale. Once his term was complete he returned to England and to his thieving ways, this time serving 6 months in Liverpool Prison. Upon his release he returned to France and was promptly awaiting trial in January 1873 for robbery alongside his accomplice known only as Weber!
Thomas Whittle was convicted of forging an endorsement on a bill of exchange on 11 August 1858 at Liverpool Assizes. His description has him as ‘sallow skin, dark hair and brown eyes’, with a scar on the right eyebrow, lost all upper and lower front teeth and the end of his 3rd finger of the right hand. He also has various moles! A mason by trade, it is noted that he reads and writes well, is married to Ellen, has 3 step children and his father, Richard Whittle lives at Thorp Green in Preston.
Arguably one of the more ‘high profile’ entries in this register is that of convict number 5133 William Parks, alias Sparks. This fresh faced, sandy haired 43 year old man was a notorious jewel thief who had escaped from the Hulks and ended up in a Parisian prison! Condemned at Chester to 6 years penal servitude, he escaped the Hulks a year later and fled to France where he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for taking part in the great jewel robbery of 150,000f at Fontana’s in the Palais Royale. Once his term was complete he returned to England and to his thieving ways, this time serving 6 months in Liverpool Prison. Upon his release he returned to France and was promptly awaiting trial in January 1873 for robbery alongside his accomplice known only as Weber!
If you didn't know...
The Hulks weren’t angry green men but old sailing ships used to hold prisoners until they were transported! However, due to the rise in crime from the return of unemployed and disabled soldiers and sailors after the French Wars, and the fact that less crimes were punishable by death, prisons became overcrowded and unable to cope with the steady flow of prisoners. The hulks seemed to provide the answer, after the 1857 Penal Servitude Act transportation of prisons was abolished and the ships used to house the convicts.
Penal Servitude meant hard labour and the prisoners would go ashore from the Thames and Portsmouth, where the ships were docked, and do their days hard labour, returning to the Hulks in the evening. Conditions were cramped and filthy with prisoners being chained together and having no privacy, something individuals such as Elizabeth Fry and Henry Gladstone highlighted was in desperate need for change. Escapes such as William Parks’ would have happened just as they did in prisons around the country although we are not given details of his actual escape route.
View the entry on our online catalogue.
Penal Servitude meant hard labour and the prisoners would go ashore from the Thames and Portsmouth, where the ships were docked, and do their days hard labour, returning to the Hulks in the evening. Conditions were cramped and filthy with prisoners being chained together and having no privacy, something individuals such as Elizabeth Fry and Henry Gladstone highlighted was in desperate need for change. Escapes such as William Parks’ would have happened just as they did in prisons around the country although we are not given details of his actual escape route.
View the entry on our online catalogue.
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