Our prisoner pin ups

Daily Mail Online has posted a fabulous article about some of our prisoners.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2277501/First-criminal-mugshots-taken-Britain-revealed-150-years-featuring-thieves-thugs-conman-impersonated-vicar.html

We love the comments posted below the piece, especially about the Clark Gable look-a-like George Bennett.  He seems to have set a few hearts a flutter with a number of ladies seemingly willing to ignore his missing little finger, moles, letters G.T.G.B.P. pricked in left arm, his bad front teeth and his truss!

The Prison Governor's Letter

Not all the documents we are cataloguing relate to prisoners. Epiphany 1857 contains a very sad letter written by the current governor of Bedford Prison, Robert Evans Roberts.  Roberts, originally from Kent,  took over as Governor in 1853 and remained there for over 30 years.

The letter requested the court excuse his absence at the Epiphany Quarter Session of the Peace due to the recent death of his eldest daughter and the current ill heath of his second child.  It appears his daughter, Elizabeth Janet, died soon after her elder sister Catherine Mary.  The Quarter Session Minutes book gives mention to the outbreak of scarlet fever at the Governors house, and permission was granted by the court to whitewash the house. 

Only 8 years later, Roberts lost his wife Mary Ann. By the 1871 census, his remaining child, a boy named after his father, was living up in Hull with his town clerk uncle. Robert George Roberts later followed in his fathers footsteps, becoming a prison warden in Lancashire.  Robert Evans Roberts went on to  remarry soon after the death of Mary Ann.  He and his new wife, a rather younger lady by the name of Adelaide, stayed in Bedford and went on to have both sons and daughters.

QSR1857/1/2/1
QSM39

Drunk and Disorderly

The Easter quarter of 1883 introduced us to the character of Alfred Hirdle.  Alfred was married to Sarah and appeared in court charged with a violent assault on his wife.  She had taken a warrant out against him and in revenge he broke into their house in the early hours of the morning.  He went to his wife’s bedroom and violently hit her about the head with a stick.   He was sentenced to 5 year penal servitude.

Cases of assault appear regularly in the Quarter sessions, but we were curious to see if he was still with his wife at the time of the next census.  A little investigation saw that the couple had only been married approaching 4 years at the time of the attack.  It’s likely his wife knew the type of man she was marrying, as Alfred had been convicted (mostly of drunkenness) over 20 times before they married.  He was only 27.  He was even in trouble on the night of the 1871 census, being listed as a prisoner at Woburn police station.

We did find Sarah in the 1891, living with her mother in Ridgmont and she appears to have continued to have children in these years.  By 1901 she was still with her mother in Ridgmont with her mother, but this time she was described as a widow.   Obviously this meant we wanted to see what had become of Alfred.

A quick bit of Googling brought up the excellent MK Heritage site.  They have a section dedicated to the Fir Tree inn at Woburn Sands, where it appears Alfred Hirdle had become a frequent visitor.  The site talks of another case involving Alfred which was reported in local paper.  Once again it revolved around drunken behaviour.  The article adds an interesting footnote which solves the mystery of what became of Alfred:

 “Alfred Hirdle eventually passed away, whilst serving a sentence in Bedford Prison in 1900, aged 49. The doctors said cause of death was 'Profound Disturbance of the Brain and Apoplexy'.  Hirdle was infamous in the area, as his total of 59 convictions, mostly for being 'Drunk and Disorderly' bear testimony. Every landlord for miles around must have breathed a quiet sigh of relief!”

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(with thanks to www.mkheritage.co.uk)

Letter from Bedford Gaol

At the Epiphany Quarter Sessions of 1871 James Drage of Harrold was tried for being found at night in the dwelling house of William Bithrey at Turvey with intent to commit a felony. He was found by Bithrey's lodger Thomas Shelton on a sofa, hidden under the cover. While in Bedford Gaol waiting for his trial Drage wrote a letter which was not addressed, but was presumably intended for the Justices of the Peace who would hear his case. In the letter Drage claimed that he did not know what he was doing as he had had "a little too much drink". It was a wet afternoon on the day in question amd he had started drinking early. By the late evening he had no idea what he was doing and says "if I was a going to be hung for it I can't tell how I got in that house". He claims that if he had his wits about him he would have made his escape when discovered but he was too drunk. When Shelton and other men called in to help tried to restrain him they pulled him about which had the effect of sobering him up. Eight years earlier he had suffered from a very bad neck for 14 months which caused him to be discharged from the army. Since that time whenever he had too much to drink it went to his head. He ends by saying that when released he will join the teetotal society. The letter is beautifully written in a clear, even script, but his spelling leaves something to be desired: "it shall be a warning to me it shant be drink that shall get me into haney trubel haney more Gentlemen I jine the teatotle sursitety the very day I get my liberty".

Unfortunately for Drage the constable George Mardlin said he did not appear drunk; he had also previously been convicted at the Northampton Quarter Sessions of June 1869 for stealing more than £5 from the house of Elizabeth Copson at Wellingborough (Northants), for which he had served 12 months in the House of Correction at Northampton. This time he was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment with hard labour, to be followed by 7 years supervision by the police. 

The letter is written on a standard form issued by the Gaol to prisoners awaiting trial which includes printed instructions on the front cover:

  Persons writing to Prisoners are to TAKE NOTICE that the permission to write and receive Letters is not given to Prisoners for the purpose of hearing the news of the day, but to keep up a correspondence with their Relatives, and to address them on the subject of their trials; they will not be allowed to give or receive any improper advice or hints, or use or receive any unbecoming language.
  As all Letters sent into the Prison are read by the Governor, they ought not to be of unnecessary length.
  Visiting days are Wednesdays and Saturdays from 10 to 12 in the morning and from 2 to 4 in the afternoon; the visits must not exceed twenty minutes.

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