A quick guide to QSR reference numbers.

Quarter Sessions took place 4 times a year.

These are numbered as:

QSRyear/1 - Epiphany
QSRyear/2 - Easter
QSRyear/3 - Midsummer
QSRyear/4 - Michaelmas

e.g. 1842 Epiphany session would be QSR1842/1

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The documents contained in the sessions have then been further separated as follows:-

QSRyear/session/1

• Writs/Warrants to hold the session
• Things about Justices of the Peace
• Appointing Juries - Jury Lists
• Lists of Constables

QSRyear/session/2 = Judicial business

• appointments
• visitors
• correspondence
• notices• estimates
• petitions
• appointment of adjudicators for establishing wheat prices

QSRyear/session/3 = Prisoners

• calendar of prisoners to stand trial
• sentencing documents

QSRyear/session/4 = Recognizances
QSRyear/session/5 = Depositions
QSRyear/session/6 = Indictments and Juries Presentments
QSRyear/session/7 = Articles of the Peace
QSRyear/session/8 = Appeals
QSRyear/session/9 = Poor Law & Bastardy
QSRyear/session/10 = Highways/Road & Bridges

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A useful piece of information.....

The Calendar of Prisoners which appears in QSRyear/session/3 lists all the prisoners to be tried at that Quarter Session.

The Calendar allocates each case a number.

The cataloguers of the project have attempted to keep this number the same for the case through the Recognizances, Depositions & Indictments sections.

So for example.....

QSR1853/1/3/1 is the Calendar of Prisoners for the Epiphany Session of 1853.

Case number 48 is Sarah Emery.

Therefore;
QSR1853/1/4/48 (Recognizances)
QSR1853/1/5/48 (Depositions)
QSR1853/1/6/48 (Indictments)
will all relate to the case of Sarah Emery.

The Bigamist: What Happened Next?

The bigamy case featured on the archive website as Paths to Crime document of the month for May 2011 has now been fully catalogued with summaries of all the depositions under reference QSR1841/4/5/39. Richard Kelly had married Mary Ann Crawley of Bedford while still married to his first wife, Amelia Austin. Despite his excuses - which varied from claiming Amelia was already married to someone else to believing that she was dead - Kelly was found guilty of bigamy and sentenced to one year in gaol. A newspaper report of the case tells us that "The prisoner asked the Court whether, when he came out of gaol, he was to be served so again by the first wife. The Court hoped he would be in a better mind; she was his legal wife."

After a little digging I have discovered that Richard Kelly and Amelia did indeed eventually resume their relationship as man and wife. In one of the Quarter Sessions documents Richard Kelly describes Spalding in Lincolnshire as his home. In 1851 a Richard Kelley, aged 31, was visiting William Kelley, an innkeeper at Spalding. Both Kelleys were natives of the town. Richard is described as married, but there was no wife recorded with him. An Amelia Kelly, aged 30, was living in Whitechapel where she was described as married and a "relative" of the other member of the household, 67 year old Thomas Murphy from Ireland. This Amelia was born in Beccles (Suffolk) and was working as a dressmaker. I can find no record of either Richard or Amelia on the 1861 census, but in 1871 Richard Kelly, a factory foreman born at Spalding aged 53, was living in the parish of St.Leonards, Shoreditch with his wife Amelia Kelly, aged 50, born in Lowestoft (Suffolk). As Richard and Amelia met and married at nearby Great Yarmouth this must surely be the same couple. In 1874 the death of Amelia Kelly, age 52, is recorded at Whitechapel.

The Hawker & The Glass-Blower

Being a police officer or even assisting one, could be an unpleasant occupation. On 24 September 1852 John Williams, a 25 year old hawker, assisted by Henry Dean, a 16 year old glass-blower were accused of stealing a considerable sum of money from Elizabeth Sayell, a singlewoman. Among the money stolen was a £10 bank note of the Baldock and Biggleswade bank.

It appears the pair were quite a handful to take into custody, with a number of people getting involved. Unfortunately, on the way to the police station, John Williams was seen to slip, what appeared to be a bank note, into his mouth. In his evidence, Constable Alfred Atherton Murfin, stated how he grabbed the accused by the throat in an attempt to prevent him from swallowing it. However, he failed and the note was swallowed.

On arrival at the station, Superintendent Bayldon gave approval for an emetic (a medical substance used to induce vomiting) to be given to the prisoner. James Smith, a parish constable and bailiff, was asked by the Superintendent to assist with this. It was poor James Smith who was present when the prisoner began to vomit in a bowl 2 hours later. Smith saw something come out of Williams mouth, put his hand in the bowl and fetched out the note.

Elizabeth Sayell had been able to offer quite a detailed description of the note including the fact a corner of it was missing. This meant the bank note could be confirmed as the note stolen. John Williams, along with his young accomplice Henry Dean, were both sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.

QSR1852/4/5/13-14

A Young Witness

Children occasionally appear in the Quarter Sessions Rolls as the accused, as victims or as witnesses. In a recent case I came across the youngest witness I have seen so far. At the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of 1842 John Crouch, the son of Christopher Crouch of Harrold described how he saw a certain John Allen go into William Stevens’ butchers shop, put some pickled pork into his pocket and leave without paying for it. In his deposition young Crouch says he does not know how old he is. The 1841 census gives his age as five and the Harrold baptism register shows John Arnold Crouch, son of Christopher and Hephzibah Crouch to have been baptised on 13th September 1835, meaning he had probably just turned seven at the time the deposition was taken on 30th August 1842. The record describes him as an “infant” and he was not examined under oath, being considered too young to be sworn in as a witness. Stevens had asked young Crouch to keep a watch on a sheep hanging up outside his shop while he was absent for an hour, and the boy clearly took his task seriously. Despite considerable circumstantial evidence - Allen had been seen in the shop, his pocket was wet with brine and marked with grease and salt, and the constable found in his house a frying pan recently used to cook salt, fat meat - Allen was acquitted of the charge.

The Crouch family lived next door to William Stevens’ shop in Harrold High Street and were well known local blacksmiths. The picture below shows the Old Smithy at 49 High Street where the family carried on their trade for at least three generations until the death of John’s nephew Frederick George Crouch in 1941. You can read more about the smithy and the Crouch family in the Community Archives section of the BLARS website.

The Old Smithy in the late 19th century [Z50/54/23]

Reference: QSR1842/4/5/30/a

Repeat Offenders : James Negus

Whilst working on this project, there are some names we're starting to become very familar with. It's not unusual for the volunteers on the project to announce "oh no...Mr X is back again".

James Negus looks likely to become one such man. The cataloguing of the Bedford Gaol database is an ongoing project but already Mr Negus appears more than once! Negus was a journeyman Brickmaker by trade. On this occasion, the facts suggest he may have got lucky considering he had 8 previous convictions to his name.

George Graves was keeper of The Cock public house in All Hallows, Bedford and also a Rag Merchant. He had employed Negus for 3 weeks to carry out goods and exchange them for rags and bones. It was Negus's duty to come home every night and give an account of what he had done in the way of exchanges. He was paid 15 pence a day and some ale, bread and cheese. The prisoner lodged at the house too. On 24 April 1852 he sent the prisoner to Marston and Liddlington with a cart drawn by 3 dogs. He had with him 9 shillings worth of crockery to exchange for rags and bones, a wicker basket, 2 canvas bags and a weighing machine. Negus failed to return when he should and this made Graves uneasy and he stayed up until 1 o'clock waiting for him. At 6 o'clock the next morning he set off in search of him.

He made enquiries of him at Marston and was directed to Newport Pagnell. At Newport Pagnell he was informed the prisoner had sold some rags and gone in the direction of Woburn. On the way to Woburn, he heard Negus had sold a wicker basket at the Leathern Bottle at Wavendon and offered 3 dogs and a cart for sale.

He found Negus at Leighton Buzzard and gave the information to the police. He went with Constable Worsley to Negus’s lodgings and the prisoner was taken into custody. On the premises he found the dogs and cart (which was broken) and the police constable produced 2 canvas bags and a weighing machine. Graves identified them as his property. Negus said he was sorry for what he had done and would not have done it had it not been for the drink. The value of the property was 40 shillings. Not an insignificant sum.

In his defence, Negus said he had started to go home from Newport Pagnell about 12 o'clock but as he jumped on the cart it overbalanced and broke. He did not like to return with the broken cart and so thought he had better go away altogether.

Unfortunately despite George Graves colourful journey following Negus around Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, it was decided there was No True Bill to answer. However, it looks like we'll be coming across James Negus again very soon (in Epiphany 1853 to be precise...).

QSR1852/3/5/7

Progress so far ......

The Paths to Crime project will catalogue the QSR (Quarter Session Rolls) from 1831 - 1900. As the project employs 2 part-time cataloguers, it was decided that it made sense for the cataloguers to begin at different points on the timeline.

Therefore, Kathryn is currently working on 1839-1848, and Sharon on 1849-1858 (with 1831-8 being left until the end as the documents are currently held in a different form). So far, the following years have been completed:

1839
1840
1841
1849
1850
1851

Therefore, if your interest is in a particular year or date range, it is worth checking back. Please don't assume that because 1851 had been catalogued that all years prior to that have been.

The earlier years contain a larger number of cases per quarter, and so are more time consuming to input. However, the Volunteers report that the number of cases dealt with at the Quarter Sessions drops dramatically in the 1860s, so we expect progress to be much quicker once we reach that point.

Punishment in the 1840s

Punishments handed out at the Quarter Sessions ranged from transportation for life to a fine or being bound over to keep the peace. The main source for finding out what sentences were imposed by the justices is the 'Return of all persons committed, or bailed to appear for trial, or indicted' at the Quarter Sessions. This document lists the defendants for the quarter, gives their name, age (sometimes omitted), a very brief summary of the crime (often just 'simple larceny') and a note of the sentence or acquittal if the case came to trial, or a brief explanation of the reason if it did not. This return can be found in the file category 'Prisoners', with a reference in the form QSR1841/1/3/10, where 1841 is the year, 1 is the quarter, 3 is the file (prisoners), and 10 is the item number.

In the early 1840s transportation was still being used quite frequently for more serious crimes or repeat offenders, and most Quarters would see at least one offender transported. The most common sentence was a term of imprisonment in the House of Correction with hard labour. Young offenders aged under 18 were usually ordered to receive one or more whippings during their term of imprisonment, with this to be carried out in private. Some offenders were sentenced to spend specified periods of their sentence in solitary confinement, for example in October 1841 John Houghton was to 'be imprisoned and kept at hard labour in the House of Correction for this county four calendar months, two weeks of the said term to be solitary at different intervals'. Prison sentences ranged in length from a couple of days to one year. Where an offender was sentenced to a prison term further information about the individual may be found in the Gaol Database for Bedfordshire. Further records for Bedford Gaol and House of Correction are found under collection references QGE, QGR and QGV, for which more information can be found here.