The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.1 | June 2021

Local Group Programmes

travelled around the country on circuits. In 1971 they were reorganised and renamed Crown Courts. One of the best ways into discovering more about the courts is to use newspaper archives. The British Library Newspaper and the Times digital records can be access via local libraries. FindmyPast has a Crime collection derived from Government records. FamilySearch has court records but it can only be searched via place name and hasn’t been indexed. Serious Crimes may be viewed at OldBaileyonline.org. Punishment for petty criminals were usually short periods of hard labour such as rock breaking or picking oakum, were pointless activities. The term screw for a prison warden comes from having to turn a crank in a device. Penal servitude was reserved for serious crimes to reduce the cost of maintaining prisons. Death sentences were usually carried out within a month but often were commuted. Hanging in public ceased in 1868. Contrary to popular belief transportation was not a Victorian invention nor was it limited to Australia. It started in the 17th century and was initially to West Africa followed by the Caribbean and then North America. A sentence of transportation did not necessarily mean overseas. Only the fittest were sent. Prison ships were in Portsmouth and the Thames. Records for criminals can be invaluable for genealogical research as they often give details of lifestyle and in some cases photographs. Before the modern police force parishes initially appointed unpaid constables. They were usually experienced and well-respected members of the community who were appointed yearly. In towns watchmen were employed. The first police force was the River Thames police followed by the Metropolitan Police in 1829. By 1856 nearly all boroughs had a police force. If your ancestor was a policeman, many forces have retained archives (March) Sons of the Soil (Ag Labs) – Janet Few A significantly larger attendance at this meeting was probably the result that all of us have Ag Labs in our family. Janet explained that the term Ag labs derives from the census and could cover a huge range of occupations such as Farm labourer, farm servant, waggoners, dairyman, horseman, thatcher, blacksmith and ploughman. However, because they were poorer didn’t mean they have fewer records than the well off. Janet then gave a chronological canter through the history of agricultural acts and reforms starting from the Agricultural Revolution in the 1750s and finishing as recent as 1947 Agricultural Act. An interesting point was that the potato harvest failure in 1848 didn’t just affect Ireland but the rest of Europe too. Cottages tended to have a standard dimension of 16’ as they were easy to roof. Following this Janet then gave examples of the records associated with agriculture. These started with the 1790 Board of Agriculture Surveys which were commissioned on a county-by- county basis. Some of these are available on Wikipedia. In Scotland there are the Scottish Statistical Accounts and the Scottish Valuation Rolls. In Ireland there is the Griffiths Valuation dating from 1848. Tithe Maps are available in County record Offices Kew and thegenealogist website. The Land Tax records are useful for the period 1780-1830. The Valuation Office Survey records, which are held at Kew, give information on owners and tenants with a

38