The Old Bailey

The Old Bailey Online proceedings of court cases from 1674 to 1913. This is a great resource for family history research. I have found it particularly useful as three of the convicts in my family were tried at this court before being transported to Australia.

A brief history of the Old Bailey courthouse can be found on the Old Bailey Online website.

The Central Criminal Court is also known as the Old Bailey or the Justice House as it has been located on a street named Old Bailey since 1673. The street follows the path of the fortified wall of the old city of London, This wall was known as a bailey.

Portico of the Old Bailey (2011)

The inscription above the pillars reads Defend the Children of the Poor. Punish the Wrongdoer.

The building has been remodelled and rebuilt many times but the basic design of the court rooms remain the same.

In 1666 the courthouse was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. When it was rebuilt in 1673 one side of the building was left without a wall in an attempt to prevent the prisoners infecting other people with gaol fever (typhus) in the court.

In 1773 the wall was enclosed  to limit the effects of weather and probably also to deter spectators.

In 1774 the building was rebuilt by George Dance, the same person who was responsible for the rebuilding of Newgate Prison. In this rebuild a wall was built around the prison to prevent communication between the prisoners and the public. The passage between the Old Bailey and Newgate was enclosed by brick walls. A detailed description of this court room is provided in the Old Bailey history page. Damage caused by the Gordon Riots in 1780 was soon repaired though much of the furniture was destroyed.

View inside the court room c1809 - London Lives 1690-1800

This was the court room in which Mary, Uriah and Richard would have been tried. The court room and its furnishings were lavish, a sharp contrast to the accommodation for the prisoners in the basement when waiting to be escorted to the court. When the prisoner was in the dock a mirror was positioned reflecting daylight on to the face of the accused. There was limited seating for spectators in the court for those prepared to pay to watch the proceedings. It must have been a daunting experience for the prisoners in the dock as to most of them this would have been an alien environment which was very different from the cells in which they had been kept before the trial and to which many would return.

A second court room was built in 1824 followed by two additional court rooms over the next twenty years.

In 1877 there was a fire in the building forcing the City of London to start making plans to replace the courthouse. The decision was made to demolish the courthouse and the prison in order to build a new courthouse on the site. The new courthouse was opened in 1907. This building was damaged during bombing raids in 1941 requiring rebuilding. An extension was added in 1972.

London Lives 1690-1800 also has a detailed article about the Old Bailey Proceedings
This website also has articles on the courts,
the criminal trial in the eighteenth century,
and punishment in Criminal Justice section of the website.

Old Bailey Online also has a section on Crime, Justice and Punishment with a variety of useful articles.

Newgate Prison

Three of my ancestors, Uriah Moses (1780-1847), Richard Holland (1783-1867) and Mary Bateman (1773-1829) spent time in Newgate Prison in London before being transported to Australia.

When we visited London in 2011 we explored the area where Newgate Prison once stood. The prison buildings were closed in 1902 and demolished to enable the rebuilding of the new Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey).

Part of Google map showing Newgate Street- Old Bailey

Corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey,  former site of  Newgate Prison

Newgate Prison is where the convicts waited to be tried at the Old Bailey and were then kept, often for months or in some cases years, before being taken to the ship that would carry them from England to Australia.

Mary was arrested on 19 April 1788 and tried at the Old Bailey 7 May 1788. She then returned to Newgate until 12 March 1789 when 108 female prisoners were transferred to the transport ship, Lady Juliana.

Uriah waited in Newgate from 8 December 1787 until his trial on 10 January 1788. He then returned to Newgate until 14 February 1799 when he was removed to a prison hulk, Lion, in Portsmouth.

Richard was arrested on 24 May 1806 and was tried at the Old Bailey on 2 July 1806. On 2 January 1807 he was transferred to the prison hulk, Captivity, at Portsmouth.

 Newgate Prison building was situated on corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey. The original prison was built in the Newgate, the fifth gate built into the wall around London. The prison was rebuilt and extended many times from the end of the twelfth century.

Old Newgate - Wikimedia Commons

In 1666 the prison was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. It was rebuilt and extended in 1672 but the conditions for the prisoners remained appalling. The water supply to the prison was poor, there was inadequate ventilation and there were frequent outbreaks of disease within the prison. New prisoners were put in chains where the weight of the chains depended on what the prisoner could pay the jail keeper. The conditions in which the prisoners lived depended on what they could pay for bedding and food.

Between 1770 and 1778 a new, larger prison designed by George Dance the Younger was built. However, during the Gordon Riots in June 1780, the rioters stoned and set fire to the new prison allowing prisoners to escape. The prison was rebuilt between 1780 and 1783.

Newgate Prison end of nineteenth century - Historic Prisons

The new prison was therefore only a few years old when Uriah was imprisoned there in December 1787 and Mary in April 1788.

During the later years of the 1770s there was a movement to improve conditions in prisons. John Howard (1726-1790) worked for prison reform. He visited prisons throughout England and was not impressed with the conditions. In 1774 he gave evidence to a select committee in the House of Commons before the Gaol Act was passed. The Act was to abolish the payment of fees by prisoners to jailers as well as improve sanitary conditions in jails.

Conditions within English prisons improved but were still not good. Although Newgate Prison was designed to look impressive on the outside conditions inside were basic as prisons were still designed primarily as a detriment to crime.  It was not long before Newgate Prison once again became overcrowded.

The new prison was divided into sections and had three exercise yards. Common prisoners were housed in a different area from those who could afford to pay for better food and conditions. Female convicts were housed in a separate area.

Plan of Newgate Prison - Wikimedia Commons

Within the prison was the chapel. There was also a passage that led to the courtroom where prisoners were tried at the Old Bailey. Another passage led to the place of execution. There was also a burial ground for executed prisoners. The prison structure was altered again in the 1850s.

Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) worked to improve conditions for female prisoners.

During the nineteenth century authors such as Charles Dickens wrote about conditions at Newgate as well as including descriptions of the prison in some of their books.

A quick search in Google provides a number of sites providing information about Newgate Prison. A sample appears below.

Wikipedia article on Newgate Prison

There is also a short article in Wikipedia on the Newgate.

Last Mile Tours - Newgate Prison

While many of the prisoners were in the prison awaiting trial, others were waiting to be executed. Many prisoners were hanged at Newgate.

Images of Newgate Prison in the 1890s.

Historic UK has an article on Newgate Prison including images of part of the remaining wall.

Knowledge of London includes a photo of the only part of a prison wall that remains. The wall can be viewed in Amen Court at the back of the current Old Bailey building. 

London Lives 1690-1800 has an article about prisons including Newgate Prison.

British History online includes pages from the book, Old and New London (volume 2 published in 1878) about Newgate Prison.

The State Library of Victoria also has a number of titles on Newgate Prison which I will check.
The English Bastille: a history of Newgate Gaol and prison conditions in Britain. 1188-1902 by Anthony Babington 1971.
The gaol: the story of Newgate - London's most notorious prison by Kelly Grovier 2008.
Newgate: London's prototype of hell by Stephen Halliday 2006.
The Old Bailey and Newgate by Charles Gordon 1902.

The London Journal: a review of Metropolitan Society Past & Present vol. 9 (1) 1983 has an article 'Reconstruction of London's Prisons 1770-1799 an aspect of growth of Georgian London.This is also available in the State Library of Victoria.

52 Ancestors #4 Mary Bateman

Mary Bateman was born in England, possibly in London, in 1773 or 1774. There are a number of baptisms for babies named Mary Bateman in these years but at present there is no certainty that any of these are 'our' Mary Bateman.

The 1780s were a time of social upheaval in England. One event which greatly impacted upon the employment opportunities for women was the disbanding of the British Amy returning home in 1783 after the American War of Independence. Many of the former soldiers returned to the cities increasing the population and displacing women from the workforce. Many women who had worked in shops were forced from the workforce to be replaced by men. In 1785 a tax imposed upon the employment of maid servants above the age of 15 also resulted in many young girls and women being left without employment and / or accommodation. For many women living in the cities, prostitution and crime associated with prostitution was the only way to survive. How Mary ended up working as a prostitute we can only surmise. We do know however that after her arrest on 20 April 1788 her life changed dramatically.

Mary Bateman was tried at the Old Bailey in London on 7 May 1788. The day before the trial The Times reported - "There are about 100 prisoners in Newgate for trial at the ensuing sessions, which begin on Wednesday at The Old Bailey". Mary was indicted for "feloniously stealing, on the 19th of April, a silver watch value 3 l (pound) the property of James Palmer, in the dwelling house of Elizabeth Sully ..." The trial summary can viewed on the Old Bailey Online website.

Elizabeth Sully was the landlady of an establishment in Long Alley, off Cable Street, where teenage prostitutes encouraged men to visit and then stole items from them. On this occasion Mary and Elizabeth Durrand (Durant) met James Palmer, who had been spending the evening drinking, and encouraged him to accompany them home. An hour after leaving, Palmer discovered that his watch was missing. It was later discovered hidden in a mattress. Mary was sentenced to seven years transportation. On the committal statement, signed by Mary with an X, her age was given as 15.

Elizabeth Sully was also tried and sentenced to transportation. As Elizabeth Durant had provided evidence she was not tried for her participation. Four months earlier two other girls living and working at the same establishment, Mary Butler and Mary Randall, had also been sentenced to seven years transportation. At the trial the judge had made a point of limiting the value of the stolen watch to 3 pounds - a higher value would have resulted in the death sentence.

After the trial Mary returned to Newgate Gaol. Conditions in the gaol were overcrowded and unhygienic. In the book, The Floating Brothel, Sian Rees describes the conditions -

By December 1788, 151 female convicts were living in three female cells in Newgate, which had been built to house a maximum of 70. They lived on rations fixed for that theoretical maximum and not for the number actually confined. Each cell had one window opening on to an interior well. There were no beds. Instead, there was a ramp at one end of the room with a wooden beam fixed to its top end which served as mattress and pillow. To sleep on the ramp and beam was a privilege, to be paid for weekly. To rent a blanket woven of raw hemp cost extra. Those who could afford neither curled up together on stone slabs awash with saliva and urine. (page 61 Large Print edition)

These were the conditions in which Mary lived until 12 March 1789 when 108 females (including Mary) were transferred from the prison to the transport ship, the Lady Juliana - a ship carrying a total of approximately 250 female only prisoners. A report about the ship appeared in The Times 7 February 1889 p3 -

The ship, Lady Juliana, which is ordered by Government to carry over the convicts to Botany Bay, is a fine river-built vessel, and was the first ship that was taken by the Americans on her passage from Jamaica to London, and was afterwards retaken by a man of war, and conveyed to England. One hundred marines are ordered by Government to be raised to go to Botany Bay in the Lady Juliana.

The ship remained on the Thames until early July when it sailed to Portsmouth and then to Plymouth before beginning the long voyage to Australia on 29 July 1789.

Detailed records were kept of the voyage of the Lady Juliana and Charles Bateson's book, The convict ships 1797-1868, and Sian Rees book,  The floating brothel: the extraordinary true story of an eighteenth century ship and its cargo of female convicts, are recommended reading. The ship travelled to New South Wales via Teneriffe, Cape Verde Islands, Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town arriving at Port Jackson 6 June 1790. Only five convicts died during the trip. Bateson suggests that this was because

• the women were issued with sufficient rations
• the ship was kept clean and fumigated throughout the voyage
• the women had free access to the deck instead of being confined below deck
• long stays at ports visited with access to fresh provisions

During the voyage the women had a daily routine which included cleaning the ship and cooking. Some of the women also sewed shirts to be sold when they arrived at the colony.

When the ship arrived  at Sydney Cove the much needed supplies were unloaded first. The convicts were finally allowed on shore on 11 June to stay in the hospital building or huts or tents. On the Sunday they attended a church service where babies born on the ship were baptised.

After a short stay at Sydney Cove many of the women, including Mary, boarded the ship, Surprize, to sail to Norfolk Island where they arrived on 7 August 1790. George Guest had arrived on Norfolk Island  in January 1790 and shortly after Mary's arrival on the island they were living together. They were married in November 1791 when the Reverend Richard Johnson visited the island. Their children for whom we can find records are Sarah born 1792, George born 1794, John born c 1798, Mary born 1803 and William born 1804.  The baby Mary died in May 1804 aged twelve months.

On Norfolk Island George and Mary acquired and farmed areas of land and by 1804 George was reputed to be the largest land owner on the island with holdings of 250 acres and 600 sheep.

When the decision was made to transfer the Norfolk Island settlement to Van Diemen's Land the Guest family volunteered to leave. In September 1805 George Guest and his family were transferred to Van Diemen's Land and settled at New Norfolk. However George felt that he had never received his just entitlements in the land transfer and spent much of his life, including several trips to Sydney, disputing this and other decisions of government officials.

Unfortunately Mary's last years appear not to have been happy ones. On one of the trips to Sydney with Mary and four of the children, George wrote that his disputes over his land entitlements had deprived his wife of her reason and that he had to hire two men to restrain her. In 1828 Mary is recorded as an inmate of the Liverpool Lunatic Asylum in New South Wales where she died in April 1829 and was buried at St Luke's cemetery on 2 April. She would have been 56 years old.

Mary Bateman was my great (x4) grandmother.

See the post - Mary's Story - for additional material about Mary Bateman

Notes from mc2 - George Guest & Mary Bateman

George Guest (Gess) was born at Prestbury, Gloucester in 1767. On 4 March 1784 at Gloucester Lenten Assizes he was sentenced to death on two counts of theft - stealing ten live pigs and a chestnut mare. The sentence was reduced to seven years transportation to America. Initially the seventeen year old was taken to the hulk Censor. At the end of February 1787 George was transferred to the Alexander to leave for New South Wales with the First Fleet.

After almost a year at Sydney Cove, George Guest was aboard the Supply on 7 January 1790 bound for Norfolk Island where he completed his sentence.

Mary Bateman was born in London in 1773. On 7 May 1788 fifteen year old Mary Bateman was tried at the Old Bailey for the theft of a silver watch from James Palmer and Elizabeth Sully was tried for receiving the watch as stolen goods at her lodgings at 45 Cable Street, East London where she entertained her clients.

Mary Bateman and Elizabeth Durant had met James Palmer in Welclose Square and had a drink of ale with him. From there they went with him to their lodgings where his watch disappeared. Mary Bateman was sentenced to seven years transportation to New South Wales, travelling on the Lady Juliana as part of the Second Fleet, arriving on 3 June 1790.

Mary Bateman was one of the female convicts sent to Norfolk Island arriving on 7 August 1790 aboard the Surprise.

On 5 November 1790 George Guest and Mary Bateman married. In 1791 George farmed one acre of land. By October 1792 his land had increased to 12 acres and six acres had been ploughed. He sold and purchased land and also received grants so by 1805 George owned 242 acres on which he grazed 600 sheep. He was the largest landowner on the island.

George did not escape the harsh penalities implemented on Norfolk Island to maintain order. He was flogged for the crimes of lying to Major Ross, neglecting his duty and employing two convicts without permission.

When it was decided to transfer the settlement to Tasmania the Guest family volunteered to leave. In September 1805 George Guest and his family were transferred to Tasmania and settled at New Norfolk. However, Guest felt that he never received his just entitlements in the transfer of land from Norfolk Island to Tasmania and spent much of his life, including several trips by ship to Sydney, disputing this and other decisions with government officials.

The resettlement of George Guest's family and other families at New Norfolk in Tasmania helped establish the sheep industry in that state as the sheep from Norfolk Island flourished in their new environment. Tasmanian sheep were later used to establish the sheep industry in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia.

George Guest also undertook a number of business enterprises including opening the Seven Stars Inn in Campbell Street, Hobart. He owned a number of houses in Hobart as well as large land holdings.

The children of George Guest and Mary Bateman:

• Sarah 1792 - 1868
• George 1794 -
• William 1804 - 1835
• Mary 1802 - 1804
• John 1805 - ?

In 1810 in Sydney George Guest reported to government officials that his wife was deprived of her reason. By 1828 Mary Bateman was an inmate of a lunatic asylum at Liverpool in New South Wales where she died on 2 April 1829.

George Guest died in Hobart on 23 March 1841. He was buried in the cemetery at St David's Church.

Sarah Guest married Thomas Birch.

The Lady Juliana

The Lady Juliana was not officially part of the Second Fleet as the ship left England six months before the ships of the Second Fleet departed. The journey took eleven months arriving at Port Jackson a few days before the arrival of the Second Fleet ships.

Mary Bateman was born in London in 1773. On 7 May 1788 fifteen year old Mary Bateman was tried at the Old Bailey for the theft of a silver watch from James Palmer and Elizabeth Sully was tried for receiving the watch as stolen goods at her lodgings at 45 Cable Street, East London where she entertained her clients. On 12 March 1789 108 females (including Mary) were transferred from the prison to the transport ship, the Lady Juliana - a ship carrying only female prisoners. A report about the ship appeared in The Times 7 February 1889 p3 -

The ship, Lady Juliana, which is ordered by Government to carry over the convicts to Botany Bay, is a fine river-built vessel, and was the first ship that was taken by the Americans on her passage from Jamaica to London, and was afterwards retaken by a man of war, and conveyed to England.

One hundred marines are ordered by Government to be raised to go to Botany Bay in the Lady Juliana.

 The ship remained on the Thames until early July when it sailed to Portsmouth and then to Plymouth before beginning the long voyage to Australia on 29 July 1789.

A week after the departure of the ship a report about the Lady Juliana belatedly appeared in The Times 4 August 1789 -

A convict ship is now laying there which has two hundred and sixty females* on board; the youngest eleven, the oldest sixty-eight. Five of them appear to have been blessed with the favours of Providence, and a good education. - One of the latter class was about four years ago at Brighton, and in the most gay and alluring style drove her phaeton.

The crew of the ship consist of thirty, and five or six officers; each of whom is allowed to select a mate for the voyage. Government have ordered the baby cloathes for sixty - supposing the salubrity of the sea-air may, during the long voyage, produce twins to every honest woman.

The two hundred and thirty unemployed females are to remain untouched according to the law agreed to.

*This figure is a little high. Bateson in his book, The Convict Ships, (p121) states that the ship left Plymouth with 226 female convicts aboard though John Nichol in his diary gave the figure as 245.

Two hundred and thirty convicts were listed on the Colonial Office lists. Fifty-one of the women were aged 19 or younger, 116 were aged between 20 and 29, 40 were aged between 30 and 39, 15 were aged between 40 and 49 while eight were more than 50 years.

The voyage to Port Jackson took 309 days. A detailed report of the voyage is provided in the book, The Floating Brothel.

Three weeks after leaving Plymouth the ship arrived at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe. This provided the opportunity to bring fresh water aboard. For the first few days the decks of the ship resembled a laundry as the women washed clothes and bedding in fresh water as opposed to salt water available when at sea. Additional supplies including fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fresh and salted meat were sourced for the next leg of the voyage. The opportunity to earn some money was taken by some of the convicts who took the opportunity, with assistance from some crew members, to visit crewmen on neighbouring ships.

In the second week of September the ship left Santa Cruz for Cape Verde Islands where additional supplies were loaded before sailing to Rio de Janeiro. As the ship ventured south temperatures and humidity increased as they approached the equator. Fish became the major source of food resulting in many of the women learning to catch fish. October was the beginning of the wet season with the ship encountering heavy rain and storms.

The Lady Juliana arrived at Rio de Janeiro on 2 November 1789 and remained in the harbour for 45 days. In this Portuguese colony repairs were made to the ship and fresh supplies were brought on board. On one part of the deck a tent had been set up for the women about to give birth. Elsewhere on the ship women entertained visiting seamen. 

The trip from Rio de Janeiro to Cape Town took 50 days and the Lady Juliana arrived at Table Bay on 1 March 1790. The ship remained in Cape Town for 19 days. By now it was autumn and the ship would encounter dangerous seas as it crossed the Southern Ocean. The women would have heard tales of the ships wrecked in these waters including the fate of the Guardian which had hit an iceberg at the end of December when travelling to Port Jackson. The trip to Port Jackson took 75 days. The ship entered Sydney Harbour on 3 June but due to bad weather had to wait three days before being towed to Sydney Cove on 6 June 1790.

Although the voyage of the Lady Juliana was longer than other voyages from England to Australia only five convicts died during the trip. Bateson (p123) suggests that a number of factors could account for the low mortality rate –

●     The women were issued with sufficient rations

●     The ship had been kept clean and fumigated throughout the voyage

●     The women had had free access to the deck during the voyage and had not been confined to below deck

●     Long stays at port with access to fresh provisions

The women had also been kept busy during the voyage with daily routine established aboard the ship including cooking and cleaning. Some of the convicts spent time sewing shirts to be sold on arrival at the colony.

The trip from Plymouth to Port Jackson must have been terrifying for the women as they sailed to the unknown however the conditions aboard the ship were much better than conditions experienced by convicts travelling on the Second Fleet ships arriving several weeks later with a high mortality rate and many seriously ill convicts.

It was winter when the Lady Juliana arrived at Sydney Cove. Two and a half years after the establishment of the new settlement supplies in the colony were low and rations to the convicts had been greatly reduced. Attempts to grow crops were not as successful as had been hoped. New supplies from England were needed for the survival of the colony so when a ship carrying another two hundred convicts (even though they were women) and only limited supplies arrived it was not greeted with great enthusiasm. The supplies were unloaded first while decisions were hastily made as what to do with the new arrivals. The convicts finally were allowed ashore on 11 June to stay in the hospital building or huts or tents that formed the convict settlement. On the Sunday they would have attended the church service led by Reverend Richard Johnson. Some of the babies born on the ship were also baptised that day.

On 21 June the store ship, Justinian, arrived much to the relief of the inhabitants of the colony followed by the three convict ships comprising the Second Fleet during the following week.

• Bateson, Charles: The convict ships 1797-1868. Sydney, Library of Australian history, 2004 (originally published 1950)
• Flynn, Michael: The Second Fleet: Britain’s grim convict armada of 1790. Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1993.