ScotlandsPeople (scotlandspeople.gov.uk), the Scottish government’s records website, has launched a new collection of registers from Perth Prison.
The collection consists of over 50,000 records and is divided into three sets: convict journals (male), 1867–1879; prison registers (male), 1888–1897, 1902–1909 and 1913–1921; and prison registers (female), 1901–1916. The convict journals do not record all admissions to Perth Prison at the time, but only the convicts who were sentenced to penal servitude in convict prisons located in the south of England.
ScotlandsPeople has plans to add more registers from Scottish prisons over the next two years.
ScotlandsPeople was set up to digitise records stored at the National Records of Scotland and includes Scottish civil records, parish records and census records. There is no subscription cost for the website, but users must purchase credits to view the original images. The prison records are priced at six credits (£1.50).
The records for each prisoner include their usual address, date of admission, trial court, offence, sentence and, where applicable, when they were freed or removed to another prison.
ScotlandsPeople has also introduced a new feature with the prison registers, ‘More details’. This consists of an eyeball symbol to the left of each individual search result. Visitors to the website can click this symbol to view additional details from the record without having to pay to view the document.
One of the people found in the records is suffragette Arabella Charlotte Scott. Scott was convicted of attempted fire-raising and sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment on 19 May 1913. She was at first admitted to Calton Gaol in Edinburgh, where she went on hunger strike like many suffragettes of the time. The authorities repeatedly released her for health reasons and then arrested her again under the terms of the 1913 Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health) Act, more commonly known as the ‘Cat and Mouse Act’.
Scott was transported to Perth Prison on 20 June 1914. The admissions register shows that “Suffrag.” was written in red ink next to her name, and notes additional details such as the fact that she was 29 years old, born in London, and 5 foot 4½ inches tall. Other Perth Prison records show that she was subject to force-feeding at the prison using a tube introduced to her stomach.
Another prisoner found in the records is George Chalmers, who was convicted of the murder of John Miller. Despite Chalmers’ plea that he was innocent, and petitions signed by 600 people that were submitted to the home secretary in his support, he was executed at Perth Prison on 4 October 1870.
ScotlandsPeople has updated its glossary of terms for users to include words found in prison registers (scotlandspeople.gov.uk/glossary). There is also a guide to prison registers available at scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/prison-registers.