Glossary

Accused, the:

The defendant or defendants appearing on a criminal charge.

Acquit:

to free or release from a charge of crime - to pronounce ‘Not Guilty’.

Apprehend:

to arrest and escort into custody

Arson:

the act of deliberately or recklessly setting fire to another’s property or to one’s own for some improper reason.

Assize:

see "CRIMINAL COURTS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND AND WALES".

Assault:

an intentional or reckless act that causes immediate and unlawful violence to another.

Benefit of clergy

a legal device whereby a person could escape the death penalty by claiming clerical status which, in practice, meant simply the ability to read and write a few words. Originally only available to clerics, by the eighteenth century it was open to all, including women; however, certain serious crimes were excluded from ‘benefit of clergy’. The practice was abolished in 1827.

Bigamy:

the crime of marrying a person while still legally married to someone else.

Bill of Indictment:

written accusation before it has been either found a true bill or ignored by a grand jury. See also No Bill or No True Bill.

Blasphemy:

showing contempt or disrespect for God or sacred things especially in speech.

Bridewells:

also known as Houses of Correction, named after the Palace of Bridewell given by Edward VI to the City of London for a place of correction for ‘idle’ people like beggars and vagrants. Bridewells were local prisons for minor offences and were merged with County Gaols by the Prisons Acts, 1865.

Burglary:

the crime of breaking by night into a house with intent to commit a felony.

Bushel:

a unit of dry measure by volume, equal to about 8 gallons or 36 litres.

Capital Offence:

a crime which carried the death penalty; before 1827 all felonies were automatically capital offences unless ‘benefit of clergy’ was allowed. The Criminal Justice Act, 1827, reduced the number of capital offences and abolished ‘benefit of clergy’. In 1837 most capital offences were removed from the statute books and by 1861 the death penalty remained only for murder, treason piracy, and arson in Her Majesty’s dockyards.

Capital Punishment:

punishment of a crime by the sentence of death; after 1836, in practice, only murderers and those who attempted murder were executed. Public executions ceased in 1868.

Commit:

to confine officially or to take into custody (arrest).

Commute:

to reduce a sentence to one less severe, e.g. reduce a sentence of death to one of life imprisonment.

Counterfeit:

to make an imitation of something genuine (coin, picture, etc.) with the intent to deceive or defraud.

Death Respited:

a capital sentence passed for a crime such as murder but not carried out; the death penalty postponed or suspended but not cancelled.

Defendant:

a person against whom an action or claim is brought in a court of law.

D.R.

Death Recorded. Where capital punishment was the legal penalty for a crime but this ldtrer was not murder, it became the practice, after 1836, for the judge to record the sentence by writing "death recorded". He would ensure, by a recommendation of mercy, that the sentence was commuted to transportation or imprisonment.

Embezzlement:

to convert to your own use, money or properly entrusted to you.

False Pretences:

a former name for deception: the offence of dishonestly obtaining the property of another by some deception or misrepresentation of the facts.

Felony:

see Appendix on Felonies and Misdemeanours.

Forgery:

the false making or altering of a banknote or document etc. with intent to defraud.

Game Laws:

laws governing the hunting or preservation of game.

Glean:

to gather corn or other produce that has been left in the field after harvesting.

Grand Jury:

a jury of inquiry consisting of 12—23 ‘good and lawful men of a county’ (approved by Sheriff) who are present at sessions and assizes to inquire into indictments before they are submitted to a trial or Petty Jury.

Guilty:

to be found responsible for committing an offence.

Habeas Corpus:

a measure designed to prevent people being kept in gaol indefinitely without a trial: when a person was taken into custody the gaoler had to take him or her before a judge (or magistrate) and produce a writ of Habeas Corpus which states the charge being made against the prisoner. (This could be suspended in times of emergency, e.g. during the French Wars, between 1793 and 1815.)

Hard Labour:

punishment by forced physical labour usually hard and unpleasant in addition to a sentence of imprisonment. Abolished 1948.

House of Correction:

see Bridewells.

Hulks.

disused sailing ships (Justitia, Warrior, etc.) housing prisoners sentenced to transportation or hard labour. Prior to 1776, prisoners had been transported to America and during the American. War of Independence hulks were intended as a stop-gap measure until another suitable colony could be found. Transportation continued after 1787 to Australia, but the hulks remained in use ~as a temporary prison for those awaiting transportation  - or in some cases as a permanent prison. The use of the hulks for convicts was ended. in 1856.

Indictable Offence:

see "THE SYSTEM OF PROSECUTION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY"

Indictment:

the legal process by which a person is formally accused of a crime.

J.P.:

Justice of the Peace, otherwise known as a magistrate; these local justices were responsible for both administration and maintaining the law at county level until the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894 took away most of their administrative functions. For much of the nineteenth century they were dominated by the gentry and Anglican clergy. Property qualifications for Justices of the Peace were removed in 1906 and in 1918 women were admitted.

Juvenile prisons:

Parkhurst juvenile prison established in 1838 to house more serious juvenile offenders prior to transportation. It declined in importance after reformatories (and later Industrial Schools) established in 1850s. The model for reformatory schools for juveniles was Redhill, run by the Royal Philanthropic Society.

King’s Evidence:

(Queen’s if sovereign is female) evidence given for prosecution to the Crown by an accomplice against his or her former associates in crime. Often this evidence is given in the hope of receiving a lighter sentence.

Larceny:

Magistrate:

see J.P.

Magistrates’ Court:

a court of summary jurisdiction held before 2 or more J.P.s or magistrates to deal with minor crimes (i.e. non-indictable crimes), certain civil actions and preliminary hearings (the latter referred to higher courts i.e. Assize)

Manslaughter:

the unlawful killing of one human being by another without malice aforethought (i.e not planned in advance).

Misdemeanour:

See ‘LEGAL DISTINCTIONS’.

Murder:

the unlawful, premeditated killing of one human being by another

No Bill or No True Bill:

insufficient evidence to justify a case coming before judge or jury.

Offence:

a crime, a violation or breach of law.

Peck:

a unit of dry measure by volume, equal to about 2 gallons (a large watering can) or 9 litres — a quarter of a bushel.

Penal Servitude:

introduced by the Penal Servitude Act, 1853. It was a term of imprisonment that usually included hard labour and was served in this country. Ranging from 3 years to life, it was for those who would have been transported for less than 14 years. It could also be used as an alternative sentence for those liable to transportation of 14 years or more. Sentences of 7 years transportation or less were substituted by penal servitude for 4 years; 7 to 10 years transportation by 4 to 10 years; 10 to 15 years by 6 to 8 years’ penal servitude; over 15 years’ transportation by 6 to 10 years’ penal servitude; transportation for life by penal servitude for life. Therefore records tended to put transportation and penal servitude together. Penal servitude was treated as a term of hard labour. This clumsy system of converting transportation to penal servitude equivalents was theoretically ended by the Penal Servitude Act of 1857 which abolished transportation as a sentence; subsequently prisoners were sentenced directly to penal servitude if found guilty of offences that formerly warranted transportation. However, in practice,  convicts were still being transported as late as 1867 so there continued to be a hazy overlap between the sentencing of transportation and penal servitude for many years.  Only by tracing what happened to individuals is it possible to determine what their final sentence actually was.

Perjury:

the offence of lying or giving false evidence by a witness under oath in a court of law. Petty Session: see ‘CRIMINAL COURTS IN NINETEENTH CENTURY ENGLAND AND WALES’

Prosecute:

to bring a criminal action against a person for some offence, nowadays usually undertaken by the Crown (the state).

Quarter Sessions:

four periods during the year when courts were held before a bench of magistrates and a jury, usually in January (Epiphany), April (Lent), June (Summer) and September (Michaelmas), to try indictable offences. They corresponded roughly to the Quarter Days when certain payments, such as rents, were due. Sessions were replaced in 1971 by Crown Courts. See Criminal Courts

Recognizance:

a bond entered into and recorded in a court of law whereby someone agrees to observe some condition e.g. appear as a witness.

Regina:

Queen.

Respite:

a temporary delay or postponement of a punishment -  reprieve. May also mean to remit a punishment, especially for one condemned to death.

Rex:

King.

Robbery:

the action or practice of seizing by violence or intimidation properly belonging to another.

Sacrilege:

the misuse or desecration of anything regarded as sacred — e.g. a church or its contents.

Sedition:

speech or behaviour that tends to undermine the authority or peace of a state — e.g. to encourage or incite a riot.

Transportation:

introduced regularly as part of the penal system in the early eighteenth century, with convicts going to the American colonies. This ended in 1775 with the American Revolution but commenced again in 1787 with convicts being sent to Australia. In 1840 transportation to New South Wales was discontinued but continued to Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania)until 1853: in 1849 transportation started to Western Australia.  The 1853 Penal Servitude Act retained only long-term transportation and the 1857 Penal Servitude Act abolished the sentence of transportation.  However  many prisoners were still transported up until 1867 see Penal Servitude above.

Treason:

betrayal of the allegiance that a person owes his sovereign or his country especially by attempting to overthrow the government.

Uttering Forged Note:

to put into circulation (distribute) forged banknotes or counterfeit coin, etc.

Vagrant:

a person of no fixed abode or regular work who wanders from place to place often maintaining themselves by begging or dishonesty: hence a charge of vagrancy.

Warrant:

an authorisation issued by a magistrate or J.P. allowing a constable to arrest a person, search properly, etc.