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Correctional Institutions information for Derby, St. Werburgh and places above it in the hierarchy

Derby, St. Werburgh

  • In 1327, the town of Derby was was granted the right to have a gaol.
     
  • In 1538, two gallows were erected here for hanging prisoners. Prior to this, prisoners were hanged in Nottingham Gaol.
     
  • In 1756, the new prison was erected at the top of Friar Gate away from the town centre. The jail was designed to house a maximum of 29 prisoners.
     
  • Jane TAYLOR of Redcar provides this extract from the 5 January 1804 edition of the Derby Mercury: "Committed to the county gaol since our last William KNIGHT, charged upon oath with feloniously stealing from the back door of the house of Mr. EAGLISTON of Stretton in the Fields, on 27th Dec inst. one brass cheese pan of the value of one pound."
     
  • In October, 1821, it was decided to build a new jail on 6 acres of land. The new plan was approved in January, 1823.
     
  • The new prison took five years to build. It opened in 1828 just off of Vernon Street, backing onto Uttoxeter Old Road.
     
  • 20-year-old John LEEDHAM of Ashbourne was the first person to be hanged at this new jail in 1833 or 1834. He had been convicted of committing bestiality with a sheep.
     
  • James HAYNES has a photograph of the Vernon Gate entrance to the prison on Geo-graph, taken in December, 2008.
     
  • You can see the 1861 prison census at our Derbyshire Gaols Census page.
     

Derby

  • His Majesty's Prison was built in 1827 on a six acre site in South Street near the Friargate.
     
  • The prison was built to hold 380 inmates.
     
  • To see more about this prison go to our St. Werburgh site.
     
  • David SCOTT provides this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 31 March 1791: "Anne BROOKES (aged nineteen) for stealing wearing apparel, to be transported 7 years, and her mother Anne BROOKES, for receiving the same, ditto 14 years."
     
  • Jane TAYLOR in Redcar provides this extract from the Derby Mercury of 27 October 1803: "On the 15th inst, to Derby gaol, a girl about 13 years of age, on suspicion and also on her own confession with having on the 13th instant set fire to a barn belonging to Mr. Wm. BOOTH, of Pentridge, in this county, wherein was contained ten wagon loads of corn;."
     
  • Jane TAYLOR in Redcar contributes this extract from the Derby Mercury of 10 November 1803: "Committed to the county gaol since our last, Thomas CHADWICK, charged with stealing one turkey, the property of Joseph MELLOR."
     
  • Jane TAYLOR in Redcar contributes this snippet from the Derby Mercury of 12 April 1804 EXECUTED: "On Friday last, Richard BOOTH, aged 40, and John PARKER, aged 24, for horse-stealing, were executed on the gallows near this town, pursuant to their sentence at the late assizes. PARKER appeared very penitent, and was much affected; but BOOTH (who was six feet four inches high, and who had been condemned at three different periods) exhibited, in his conduct at the place of execution, the most hardened depravity, and died a wretched example of the fatal consequences of idleness, keeping bad company, and existing by depredations upon the public."
     
  • Jane TAYLOR in Redcar has this announcement from the Derby Mercury of 6 September 1804: "Ellis DEAKIN, Francis WHITE, James BOWLER and John WHITE, convicts under sentence of transportation from our county gaol, were on Wednesday last safely delivered on board the Laurel hulk in Portsmouth harbour, commanded by Capt. STEDMAN, where they are to remain until their several sentences can be carried into execution."
     

Derbyshire

  • The Prison Service Museum near Rugby houses HM Prison Service's historical collection of exhibits, illustrating the history of imprisonment from medieval times to the present day. Housed in a converted stable block, the museum contains reconstructions of Victorian prison architecture, and exhibits include the last set of Gibbet Irons used in England. Smaller items include bone carvings and paintings made by prisoners in their cells, and a nineteenth century sampler embroidered by a female prisoner from her own hair

    Admission to the museum is by appointment only, please contact:-

    The Curator,
    HM Prison Service Museum,
    Newbold Revel,
    Rugby CV23 0TH

    [Information compiled from "The Penal Lexicon Home Page", formerly at www.penlex.org.uk/pages/index.html.]

England

UK and Ireland

  • The Complete Newgate Calendar is now online.
  • Old Bailey Online - the Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London's Central Criminal Court, 1674 to 1913: "A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court."
  • Derek Wilcox's Black Sheep Index - "an index of Victims and Villains (and some heroes too) extracted from newspaper reports of court cases and inquests between 1865-1900" (archived copy).
  • Capital punishment in the 18th & 19th centuries - many listings and articles.
  • About Prison History - from the Open University's  International Centre for the History of Crime, Policing and Justice.
  • The Digital Panopticon - "allows you to search millions of records from around fifty datasets, relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey".