Expert’s Choice
Anthony Adolph, genealogist and author of Tracing Your Aristocratic Ancestors
While the 18th century might conjure up images of balls, pump-room fashionistas, scarlet-uniformed soldiers and elaborate courtships, there is no better place to go for an un-romanticised window on life at the time than Old Bailey Online ( oldbaileyonline. org). This database of digitised trial transcripts contains such a vast body of detailed accounts of crimes that it remains endlessly fascinating. The transcripts originally ranged from 1674 to 1834, but were later expanded up to 1913, and now number 197,745 criminal trials held at London’s central criminal court.
Although the website is old, it still works well and there are many ways to explore the data. You can search by name, which will lead not only to defendants, but also to victims, witnesses and officers of the law. You can search by single and combined keywords, or narrow the results by offence, verdict or sentence. For example, selecting ‘Transportation’ from the drop-down menu allows you to explore the thousands of cases that ended in transportation to America, and later Australia. You can also discover the different punishments meted out for various types of criminality over time.
While many of the cases are harrowing, bloody or scandalous, there are also hundreds of examples of petty crime. The homepage includes an ‘On this Day’ box, which, on the day of writing, included a case from 1774 when one William Hipditch was transported after he allegedly “uprooted and stole twenty-four myrtle shrubs from a nursery belonging to Lewis Kennedy and James Lee”. That would be an amusing addition to any family tree.