Recently we had some very interesting training about one of our collections, namely the Quarter Sessions collection. Quarter sessions were courts that dealt with criminal and civil cases and were so called because they met four times a year, Epiphany (January), Easter (March or April), Midsummer (June) and Michaelmas (September). 

A bit like our current justice system there were different courts that dealt with different types of crime. We have records in our archives relating to both the petty sessions (the most minor of crimes) and the quarter sessions (dealing with more serious criminal cases alongside civil matters including the licensing of pubs, registration of printing presses, hair powder taxes and many other matters.) Assize records are held at the National Archives in London. 

Being inspired by what I had learned I had a look at our catalogue to see what records we hold, here at Northumberland Archives. A quick search brought me to Q/S/B/89/P26 which is entitled “Transportation Orders 1768-1808” it gives us a fascinating insight into early 19^th century crime and punishment in Northumberland. 

It is within our transportation records that we meet a certain John Mould, in a bundle of papers including his order for transportation along with a covering letter to Lord Percy (i.e. Hugh Percy the third Duke of Northumberland).  The letter is dated 12^th July 1807 from John Davidson, Clerk of the Peace of Northumberland and he writes enclosing the orders for transportation, sent to him by the goaler of Morpeth, asking for the Secretary of State’s orders for removal south and then abroad. 

The transportation order tells us that John was “capitally convicted of the crime of High Treason in Counterfeiting the Coin of the Realm for which crime he received judgement of Death”. Fortunately for John he was reprieved by Sir George Wood, the judge in his case, and he was sentenced to transportation instead. Whilst, no doubt, this would have been entirely preferable to death, transportation was still a terrible sentence. If you were sentenced to a fixed number of years, then you would have the chance to return to your home. Only if, however, you could raise sufficient funds to pay for your passage.  

John was not so lucky as he was sentenced for “the term of his natural life”. Presumably he knew little about the place he was being sent, although he may have heard about the dangerous and long journey to get there. He would have known that he would be travelling with strangers, desperate people, convicted of severe crimes. 

At the time the UK transported its people mainly to Australia and Tasmania. The order relating to John says that he is to be transported to the coast of New South Wales or one of the islands adjacent. At the bottom of the page, it is written that John is in the thirty second year of his life and is a house-carpenter. It also says that he is “Of bad character and connected with a set of notorious people who infest Newcastle Upon Tyne and its environs.”…Charming! 

A postscript to the letter to Lord Percy reads “I believe the order is to be removed to the hulks on the river Thames”.  For anyone familiar with the novel “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens the thought of being transported to the hulks sends a shiver down your spine. The Ancestry website holds the UK Prison Hulks Register and letter books 1802-1849 where we find John again, it gives the date of his arrival; 26^th February 1808 onboard the Ship the “Retribution” (the very same one Dickens uses in his book and reputedly the one with the most fearsome reputation), it also gives us the date of his transportation, 27^th May 1808. 

Three months does not sound too long to wait but no doubt he would have been eager to leave, as the hulks had a lawless and vicious repute and not necessarily because of the prisoners. As illustrated in the press reports of the day, where it gives account of one of the prisoner’s awaiting transportation for life to Botany Bay. The newspaper says that “On his arrival aboard the Retribution…he was in the usual way ordered to strip…he swore he would not” it goes on to say, rather sinisterly, “The regular remedy according to the discipline of the hulks was applied, and his wrath was subdued.”  

Not unsurprisingly this led some prisoners to desperate measures… 

One incident that happened aboard the Retribution was between two convicts in 1809. It ended in murder; the weapon was a shoemaker’s knife…a lengthy report of this incident can be read in our search room using the British Newspaper Archive and specifically the report in the Saunders’s Newsletter and Daily Advertiser dated August the 30^th 1809. 

John was convicted alongside another Northumbrian, namely James Lowrey. James was sentenced to 7 years transportation, for committing burglary. His story was rather shorter however, as he died aboard the Retribution on the 20^th of June 1813, four years into his seven-year sentence. Why he was not transported we do not know. James’ order tells us that he was 57 years old when convicted and was by trade a shoemaker. Perhaps it was his knife that featured in the murder referred to above!? 

The court recorded that James was an “old and most notorious offender, and has for several years travelled the country leading a vagabond life.” 

John Mould was transported aboard the Admiral Gambier under the command of Edward Harrison, she sailed from Portsmouth, on 2 July 1808, and arrived at Port Jackson (what we would now call Sydney) on 20^th of December.  She had carried 200 male convicts, of whom three died on the voyage.  

If this blog has inspired you to learn more about our collections you may want to look at our website and in particular the LEARN page which features more information on Crime and Punishment including some striking “Wanted” posters. https://northumberlandarchives.com/test/learn/learn-topic-crime-and-punishment/  

This blog has been researched and written by Shelley Lanser, one of the volunteers on our maternity care project. Project volunteers are researching maternity care in Northumberland with particular focus on Castle Hills Maternity Home, Berwick, and Mona Taylor Maternity Home, Stannington. We are also researching in less detail some of the other Maternity Homes in the county. This blog tells the story of the evacuation of Newcastle Babies Hospital to Blagdon Hall during World War Two, an initiative of Lady Ursula Ridley. Lady Ridley was also involved with Mona Taylor Maternity Home, making an address at the opening in 1943.

The project is supported by the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Bright Charity and the Northumberland Archives Charitable Trust. We will be posting more blog content from the project over the coming months. 

The Newcastle Babies Hospital has an interesting history, beginning first as a daycare facility for children whose mothers were working in munitions factories during World War I. It was located in a house at 33 West Parade, on the corner of Westmorland Road, in the west end of Newcastle. It later became a place for aiding sick children, many malnourished, and teaching “Mother Craft” which included teaching mothers how to breast feed. Eventually it was a hospital where doctors performed surgery and where residential facilities were provided for the mothers so they could assist in caring for their sick child; two more houses were acquired to accommodate this need. The hospital was amalgamated into the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1944.

The medical professional whose name is most prominent in connection with the Babies Hospital is Dr. James Spence, eventually Professor Sir James Spence. Dr. James Calvert Spence held the first Chair of Child Health, which made him the first Professor of Paediatrics in England. He was also a founding member of the British Paediatric Association. His involvement with the Newcastle Babies Hospital provided the foundation for his practice of social paediatrics.  In the last Annual Report of the hospital, in 1945, he reiterated his view that care of children should always include a Paediatrician working along with surgeons and other specialists; also that the mother should be admitted to hospital along with the child. [1]

Ursula Ridley, Viscountess Ridley OBE, wife of Matthew White Ridley, 3^rd Viscount Ridley, shared a long history with the Newcastle Babies Hospital. Lady Ridley’s name first appeared in the Annual Report in 1925 as a vice-president and she was asked to join the Hospital House Committee in 1925, after a garden fete she had organised had raised £100. She was elected Chairman in 1930.

Due to the location of the hospital being so close to the Elswick Works of Vickers Armstrong, in 1939 the threat of World War II caused the Committee to consider moving the hospital to another location.  Lady Ridley offered use of a wing at Blagdon Hall. In 1820, a former Lady Ridley had built a 10-bedroomed nursery wing at Blagdon to house her ten children. This wing also had a large nursery at the end of the corridor.  The Ministry of Health agreed this was a suitable location but told them not to move until receiving a telegram instructing them to evacuate. The telegram never arrived and the Committee took the decision to move on the 1^st of September, 1939. An out-patient facility remained at West Parade. In 1943, this out-patient facility became part of the Children’s Clinic at the Royal Victoria Infirmary and 33 West Parade reverted to its original function as a day nursery.

The day before the move to Blagdon Hall, estate workmen removed furniture and members of Stannington WI “rallied in force” to scrub the floors and lay lino. On moving day all the cots and beds were brought to Blagdon, followed by nurses and babies transported in the cars of Committee members. Later that day, a Mr. Cowell arrived with a baby requiring immediate surgery for pyloric stenosis. The surgery was performed on a bath rack across a bath with instruments Lady Ridley sterilized in a kettle on the kitchen fire. The patient recovered. Soon after, most of the trained nursing staff had been called up for service and Lady Ridley found herself assisting in an operation performed by Mr. Wardill. The Matron gave encouragement and instructed her to “splash a lot” when she scrubbed up. After this, Lady Ridley had full charge of the theatre and assisted at most all of the operations.

There was no resident House Physician at Blagdon Hall, but an on call rota of doctors made the 20 mile return journey on a weekly basis. One particularly heavy snow storm required digging out the car to go for provisions and found Dr. Spence putting on gum boots to walk to Blagdon. The handicaps of distance, weather and war were somewhat offset by the benefits to the children of the gardens at Blagdon. Mixing the different age groups to create a family atmosphere also aided in the children’s psychological improvement. During the five years the hospital was at Blagdon and in a time before antibiotics, 48 surgeries were performed for pyloric stenosis, with one death; and 44 operations for cleft palate and hare lip, with one death, in an operating theatre that was less than ideal.

Over time, the hospital premises spread from its original wing, ending up with 36 rooms for children and eight single rooms for mothers; over 300 mothers stayed at Blagdon between 1939 and 1944. It had been noted that mothers who were involved with the care of their sick child developed a new competence and confidence compared to mothers who weren’t able to leave their other family commitments to stay at the hospital. This involvement of mothers was a feature of children’s hospital care that was to continue after the hospital became part of the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

On the evening of 22 August 1944, a fire broke out in the hospital wing at Blagdon Hall, necessitating removal of all the children. Dr Spence happened to be on site and he was aided by two R.A.F. men who saw the smoke from the Great North Road and came to help. The children were sent to other hospitals the next day but a few months later the Blagdon hospital was able to re-open with places for 12-14 long stay cases aged between one and seven years. However, in October 1943, the Sister in charge, Sister McFarland, had to retire due to ill health. A Sister Woodward came out most days from the Royal Victoria Infirmary, but after she also retired it was no longer practical to continue the unit. The Newcastle Babies Hospital at Blagdon was formally amalgamated into the Royal Victoria Infirmary in 1944.

Nearly all the information in this post comes from a book written by Lady Ursula Ridley, The Babies Hospital². This book was privately printed and presented to Lady Ridley by the Board of Governors of the United Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals in 1956, when Lady Ridley was still Chairman of the Babies Hospital House Committee. This presentation was on the occasion of a visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to the Babies Hospital on October 31 of that year.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Calvert_Spence, accessed 27 June 2023.

2. Ridley, Ursula, The Babies Hospital, Andrew Reid and Company, Strawberry House, Newcastle, 1956.  ZRI 85 [NRO 12793]

Image Ref: ZRI 85