Transportation

Miscellaneous Records (Twixt Thistle and Rose)

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Old paper catalogues often have miscellaneous sections. This is sometimes because the catalogue is a work in progress – the records have a proper place in the collection but it hasn’t been located yet. Or it might be the place where records are put that don’t quite fit the collection. Unfortunately, a miscellaneous category tends to hide rather than reveal what’s put there – whereas a meaningful title or class description facilitates discovery.

Plan of the water supply to Hide Hill 1835
B10/41 Miscellaneous Guild letters and papers

Waifs and strays

The new catalogue of the archives of the Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed will not have miscellaneous sections – records will relate to the body that created them. This will make them more accessible and put them in the correct context.

Miscellaneous unreferenced record – Plan of proposed North Bells Fishing Shiel, 1895

First task

I have begun to check some of the boxes of miscellaneous records to estimate the scale of the job ahead. In the main, the miscellaneous records relate to the class they have been placed with but, at some point, bundles have split and become mixed up or pages have been detached from their volumes. In all cases the records are unlisted individually – so none of the documents depicted here, for example, can currently be easily found by using the handlist. A researcher would have to rely on the knowledge of the archivist or browse all miscellaneous records with a relevant date.

Corporation Mathematical School inventory 1804 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers) showing items handed over by Mr Rae to Mr Todd who had taken over as master of the Mathematical School. The Corporation Academy was completed in 1800 bringing into one place the separate schoolmasters that had taught at different rooms in the town. Only Freemen’s children were admitted. Initially each master reported directly to the Guild but in 1844 a Rector was appointed by the Town Council following research into how Edinburgh and Glasgow schools had been reformed (John Scott History of Berwick, 1888 p.407; Janet D. Cowe The Development of Education in Berwick -upon-Tweed to 1902, 2018 pp 83-95).

Unintentional curators

However, some bundles contain a medley of documents that don’t follow a particular time sequence but contain the sort of records that might be selected when writing a book or article. For example, references to a theatre in Hide Hill, a case of infanticide or a list of books at the Mathematical School. It is not that uncommon to find ad-hoc curation in collections given to Archives – someone will have already found them useful but forgot to note where they came from or did not understand the need to return them to their original place.

Part of a bundle of records relating to the investigation of a charge of infanticide against Margaret Dryden (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers)

Authentication

Detaching a record from it’s original place in the archive not only makes it harder to find but can break the custodial chain that gives a record authenticity and a traceable provenance. It is the reason why archives are listed hierarchically and in such great detail. If they were not, it wouldn’t be too hard to slip in a fake deed or receipt or remove unique and valuable evidence.

How to prepare a prisoner for transportation by hulk to a penal colony 1814 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)
Licencing Hide Hill Theatre 1794 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers )
John Robinson…man of mystery (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)

A man of mystery, a clothing account and how to maintain a fire engine

The reluctant release of John Robinson, a man with a mysterious past as a ship-hopping vagrant, a list of green clothing purchased and instructions on how to maintain a fire engine are a few examples of miscellaneous items in the current handlist that must be correctly relocated.

Account for clothing (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous papers)

When the catalogue is complete it should be much easier to to find them and understand how they fit into the history of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Fire Engine Instructions ,1814 (C15/1-98 Miscellaneous Papers)

Transported for Life: Northumberland to Queensland

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On the 28th May 1831 a chilling notice appeared in the Newcastle Courant. It read:

“Whereas the Public Bridges in the County of Northumberland have been of late much injured and rendered dangerous by Persons maliciously throwing down the Battlements thereof, (particularly Alnwick Bridges,) the Magistrates, in Order to caution persons from committing such Offences give this public Notice, that by the 7th and 8th George the 4th, Chap 30, any Person who shall unlawfully and maliciously pull down or destroy any Public Bridge, or do any injury with intent to render such Bridge, or any Part thereof, dangerous or impassable, shall be Guilty of Felony and subject to Transportation for Life. And the Magistrates give this further Notice, that they will prosecute to the utmost Extent any Person committing these malicious Offences.”

Robert Thorp’s chilling order, plastered on walls across the county.

The notice was given across the county by order of Robert Thorp, Clerk of the Peace.

This order was originally passed on May 17th 1831 – ten days after John Thompson and Samuel Pringle had ‘wilfully’ destroyed a part of the battlements on Alnwick Bridge. The two men were convicted ‘full damages and costs’ for their destructive crime, and the threat of transportation hung above them. It seems highly unlikely that Samuel was sent away; as a man by the same name was still living in Fenkle-Street, Alnwick in 1839. Interestingly a John Thompson, aged 24, was transported to Sydney, Australia on a hulk called Georgina in 1831. He was sentenced to 7 and a half years; a substantially shorter sentence then the life promised by Robert Thorp.

Transportation was used by  Britain’s law-keepers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as an alternative to imprisonment or hanging. Originally served to those who had committed serious felonies, transportation was also rolled out to political criminals (rioters) and thieves. Transportation to Australia first began in 1787, it provided a cheaper penal solution then imprisonment and also benefited the state by supporting the establishment of colonial outposts.  Prisoners traveled to their new lives on huge hulk ships where the conditions were, unsurprisingly, terrible. Disease often broke out on-board, with cholera and typhoid being the most common, and many died before reaching their destination, often weakened by a four to six month long journey.

In the same year that Robert Thorp’s bloodcurdling notice was posted in the Newcastle Courant transportation was being used to punish other convicted Northumbrian criminals. Amongst whom were:

John Fletcher: found guilty of stealing 5lbs of mutton belonging to George Stevenson of Cramlington. He was sentenced to 7 years transportation.

George Turnbull: charged with stealing a ‘great coat’ belonging to James Tate of Alnwick. Mr Tate had hung his coat up to dry when it went missing, he later found it in the prisoner’s home. The prisoner claimed he had bought it the day before for 6s, but the jury found him guilty of theft. He was then sentenced to 7 years transportation but, as a repeat offender, a second charge of theft added another 7 years to his sentence.

William Kennedy and Peter O’Hara: convicted to life transportation for stabbing and cutting “officers of excise” (men who inspect customs and duties.)

 

We would like to thank the volunteer who carefully transcribed documents relating to the case of Thompson and Pringle.

 

 

 

 

Bibliography:

Victorian Crime and Punishment: 19th Century, Transportation (http://vcp.e2bn.org/justice/section2196-transportation.html)