Crimes and punishments of historical London unlocked

28 April 2008

Details of crimes, carried out by the likes of Irish terrorists, train robbers, suffragettes and the infamous Dr Crippen, can be viewed for the first time on the internet, thanks to a significant expansion of the innovative Old Bailey Proceedings Online website (www.oldbaileyonline.org).

Researchers from the Universities of Sheffield, Hertfordshire and The Open University have doubled the size of the existing Old Bailey Proceedings Online 1674-1834 website, expanding its coverage to include details of criminal trials from 1674 to 1913, from just after the Great Fire to just before the Great War.

The website, which has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), provides access to the largest single source of searchable information about "ordinary" British lives and behaviour ever published.

People from all over the world can visit the site and get a valuable insight into a diverse range of crimes from pick-pocketing and robbery, to abduction and murder. Some of the most sensational cases ever to be tried at the Old Bailey are also now available for people to view, including the trials in which Oscar Wilde was convicted of indecency and the infamous Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen, who killed his wife, was bought to justice.

Published by HRI Online, the electronic publishing arm of the University of Sheffield´s Humanities Research Institute (HRI), the website details over 197,000 criminal trials held at London´s central criminal court right up until 1913. The trials contain fascinating facts about the circumstances of crimes, the lives of the accused, witnesses and victims, and verdicts and punishments handed down by judges.

Trials involving robbery and murder, as well as terrorism, occupied the courts in historical London, just as they do today. But they reveal very different attitudes to crime, justice and punishment. One trial, for example, details a child as young as thirteen, who was sentenced to death for breaking into a house and stealing a number of goods.

The addition of nineteenth and early twentieth century trials also highlights `new´ crimes, such as mothers convicted for neglecting their children, reflecting people´s attitudes at the time.

Professor Robert Shoemaker, Head of the Department of History at the University of Sheffield and co-director of the project, said: "This new expansion means it is now possible to search records of 197,745 individual trials, running to 110,000 pages of text and some 120 million words.

"Up until now this treasure trove of social, legal and family history has only been available to a few dedicated historians, who were prepared to spend months peering at microfilms. Now everyone from schoolchildren and amateur historians to scholars working in a range of academic disciplines can have easy access to this wealth of information.

"The site´s use is widespread, with people as far away as Australia using it to trace their ancestry or find out a little more about British history. Without this invaluable resource these people wouldn´t have access to the innumerable fascinating snapshots of individual lives contained in these trial accounts."

Co-director Professor Tim Hitchcock, from the University of Hertfordshire, added: "If you want to know how to order a plate of oysters in an East End pub, or what not to wear to church in Islington – the information is here. Besides the desperate drama of crimes punished, the Proceedings give us a new and remarkable access to the everyday."

Co-director Professor Clive Emsley, of The Open University, said: "Crime is something that fascinates everyone, and what the Old Bailey Proceedings does is provide people with the opportunity to see what crime was really like in the past. They can make comparisons and see close parallels to what´s happening today. For example, we think of terrorism as being new, but within the Old Bailey Proceedings, people will see terrorists who are attempting to do the same things 100 years ago."