Scottish Court Records

[stevie2006]

Hi not sure if anyone can help but I may have stumbled upon first criminal in the family lol and wondered if anyone knows how to obtain Court Records.

I think my great great grandfather Andrew Harrower and his cousin Robert Harrower were sentenced to 3 months hard labour in November 1880 at Alloa Sheriff Court in Scotland.

According to local papers, which I looked up at the library, they were caught by the local gamekeeper for poaching and they assaulted him and were locked up in Alloa Prison.

Would anyone know where I could obtain Prison or Court records for the period to firstly confirm it is my ancestor and secondly find out some information on the case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Steven

[naomiatt]

Hi - is there anything in the Edinburgh Gazette - http://www.edinburgh-gazette.co.uk/
might be something in here about the records http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/co...dex.aspx?r=541

[herky]

I have viewed my 4 x great grandfathers court records in Edinburgh. His crime was in Glasgow, where he was tried.
They were held at West Register House which is in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh.
The staff were very helpful and I had the full set copied and sent on to me after viewing them.
There is an online catalogue - if you have a google for "The National Archives of Scotland" you should be able to do a search.
The name Andrew Harrower comes up with 17 results and Robert 34, but I can't see any (at a quick glance) that are for 1880.
No doubt you will be able to do a better search as you have more details.
Good luck

[stevie2006]

Thanks Naomi will check it out

Looks like a trip to Edinburgh is best Herky thanks

Steven

[clematised]

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/ Try putting the details in here, a free initial search but then you have to buy credits,

It will save the travel costs if they have anything.

Edna

[stevie2006]

Already a member Edna and unfortunately they don't have court or newspaper records. I have Andrew on all the censuses and his birth, marriage and death extracts

Thanks

Steven

[stevie2006]

Great result today the National Archives came back with some information on the court case and also that the year after in 1881 the mother and 2 daughters were also charged as they tried to assualt a magistrate coming to serve papers against the son for borrowing money and not paying it back.

They charge a £15 fee to search to see if they can find any papers etc. The email I got had so much information with the possibility of finding some actual court papers

What a result, so chuffed

Steven

[herky]

Good news - I hope the papers give you a good insight into this branch of your family.

[stevie2006]

Thanks Herky the plan is to phone tomorrow, pay the £15 fee and then wait to see how much actual papers they can find and then they will advise how much to copy them. Pretty exciting or am I a little sad lol!!!!

Keep you posted

Steven

[clematised]

stevie dont be sad as it all adds a little colour to the family history, when I found the first criminal record in OHs family they were all chuffed to read the record and had such a good laugh at the drunken antics of the young man who left a muddy field with a friend and entered a house and took a few silly items and then left footprints back to the field where they fell asleep drunk, and local policeman followed the trail.
2 Years imprisonment in Newgate.

Edna

[herky]

Not sad at all - it cost me quite a bit for the photocopies but well worth it to be able to go over each page at my own pace.
I was quite surprised at how detailed the court records were - calling lots of witnesses, naming all the jurors etc. My relative had stolen some money and it even went as far as describing the picture on the back of the farthings (this was in 1830 and it appears the cities had their own coinage). I had expected the trial to be a very short affair with just the police report and a short court appearance but no - all these witnesses were cross examined - very exciting.
Have you looked for "Police Books" in the archives? My relative who was from Glasgow appears in some of the Police Books ( at The Mitchell Library but that is for Glasgow City Archives)and they also give some details. Perhaps local archives to Alloa will have some police books - may be worth finding out as there may be incidents that didn't get to court but were recorded there.

[stevie2006]

Tried poice books before Herky but Alloa have no records - one of my ancestors died on the beat as a policeman in 1875

Was it expensive to get all your records copied?

Thanks

Steven

[herky]

I can't honestly remember but I think was about 50p or £1 a page - not sure if postage is added to that. The records didn't get copied when I was there - they were sent out. As they were very old documents obviously they required soneone with skill to do it for you. I just had my 3 bundles done in total but there were a a lot of repitition and some pages with just eg a name/address on it so if I had had more time at the archive I could have gone through the bundles and picked out much fewer pages to be copied and saved myself a lot of money.
I will have a look and see if I can find a price but there may be details on their web site.

[stevie2006]

Edna they are funny stories I can't imagine the scene for my family.

Thanks Herky - booked the search today - now its fingers crossed

Steven