County of Northumberland, A Calendar of the Prisoners to be Tried...
The Only Known Copy - The Fates of 8 Prisoners in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne on January 7, 1885 [Criminals]. [Great Britain]. County of Northumberland. A Calendar of Prisoners to be Tried at the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, To Be Held at the Moot Hall, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, On Wednesday, The 7th Day of January, 1885. [At head of title page] Epiphany Quarter Sessions, 1885. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne: J. Forster, Tyne Printing Works, 1885. [8] pp. Quarto (11" x 9"; 27.9 x 22.8 cm). Stab-stitched pamphlet in self-wrappers. Light toning and a few minor stains, vertical fold line through center, fold lines to lower outside corners, thread broken, inner (bifolium) leaf detached, annotations in early hand throughout. $850. * This rare survival provides a detailed, tabular snapshot of late 19th-century criminal justice in Northeast England, charting the offenses and personal backgrounds of eight prisoners. The printed document organizes information into clean columns detailing each prisoner's age, trade, level of education/literacy, warrant date, committing magistrate, and arrival date into custody. While the document left columns blank for the court's final verdicts, this copy features extensive contemporary annotations providing a stark record of the trial outcomes. All eight defendants were manual laborers. Reflecting the working-class educational gaps of the era, three were noted as entirely illiterate, while the remaining five could only "read and write imperfectly." One prisoner, tried for the attempted rape of a young girl, was found insane (with no further medical or institutional fate recorded). Another man was convicted of rape and handed a surprisingly brief six-month prison sentence. The remaining six prisoners were tried for theft: one was acquitted, three received sentences ranging from three months to a staggering seven years, and two have ambiguous sentencing notes-including one cryptically marked "not guilty / 5 years." An unrecorded piece of English carceral history. No copies found in OCLC or Library Hub.
Price: $850.00
Book number 86470