STRANGEWAYS PRISON: FIRST REPORTS TO SALFORD HUNDRED QUARTER SESSIONS

FIND MY PAST

I have included here a couple of reports that can be found in the Quarter Sessions Petitions which are held at Lancashire Record Office. The first report is that of The Governor's which I find quite revealing. Deaths inside the prisons were not uncommon, but finding reports of them in the newspapers is not always easy. Even though the details given are brief, there is more information in this report that in the average newspaper article of the day. The second offering is the Chaplain's report which I found most fascinating and offers an insight into Victorian thinking about the "under classes". Towards the end of the report he seems to have opted for somewhat radical changes in society, which makes "interesting " reading in today's more liberal climate. The under linings in the Chaplain's report appear in the original document. Manchester and Salford Prison Registers can be seen here.

THE GOVERNOR'S REPORT (LRO QSP 3807/23)

To the Worshipful the Chairman and Magistrates assembled in Quarter Sessions, October 26th 1868.

Gentlemen,

I have the honor (sic) to lay before you my Report of The County Prison for the Hundred of Salford for the quarter ended the 24th inst.

The average daily number of Prisoners has been males 632, Females 159, total daily average 791. Numbers on the books this day 763. The following is the classification.

The undermentioned removals have taken place during the quarter viz:-

On the 15th July Misdemeanant Henry Holt committed suicide by suspending himself by the neck to the bell handle of his cell - he had been committed for one month for neglect of family and had served half his imprisonment; he was quiet and well behaved in Prison, Verdict of Coroner's Inquest "That he committed self destruction while labouring under temporary insanity".

On the 12th August, Rosetta Birley committed suicide in her cell by suspending herself by the neck to a bar of her window, having broken a pane of glass, it for the purpose. She had been a most excitable person while awaiting trial, and it is said, that she attempted suicide in the City Gaol [Belle Vue]. A few days before her death she was sentenced at the Assizes to 12 Calendar Months Imprisonment. Verdict of coroner's Inquest " Temporary Insanity".

Elizabeth Hill was removed on September 15th to Prestwich Lunatic Asylum by Order of The Secretary of State - she had been 72 days in Prison on the date of her removal.

The general state of health has been good. daily average in hospital 12. Deaths 2 viz:-

Robert Smith aged 22; Verdict of Jury - died from natural causes to wit "consumption".

William Holt aged 48; Verdict of Jury - died from natural causes to wit "aneurism".

I beg to lay down before you the following books viz:- The Governor's Journal, in which every particular occurrence has been recorded; the Non-Resident Officer's Book; and the Abstract Weekly Amount of Prison Labour Performed, distinguishing from that which payment is received from that due to the gaol.

I have the honor(sic) to be

Gentlemen

Your Obedient Servant

Captain Mitchell

THE CHAPLAIN'S REPORT (LRO 3087/27)

To Alfred Milne Esq. Chairman and the Worshipful the Bench of Magistrates assembled in Quarter Sessions for the Hundred of Salford, at the Assizes Court, Strangeways, Manchester.

Gentlemen, - Very nearly eleven months have passed since I commenced my labours in the New bailey, Salford. On Sunday December 1st 1867 and the following Sunday I took the duty of friend the late Chaplain, who a few days before was seized with illness which unhappily led to his retirement from the arduous labours in which he had been earnestly engaged during the long period of more than 37 years. Every Sunday since except two, I have performed the duties of in the chapels of the Old and New Prisons. From December 13th to April 12th - I acted as Assistant Chaplain. I would like to take this opportunity to retain my best thanks to you for the high honour you have conferred on me at the Quarter Sessions held on April 13th by appointing me to the important and responsible position of permanent Chaplain of the County of Lancaster.

Very soon after I came to the Prison last December I saw the necessity of giving the prisoners an address on their religious and moral duties every day, as many come for a few days and are never in the chapel on the Lord's day. So every morning I have taken the opportunity of addressing to them a brief exhortation besides reading the prayers and a portion of the scriptures. I have found that it has had a very happy effect on many of the prisoners. the whole Service occupies 25 minutes.

I have considered it a most import part of my duties as Gaol Chaplain to ascertain the antecedents and the causes of the criminality of as many of the prisoners as I possibly could. The result of my investigations is that I have the biographies to a certain extent of 1500 prisoners. It may be said by some that the statements made by these unhappy creatures are not trustworthy, but I have every reason to believe that if not all, a very portion of them give me a truthful account of their lives past. I have put some questions to many of them after intervals of several months when they have even forgotten that I had ever asked the questions and in every instance they have given me the very same answers.

I now proceed to lay before you an analysis of the previous lives of 1000 prisoners out of the 1500 into whose antecedents I have carefully inquired. There is a mournful sameness in the lives and crimes of most of them. It may almost be said with truth the words of Virgil "Quimine ab uns omnes" (sic). Unhappy homes and the bad example of parents and their utter forgetfulness of Solomon's precept, "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it" are the chief  causes of the misery and crime by which we are surrounded. It will be seen that the religious teaching imparted at Sunday School and in Church is to a very large extent made of no effect by the corrupt teaching at home, if such a sacred word can be applied to the wretched houses devoid of everything necessary for comfort and decency in which most of our poor prisoners have spent their infancy and youth.

Of the 1000 prisoners 502 belong to the unite Church of England and Ireland, 347 are Roman Catholics, 100 are connected with various divisions of the Methodists, 34 are Independents, 2 Swedenborgians, 5 Presbyterians, 1 a Jew, 1 a German Lutheran, 1 a black man of the Episcopal  Church in America, 4 Unitarians and 3 of no religion whatever.

Of the 1000 the number of females is 296 and of males 704. I am grieved to be obliged to tell you that of the 296 females 165 confess that they are drunkards, and 54 of them have drunkards as their husbands! Of the 704 males 480 admitted that they are drunkards, and many of these are not yet 20 years of age! So out of these 1000 prisoners, males and females, 645 admit that they are drunkards. how many of the other 355 may be in the same sad condition I could not discover, for many prisoners like the majority of people outside, have very strange ideas as to what constitutes drunkenness. They think that they are not drunkards unless they are constantly or very frequently drunk! The sooner this mistake is corrected amongst all classes of the community the better it will be for our country! What would be the state of Society, if other vices and crimes were looked upon with as much indifference as is drunkenness - the parent of so many of the other crimes.

I now come to religious education of these 1000 prisoners. 649 are Protestants belonging to the various denominations in the propostium I have mentioned above. 593 of them have attended Sunday Schools between 6 and 7 years each on average. Only 56 of these 649 Protestant Prisoners have never attended any Sunday School! And 30 out of these 649 have been teachers in Sunday School!!

With regard to Roman Catholic Prisoners I find that very few comparatively have ever attended Sunday School - only 117 out of 347 and these for  a very short period. I also find that a very large number of them are utterly ignorant and cannot even read!

Before I leave this account of the 1000 Prisoners I may mention that 44 of the younger criminals have drunken fathers and 16 drunken mothers and of several both parents are drunkards! I must not omit to refer to the growing vice of gambling, 24 of the 1000 owe their imprisonment to this crime.

The entire number of prisoners committed to the County Gaol during the year ending September 29th has been - Males 4245 Females 1330 - total 5575 - of whom 2104 are Roman Catholics and 3475 Protestants. 200 remanded cases are not included. Compared with the number of prisoners committed in 1867 there has been a large increase this year, namely 1250. this is of  course partly owing to the completion of the New Gaol and the removal of prisoners who had been sent to other gaols for want of room in the Old Prison. A portion of this increase must however be attributed to the increase of crime and particularly of drunkenness arising from high wages and from the more numerous facilities for procuring drink, especially in the form of beerhouses, as the Magistrates, I am happy to say, do not grant many new licences to keep public houses. I have before me, as a proof of the truth of the statement I have just made, an account of the last 5 years' progress in crime and drunkenness in a portion of our Hundred viz, the Bury Division.

This shows that during the distress arising from the civil War in America there was less crime and drunkenness, at least in some places, than since the return of comparative prosperity. The increase in crime in the Bury Division has been 9 per cent and in drunkenness 275 per cent.

Of the 5575 in our Prison 1647 have been committed directly for drunkenness, viz 1123 males and 524 females!! To this fearfully large number we must make a great addition, because there have been committed for assault and for want of sureties to keep the peace 876, viz 715 males and 161 females! A very large number of these cases have certainly sprung from drink directly or indirectly.

I now proceed to the state of secular education of 5764 prisoners, that is all except the 11 debtors.

Of 4393 male prisoners 1451 cannot read or write, 776 can read only, 2117 read and write imperfectly, 49 read and write well. Of 1371 female prisoners667 cannot read or write, 386 can read only, 300 read and write imperfectly. 18 read and write well.. This statement ought to arrest the attention of our Statesmen and Legislators and Philanthropists. One third of the male prisoners are unable to read, and one half of the females! There is indeed a need of compulsory education - at least till the traffic in intoxicating drinks  is suppressed or greatly diminished. If parents were sober and if they did not waste their money on [injurious] drinks they would be able to educate their children at their own expense, and the great majority of them would be willing to do so. But drunkenness hardens their hearts and blunts their natural affections, and takes away all desire to promote the welfare of their children in time or eternity. The fact that one half of the female prisoners are unable to read shews (sic) that the education of women has been grossly neglected. I would draw the attention of the magistrates and ministers of Religion particularly to this mournful statement. When we reflect that the happiness of a nation depends on good mothers, the [statistics] of female education amongst us must fill us with sad forebodings concerning the future prosperity of our country, unless the most earnest efforts are very soon made to remedy the present sad condition of the female portion of our population.

The number of male prisoners under 16 years of age has been 235 and females under 16 years 33. The great majority of these are the miserable offspring of drunken parents. I cannot help quoting from the wise words of Sir Thomas More more than 300 years ago "If you suffer your people to be ill educated and their manners to be corrupted from infancy and then punish them for those crimes to which their  first education disposed them, what else is to be considered from this but that you first make thieves and then punish them?" Equally true are the words of Douglas Jerrold "When the full grown thief is hanged, do we not sometime forget that he was the child of misery and vice - born for the gallows, nursed for the [latter]?" Did we legislate a little more [from] the cradle, might we not be spared some pain from the hulks.

The most painful position of a Gaol Chaplain's lot is to see Prisoners in whom we have taken a deep interest, and who promised they would not go again in the way of temptation, nevertheless return to their sins and come back to Prison. we must not, however, be astonished at this, when we think of the innumerable temptations in the forms houses and shops for the sale of intoxicolary (sic), that is, poisoning drinks which ever encircle these unhappy beings the moment they are out side of the Prison which is to them a harbour of refuge. " The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak," said the Blessed saviour, and therefore he taught us to pray" Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

Out 4010 male prisoners over 16 years 406 have been recommitted during the year, and of 235 boys under 16 years 28 have been recommitted. Out of 1297 females over 16 years 161 have been recommitted, and of 33 under 16 years 1. Eleven of the wretched women have been 5 times or more in prison during the year, and six 4 times and twelve 3 times and thirty one twice. Some women have been in prison even 70 times for drunkenness!!

I have been long of the opinion that a prison is not the place for drunken women , as instances of the restoration of drunken women are exceedingly rare. in fact a well known physician has  that in his long experience of more than 40 years as a physician he never saw one drunken woman reclaimed! At the late meeting of the British association at Nottingham I advocated the provision of some place for the safe keeping of these unfortunate beings, till the temptations of the liquor traffic are taken away. I was rejoiced to see the remarks of Mr Raffles the Liverpool Stipendiary Magistrate a few days ago on this subject, as they entirely agree with my own long expressed opinion on the matter said: "With regard to the punishment of drunkenness my experience leads me to the conclusion that to the habitual drunkard, no punishment is a really efficient corrective. In treatment of the wretched women whom I have from time to time before me I have sent them for one, two and three months, and then to the Sessions; and I find that though they may get twelve months at the Sessions, as soon as they are liberated they resume their former habits of dissipation. The only remedy which I can think of is the provision of some place which confirmed drunkards can be received and treated as lunatics."

The number of Prisoners sentenced to Penal servitude who have been removed from our County Gaol during the year ending September 29th has been 84. Of these 35 are protestants - 31 males and 4 females. 49 are Roman Catholics - 40 males and 9 females. The number of boys and girls removed to the Reformatories has been 37. Of these 21 are Protestants - 19 boys and 2 girls. 16 are Roman Catholics - 14 boys and 2 girls.

It will be interesting to you to know how many of these years Prisoners have been at Reformatories. The number is 17 - males 16 female 1. From Protestant Reformatories 9 - from Roman Catholic 8. Five have been at Mount St Bernard's and 3 at Market Weighton - Roman Catholic Reformatories .One at Kingswood - 2 at Bradwall - 2 at Wandsworth- 2 at Blackley - 1 at Bleasdale, and  1 - a girl at Red Lodge, Bristol - Protestant Reformatories.

The average number of prisoners during the year has been 622.

The greatest number in the Gaol at one time was 870 on July 31st 1868.

The lowest number in the Gaol at one time was 485 on October 13th 1867.

The following table shows the total committals for the last year - It includes 11 debtors. For these there was no room in the Old Prison.

TOTAL COMMITTALS FOR 1868

As the effects of Sunday Drinking have lately been much discussed inside and outside of Parliament I give the number of committals to this Prison on each day during the month of August and September:

This statement shews(sic) that the fearful amount of crime arising from the idleness and the drinking on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. It would be well to close all public houses and beerhouse early on Saturday evening all Sunday and thus to give the publicans some rest from their painful and disagreeable labours as we give to other workpeople in this district. This would be attended with the greatest of benefits in many ways to the publicans themselves and to their families. In Liverpool 750 publicans signed a petition to Parliament in favour of the entire closing of their houses on Sunday and 113 more said they would be glad if such an Act were passed, but would not sign the petition.

Last April 4th I had the painful duty of attending Miles Weatherill, the Todmorden Murderer, to his place of execution. I here refer to this poor young man for two reasons. First, because he told me that the murder[s] and the means of perpetrating it [them]  were suggested to him  by the reading of one of those weekly sensational periodicals which alas!(sic) are spreading vice and crime especially amongst the youth of this country. Secondly, because though he was not an habitual drunkard, he took drink to stimulate him to the execution of his dire purpose. He often said to me that without drink he could not have had the courage to commit the dreadful deed which excited a feeling of horror in the minds of all who read or heard of it. [See Last Public Hangings at the New Bailey]. I am truly thankful that there can be no more public executions in our country. By the recent wise Act of Parliament a fearful amount of crime and demoralisation will be prevented. * See Below

During the past year 499 prisoners have been under the care of Schoolmaster and Schoolmistress - 46 more than in the year 1867. Of these 27 males and 19 females did not know the letters on their admission. 45 males and 25 females knew only the letters ; 184 females and 77 males could read only little easy words; 65 females and 43 males could read imperfectly; and 14 males could read well. All of them have derived more or less benefit from the instruction given them. There are also 25 males now learning to write on plates, and 20 learning arithmetic.

With regard to their knowledge of religion - on admission 31 males and 15 females did not know even the Lord's Prayer; 4 males and 2 females left without learning it; 101 males and 93 females knew only the Lord's Prayer; 62 males and 148 females knew the Creed. only 2 males and 1 female knew the whole of the Catechism. 28 males and 3 females knew the Catechism on their discharge and 105 males and 55 females could say the Ten Commandments, and 186 males and 268 females the Lord's Prayer.

There has not been much sickness during the year. There have only been 9 deaths from natural causes - all males - and two suicides, one male and one female. There have been in hospital several sad case of delirium tremens and many of the sick whom I visited owe their disease solely to drink or to vice of another kind. I would earnestly impress on the mayors and official authorities of our towns and parishes  the duty incumbent on them of removing the brothels  and also of preventing the shameful manifestations of vice and profligacy in our streets.

It may be asked, "What good has resulted from the labours of the Chaplain during the last eleven months?" My answer is, not a week passes in which I do not see some fruit of my labours. I see men - old and young - who have been in prison, earning an honest living, and some of them so industrious and giving so much satisfaction that their employers voluntarily raise their wages.  I also see men and boys who have not  tasted a drop of intoxicating liquor since they left Gaol. All that is wanted to diminish vice and crime, and to take away the necessity for 19 out 20 of our Prisoners and Workhouses and Lunatic Asylums is that our legislators suppress the traffic in poisoning drink or rather permit the people themselves to do so. (sic) And then our country will be what God evidently intended it to be. Our prisons will be turned into Colleges for the instruction and education of the ignorant of both sexes and of every age. England instead of being reproached by other nations as a land of drunkards will be admired for its sobriety and its freedom, and looked upon as a pattern and a model. "Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people."

I have the honour to be,

Gentlemen,

Your most obedient servant,

William Caine, M.A.

Chaplain

County Gaol

Strangeways, Manchester.  October 23. 1868

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AMENDMENT ACT 1868

The Above Act brought to an end the barbaric practice of Public Executions. Below are the main points of the Act. This Act itself was repealed in 1965 by the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act

1868 CHAPTER 24 31 and 32 Vict

An Act to provide for carrying out of Capital Punishment within Prisons.

This Act may be cited for all purposes as “The Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868.”

Judgment of death to be executed on any prisoner sentenced on any indictment or inquisition for murder shall be carried into effect within the walls of the prison in which the offender is confined at the time of execution.
The sheriff charged with the execution, and the gaoler, chaplain, and surgeon of the prison, and such other officers of the prison as the sheriff requires, shall be present at the execution.
Any Justice of the Peace for the county, borough, or other jurisdiction to which the prison belongs, and such relatives of the prisoner or other persons as it seems to the sheriff or the visiting justices of the prison proper to admit within the prison for the purpose, may also be present at the execution.
As soon as may be after judgment of death has been executed on the offender, the surgeon of the prison shall examine the body of the offender, and shall ascertain the fact of death, and shall sign a certificate thereof, and deliver the same to the sheriff.
The sheriff, and the gaoler and chaplain of the prison, and such justices and other persons present (if any) as the sheriff requires or allows, shall also sign a declaration to the effect that judgement of death has been executed on the offender.
The coroner of the jurisdiction to which the prison belongs wherein judgement of death is executed on any offender shall within twenty-four hours after the execution hold an inquest on the body of the offender; and the jury at the inquest shall inquire into and ascertain the identity of the body, and whether judgement of death was duly executed on the offender; and the inquisition shall be in duplicate, and one of the originals shall be delivered to the sheriff.
The body of every offender executed shall be buried within the walls of the prison within which judgment of death is executed on him: Provided, that if one of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State is satisfied on the representation of the visiting justices of a prison that there is not convenient space within the walls thereof for the burial of offenders executed therein, he may, by writing under his hand, appoint some other fit place for that purpose, and the same shall be used accordingly.
One of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State shall from time to time make such rules and regulations to be observed on the execution of judgement of death in every prison as he may from time to time deem expedient for the purpose as well of guarding against any abuse in such execution as also of giving greater solemnity to the same, and of making known without the prison walls the fact that such execution is taking place.
All such rules and regulations shall be laid upon the tables of both Houses of Parliament within six weeks after the making thereof, or, if Parliament be not then sitting, within fourteen days after the next meeting thereof.
Every certificate and declaration and the duplicate of the inquisition required by this Act shall in each case be sent with all convenient speed by the sheriff to one of Her Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State; and printed copies of the same several instruments shall as soon as possible be exhibited and shall for twenty-four hours at least be kept exhibited on or near the principal entrance of the prison within which judgement of death is executed.
The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in the sheriff may be performed by and shall be vested in his under sheriff or other lawful deputy acting in his absence and with his authority, and any other officer charged in any case with the execution of judgment of death.
The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in the gaoler of the prison may be performed by and shall be vested in the deputy gaoler (if any) acting in his absence and with his authority, and (if there is no officer of the prison called the gaoler) by the governor, keeper, or other chief officer of the prison, and his deputy (if any) acting as aforesaid.
The duties and powers by this Act imposed on or vested in the surgeon may be performed by and shall be vested in the chief medical officer of the prison (if there is no officer of the prison called the surgeon).
The duties by this Act imposed on the chaplain may, in the event of the absence of the chaplain, be performed by the assistant chaplain or other person acting in place of the chaplain.
The forms given in the schedule to this Act, with such variations or additions as circumstances require, shall be used for the respective purposes in that schedule indicated, and according to the directions therein contained.
This Act shall apply to Scotland, with the modifications following; viz.,
The expression “judgment of death” shall mean “sentence of death” pronounced by any competent court.
“Indictment” shall include “criminal letters.”
Any duty appointed to be performed to or by, or any power given to, a sheriff in England, shall in Scotland be performed to or by, or be exercised by, the lord provost or provost and other magistrates charged with seeing the sentence of death carried into effect, or by any one of their number specially named by the others for that purpose.
The expression “the visiting justices of the prison” shall in Scotland mean the members of the county prison board acting under the provisions of the M1Prisons (Scotland) Act 1860.
In lieu of the provisions contained in [F3section 5] hereof, the procurator fiscal of the jurisdiction within which the prison is situated wherein sentence of death is executed on any offender shall within twenty-four hours after the execution hold a public inquiry before the [F4sheriff principal or sheriff] of the county on the body of the offender, and in particular shall inquire into and ascertain the identity of the body, and whether sentence of death was duly executed on the offender; and the report or deliverance of the [F4sheriff principal or sheriff] shall be in duplicate, and one of the originals shall be delivered to the lord provost or provost, or magistrates or magistrate, charged with seeing the sentence of death carried into effect.
The expression “a misdemeanour” shall mean “a crime and offence.”
The expression “the duplicate of the inquisition” in the tenth section hereof shall mean “the duplicate of the report or deliverance of the sheriff or sheriff substitute.”