DISCUSSION TOPIC: THE OLD BAILEY

Your Basic Resource

Your Task

1)  Browse in the site description sections and a few of the resources listed below in an effort to orient yourself as to the context for the Proceedings Of The Old Bailey data-base.  Some of the secondary materials from the Proceedings web-site that I found to be most helpful include the following: Policing In London; Crimes Tried At The Old Bailey; Trial Procedures; Judges And Juries; Trial Verdicts; Punishments At The Old Bailey; and Gender In The Proceedings.

2)  Read at least one text from the Ordinary of Newgate's Accounts.  In these, the prison clergyman offers narratives of the lives and deaths of some 2,500 criminals executed between 1676 and 1772 after trials at the Old Bailey.  Perhaps the easiest way to access these documents is through the Ordinary's Accounts By Date page.

3)  Spend at least several minutes browsing in the sessions papers of the Old Bailey.  The site includes advice on Getting Started in working with the collection and A Guide To Searching.  You can search using any key-word or by criminal offense at Search Home.  There also are some helpful tips contained throughout the archive that offers advice for searching such sub-categories as Gypsies And Travellers, Homosexuality or Gender And Crime.

Introduction

The Proceedings Of The Old Bailey is a massive archive that offers a searchable edition of records of almost 200,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court between 1674 and 1913.  It offers a unique window not only onto English criminal justice but into social history more broadly.  I have included both the main link to the data-base itself and some supporting secondary materials as well (the latter to help you to place the primary documents within a larger framework).  The extra resources include not only journal and newspaper articles, but also a 4-part Voices From The Old Bailey audio documentary from the BBC and three seasons of the BBC's fictional retelling of the life of the eighteenth-century barrister William Barrow, much of which is set inside the Old Bailey courtroom (the complete series is listed below; the opening YouTube segment of Episode One, Season One can be found at  Garrow's Law.  The archive is enormous in scope and I appreciate that even attempting to dip one's toes into the docket might seem overwhelming.  But I encourage you to tackle this mini-assignment with enthusiasm and see if you can find something of interest within the collection.

Some Questions

Old Bailey In The News

Articles

Web-Sites

Audio And Visual Sources

 

 

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