09 May 2023
|
More than 80,000 new entries into the prison registers for three historic Scottish jails can now be searched on ScotlandsPeople website.
The records of Bridewell and Calton jails in Edinburgh and Largs jail in North Ayrshire, collectively span more than 50 years from 1798 to 1853.
Prisoners can be searched by the following in the indexes:
- forename
- surname
- age
- country of birth
Further information including crime, sentence and a description of their health is available in the scanned images of the handwritten prison register pages.
Explore at ScotlandsPeople.
(Image 'The New Jail from Calton Hill' extracted from page 91 of Modern Athens, displayed in a series of views; or, Edinburgh in the nineteenth century; exhibiting the whole of the new buildings, modern improvements, antiquities, & picturesque scenery of the Scottish metropolis & its environs, by Thomas Hosmer Shepherd (original drawings) with John Britton (text). Original held and digitised by the British Library.