Men of Bad Character: the Witham Fires of the 1820s

Select List of Sources

Parliamentary Papers

Select Committee on the cause of increase in the number of criminal commitments and convictions: report of minutes of evidence, PP 1826/7 (534) vi 5, and PP 1828 (545) vi 419.

Number of magistrates in England and Wales, PP 1831/2 (39) xxv 231.

Select statement of the number of persons charged with criminal offences during the last seven years, PP 1830/1 (308) xii 493.

Home Office Records

The main records used for information on the Witham fires were: PRO HO 13/52 (correspondence), HO 17/108 Vn 36 (petition of James Cook including copies of Assize depositions), HO 9/8 (register of convicts, Leviathan), HO 10/29 (list of arrivals, New South Wales).

For background information the following in particular were consulted: PRO HO 19/4, 19/5 (registers of petitions), HO 17 (petitions), HO 40/18, 40/23 (correspondence, disturbances), HO 64/1 (correspondence, rewards), HO 75/2 (Hue and Cry), HO 52 (in-letters, JPs).

Assize Records

See Guide to the contents of the Public Record Office, i, HMSO, London, 1963, for an account of these records, and J Gyford, Men of Bad Character: Property Crime in Essex in the 1820s, (Essex University MA dissertation, 1982), appendix 2, for their relevance to the 1820s. The main items which have not survived are the depositions, except in a very few cases. A few matters concerning the Assizes, such as expenses, were dealt with by Quarter Sessions.

The main documents used were PRO ASSI 35/264 and 35/269 (Essex indictment rolls, including calendars and jury lists as well as the indictments for each case endorsed with the verdict), ASSI 31/24 to 31/26 (Home Circuit agenda books), and ASSI 32/7 and 32/8 (Home Circuit minute books).

Quarter Sessions Records

See F G Emmison, Guide to the Essex Quarter Sessions and other official records, Essex Archaeological Society, Colchester, 1946, and F G Emmison, Guide to the Essex Record Office, Essex County Council, Chelmsford, 2nd ed, 1969, for an account of these records, and J Gyford, Men of Bad Character: Property Crime in Essex in the 1820s, (Essex University MA dissertation, 1982), appendix 2, for their relevance to the 1820s. Their survival is very full, except for the absence of most of the pre-Session informal calendars which gave ages and informal occupational descriptions, until after 1860.

For basic information about cases, the records most used for the present study were ERO Q/SMc 3 and 4 (gaol calendars), Q/SPb 19 and 20 (process books), Q/SR 995-998 and 1015-1020 (rolls). More detail for the Witham area was obtained from Q/SBb 474-477 and 494-497 (bundles), Q/SBd 4/1 to 4/6 (depositions), Q/SMr 5 & 7 (recognisance books).

A variety of other Quarter Sessions records were used for other information, including ERO Q/SMg 33 to 36 (minute books), Q/SO 28 to 31 (order books), Q/FAa 4/4 and 4/5 (accounts), Q/FAa 6/1 (abstract of accounts), Q/FAb 89/2 to 89/8 and 94/2 to 95/2 (bills and vouchers), Q/CR 7/1 (return of peace officers), Q/JL 8, 9, 9A and 10 (lists and correspondence concerning magistrates), Q/RJ 1/12 and 2/1 (jury lists), ERO Q/RSc 1/1 to 1/3 (summary conviction books).

Petty Sessions

ERO P/WM 1 to 4, Minutes of Witham Petty Sessions, were used for other information about summary justice.

Newspapers

Chelmsford Chronicle (its sister paper, the Essex Herald, would also have been helpful, but at the time of writing the dissertation and booklet did not appear to have survived for the relevant period. I believe that there are now some copies at ERO).

The Times

Diaries, reminiscences and correspondence

BL Add MS 40344-40428, general correspondence of Robert Peel, and BL Add MSS 40299-40300, correspondence of Robert Peel with George IV.

ERO D/DBs F38, journal of a Witham farmer, 1846-48.

H N Dixon, Reminiscences of an Essex country practitioner a century ago, in Essex Review, xxv, 1916.

General Witham Sources

ERO D/CT 405A and 405B, tithe map and award, Witham, 1839.

ERO D/P 30/1/4, 30/1/7, 30/1/9, 30/1/13, parish registers.

ERO D/P 30/12/10, 30/12/11, 30/12/13, 30/12/14, overseers' accounts.

ERO D/P 30/8/2, vestry minutes, and D/P 30/8/13, notices of appointment of Select Vestry.

ERO D/NC 3/2, Minutes of Witham Independent Meeting.

ERO D/NM 5/1/11, Missionary Account Book, Chelmsford Methodist Circuit, 1831-47, and D/NM 5/1/13 and 14, Circuit Schedule Books, 1839-65.