When Wickham is arrested for stealing funds and the Darcy seal, where would he be tried?
Serious crimes not resolved by a magistrate, would be heard in the English system called the Assizes. These were circuit courts which traveled from market town to market town. For crimes occurring in London, the venue was The Old Bailey. The court has been a focal point of London's justice system for centuries. The jurisdiction of the Old Bailey included all trials, from petty crimes to high-profile cases. Today it is, officially known as the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales. From 1978 to 1992, when I was just beginning my legal career, a British television series followed Horace Rumpole, a middle-aged London barrister who defended a broad variety of clients in Rumpole of the Bailey. It offered a humorous but fairly accurate depiction of the life of a barrister. In determining where Wickham would be tried, I stumbled upon The Old Bailey Proceedings Online. What a remarkable digital archive!
Shorthand transcripts were taken of the proceedings and published as an official record. Of the countless proceedings, nearly 200,000 trials held at the Old Bailey between 1674 and 1913 have been digitized through a collaboration between universities, libraries, and archives. For a former lawyer, this is a rabbit hole of epic proportions. Navigating the Old Bailey records online is a straightforward process. Users can search the database by keyword, defendant name, offense, verdict, or date range. The advanced search options allow for even more precise queries, such as searching by victim name, judge name, or specific phrases within the trial text. Each trial record includes the charges brought against the defendant, the names of the witnesses and court officials, and a transcript of the proceedings. Trial testimony ranges from a single paragraph to multiple pages. Theft represented a large portion of the cases. They were tried with surprisingly careful attention to evidence.
Two of the cases I read were from 1813. In one, a man was charged with stealing several bottles of wine. He was found not guilty when the shop owner failed to produce the recovered bottles at trial. In another, Sarah Evans was acquitted of the murder of her four-year-old son George after dozens of witnesses spoke of her intention to send the child to the poor house, identifying the child and his clothing, and speaking of her as an affectionate mother. From a legal perspective, the proceedings reflected a weak circumstantial case which made the acquittal appropriate. The historical and social information was fascinating. It included the process of placing out a child a mother could not afford to feed. He would be sent out to the country to foster, returning to the workhouse at six years. Children’s dress was copiously described, including a gown of figured cotton, a silk cap, and shoes donated by a neighbor. Details included the cost of a wet nurse, 7 shillings, and the diet of a woman near starvation subsisting on just tea and bread. The transcripts offer a wealth of information about how common people lived and attitudes towards crime, punishment, and social issues such as poverty, gender, and race.
The Old Bailey records online www.oldbaileyonline.org/ opens a fascinating window into London's past. Anyone, anywhere in the world, can explore the intricacies of the city's criminal justice system and uncover the stories of the individuals who passed through its doors.
Illustration: Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson, Old Bailey Courtroom (1809), from The Microcosm of London. © University of Sheffield
