reform

Theft of four rabbits... So quaint!

None of the male convicts I've seen in this set are over 5ft 10". Or the females for that matter. Possibly meaningless but slightly odd all the same...

The tallest of the convicts in this set was George Lee - 5ft 12" www.flickr.com/photos/twm_news/5342813404/in/set-72157625... When looking through the records, it did seem odd that they were all shorter than 6ft. Some records didn't have photographs attached, so taking another look at these records could reveal some taller people. Will get back to you

i noticed this but assumed this was because it was 140 years ago! my mum is 54 about 5'6 and said she used to be tall for her age, i'm her daughter at 6ft and although i am most definitely tall for this generation, i know quite a few girls who are as tall as me!

5' 12"???!

There seem to be a lot of grey-eyed people in this collection. I didn't even know it was a real eye color, I've never seen a driver's license describe someone as grey eyed, and I've carded people at big events. A European thing? Were they persecuted by the law?

Grey eyes are now more commonly viewed as light blue/green colours, but they are perhaps more common in Europe then anywhere else. These criminals were convicted of a crime specified in section 20 of the Prevention of Crimes Act, 1871 and reported to the Secretary of State [Home Secretary] as being imprisoned in Newcastle Gaol between December 1871 - December 1873.

I think the eye color description is mistaken... It's more of a sepia color

My mother (Scots-Irish heritage - born here in 1929) had grey eyes. No blue or green - just grey.

I put gray on my driver's license :)

Wow, so young! Great pics!

Thank you. Yes the youngest on our records was Ellen Woodman, aged just 11.

Wow, that's sad. They shared the same prison with the adults ???

Yes, it's strange to think that a child should have to serve imprisionment with sometimes hardened criminals, but during this Victorian period, girl offenders who were Catholics were sent to the Dalbeth Roman Catholic Reformatory School in Glasgow, after serving their sentence in Newcastle Gaol.

How awfull, a criminal at thirteen and in prison with hardened criminals!