THE OLD BAILEY

LIFE ON EARTH IS A PRECIOUS THING TO MARVEL AT AND PROTECT

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Between 1674 and 1834 the proceedings of the central criminal court in London, the Old Bailey, were published eight times a year. These records detail some 100,000 individual trials, and include approximately 60,000 pages of text. They represent the largest single source of information about non-elite lives and behaviour ever published, and provide a wealth of detail about everyday life, as well as valuable evidence of the circumstances surrounding crimes, the lives of the accused, and their trials. This project is creating a fully digitised and structured version of all surviving published trial accounts between 1674 and 1834 and making them available as a searchable online resource. Users are able to search for entries in specific fields, such as crime, or defendant's occupation, or search the whole text for any text string. It is also be possible to tabulate specific fields, such as sex of defendant by type of crime. Beyond this, information on related documents and sources found in the libraries and archives of London is linked to each trial, creating a trail of information that leads users from the internet to the original manuscript sources for eighteenth-century crime.

Equality for all

The digitisation involves the scanning and entering of the original text. This is performed via the Higher Education Digitisation Service at the University of Hertfordshire. The files thus created are then transferred to the Humanities Research Institute in Sheffield, where they are marked-up, incorporating both structured meta-data detailing specific aspects of each trial and archival references. A series of learning packages have been designed to make the material accessible to students in schools and universities, researchers of family and local history, and users interested in the histories of individual communities, such as the Black, Gay, Irish and Traveller communities (all of which are frequently referred to in the Proceedings). Links to a wide range of other internet sources for all types of users have also been incorporated.

A website, hosted by Sheffield University was launched in March 2003 with 22,000 trials (covering the period from December 1714 to December 1759).

Visit the Old Bailey, the world's most famous courthouse.

RAPE     MURDER     •ROBBERY     •FRAUD     •CORRUPTION

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A HISTORY OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE OLD BAILEY  

Homepage = Sitemap       For an overview: read the Publishing History of the Proceedings

SEARCH THE PROCEEDINGS:

• Keyword Search

• Name Search

• Place Search

• Crime, Verdict and Punishment Search

• Browse by Date

• Advanced Search

• Reference Number

• Statistical Search

• Search the Associated Records 

ABOUT THE PROCEEDINGS:

• Publishing History

• Advertisements in the Proceedings

• Associated Records

• Notable Trials 

HISTORY:

• Crime, Justice & Punishment

  • Policing in London

  • Types of Crime

  • Trial Procedures

  • Judges & Juries

  • Verdicts

  • Punishment

• London and its Hinterland

  • Late 17th Century London

  • 18th Century London

  • Early 19th Century London

  • A Population History of London

  • Material London

  • Rural Middlesex

  • Currency, Coinage and the Cost of Living

• Community Histories

  • Black Communities

  • Gypsies and Travellers

  • Homosexuality

  • The Irish in London

  • Jewish Communities

• Gender in the Proceedings

• Bibliography

• Glossary

FOR SCHOOL:

• Teachers' Notes

• Getting Started: An Introduction to Key Concepts and Information

• The Journey from Newgate to Tyburn

• Tasks for students

• Primary Sources

• Schools Images

• Timeline 

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey London 1674 to 1834

A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Search the Proceedings

Keyword · Name · Place · Crime, Verdict and Punishment · Advanced Search · Browse by Date · Reference Number · Statistics · Search the Associated Records

About the Proceedings

Publishing History of the Proceedings · Associated Records · Advertisements · Notable Trials

Historical Background

Crime, Justice and Punishment · London and its Hinterland · The Old Bailey Courthouse · Community Histories · Gender in the Proceedings · Glossary · Bibliography

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