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Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment
The pillory in Kingston Market Place
The Courts and Justice
Crime and methods of dealing with it have been a major preoccupation of civilisation. There were many different courts in Kingston dealing with all kinds of crime and dispute, including civil cases. Local people acted as juries. Many could not write so instead of their name they would place a mark, often in the form of a cross. Please see example documents below:
Coroner's Inquest, Jury List (document reference KE3/1/57).pdf
Transcript of document reference KE3/1/57
Manor Courts
In medieval times Lords of the Manor often settled minor criminal cases amongst the manor tenants and made judgements about nuisances, land issues and inheritance disputes. Kingston's head officials (called Bailiffs) were Lords of the Manor of Kingston so they had a right to hold manor courts. Their records survive from the 15th century.
Market Courts
Kingston's Bailiffs also held the position of 'Clerks of the Market'. They were entitled to settle market disputes and enforce market regulations at special Market Sessions, acting like early trading standards officers for the Borough.
Sessions of the Peace and the Assizes
The Bailiffs were Justices of the Peace and in this capacity held regular Borough Petty and General Sessions to deal with lesser crimes. Witnesses statements relating to a variety of petty crimes and misdemeanours were heard by Kingston's Justices of the Peace and were recorded in a minute book. The following are a few examples from the18th Century. More serious crimes were heard at the Quarter Sessions for the County of Surrey (so called because they were held four times a year) and at the Assizes. These two courts sat at various places around the county including Kingston, but were not Borough courts. The system of County Quarter Sessions and Assizes were replaced by Crown Courts in 1971 and Magistrates Courts now deal with lesser crimes. Please see example documents below:
Coroner's Inquest: child murder (document reference KE3/1/56). pdf
Transcript of document reference KE3/1/56
Transcript of document reference KT18/3.
Witness statement: theft of tea and coffee (document reference KE2/5/5).pdf
Transcript from document reference KE2/5/5
Transcript from document reference KE2/5/5
Witness statement: begging (from document reference KE2/5/5) pdf
Transcript from document reference KE2/5/5
Witness statement: assault (from document reference KE2/5/5) .pdf
Transcript from document reference KE2/5/5
Civil Courts
Civil actions for debt and trespass were heard in Kingston's 'Court of Record' and the records survive from the early 1400s. These cases are now dealt with at the County Court. One of the famous cases to be heard at Kingston Court of Record was that of Gerard Winstanley, 17th century 'leveller and digger'. As local leader of this movement he was one of a group of poor people who attempted to cultivate parts of Walton and Cobham commons in defiance of the laws of property.
Police
As the population of Kingston increased so did crime and disorder. Biden, a local historian, described 18th century Kingston as a place where 'every vice and every species of immorality was practised more or less openly'. In 1773 Parliament passed a local act for 'Lighting and Watching' in Kingston. This authorised the Borough to appoint 14 paid watchmen. Kingston seemed to have paid little attention as in 1823 the constables were charged at Quarter Sessions for gross neglect of duty. In 1834 there were only three paid constables and three watchmen to police the whole town.
A Watch committee was set up in 1835 (after the Municipal Corporations Act) and the number of paid constables was increased to nine. In 1839 Kingston was included in the Metropolitan Police District where it remains today.
Punishments
From medieval times through to the 19th century the punishment of petty criminals was extreme in modern eyes. Stocks, pillory and a whipping post were kept in Kingston Market Place and a ducking stool was used for 'scolds'. Kingston's ducking stool was replaced by a new one in 1572 and almost immediately the wife of the grave digger was punished for being 'a common scold and fighter'. It is recorded that she was 'sett on a new cockking (ducking) stole made of a grett hythe and so brought aboute the markett place to temes brydge and there had iii duckings over hed and eres..'.
The gibbet for public hangings was situated on Kingston Hill. The Assize records provide evidence of hangings and transportsation for what often seems today to be relatively minor offences. Jerry Abershaw, a well-known highwayman, was hanged locally in 1795. Please see documents below:
Letter about transportation to New South Wales (document reference KT18/5) .pdf
Transcript of document reference KT18/5
Prisons
Kingston had two prisons. The debtors' gaol, also known as the Stockhouse Gaol, stood on a site now occupied by part of the Bentall's Store. Prisoners could be released instantly if their debts were paid, but most people remained there until they finished their sentence. The Stockhouse was run by licenced victuallers (The Hand and Mace). They were not paid so profits from the alehouse provided upkeep for the prisoners. Conditions were grim and in 1831 the building was demolished and a new debtors' prison built in Bath Passage near the Guildhall. This later became a bath house. Please see documents below:
Picture of the Hand and Mace Prison ( reference LHR K1-193).pdf
A House of Correction, administered by the Surrey Quarter Sessions, was opened in Kingston in 1761 and was situated near the present Ashdown Road. There were separate wards for men and women who were given the task of picking opum (unravelling rope), making doormats and clothes pegs, sewing and washing. In 1841 the official Gaol Returns found it 'clean, healthy and secure' although whether it would be judged so in today's terms is open to question. Illness and death in gaols were commonplace. Often cause of death was recorded as 'natural' but the conditions may well have contributed. The County House of Correction at Kingston was closed in 1852 when a new county prison was opened in Wandsworth. Please see documents below:
Transcript of document reference KE3/1/28
Inquest on Susan Birch: death from gaol fever in 1741 (document reference KE3/1/108).pdf