Dorchester Prison
This image is reproduced with kind permission of Dorset History Centre
Ref: NG-PR/1/D/5/1 page 3
This Forgotten Women Friday focussed on women who were associated with Dorchester Prison, either as staff or prisoners. Some were found in the prison in the census returns, others appear in the prison’s admission and discharge registers, which are available online on Ancestry. Some appear in both. The stories can be found below.
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Dorset County Gaol has been sited in Dorchester for more than seven hundred years. The seventeenth century building fell into disrepair and was replaced, in the 1790s, by a new building at Castle Hill, North Square. In an attempt to stop the abuse of female prisoners by male prisoners and staff, the 1823 Gaols Act stated that men and women should be segregated and that women should be supervised by female staff. According to the census, there were between eleven and twenty women in the gaol at any one time, between 1841 and 1871. These figures dropped to fewer than ten from 1881 to 1901. Most of the women had committed minor offences, such as theft, or had been drunk and disorderly and were serving short sentences. There were however inmates who had committed much more serious crimes, including assault or murder. The prison closed in 2013.
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Useful Records
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Original records relating to the prison are at Dorchester History Centre. Dorchester Prison Admission and Discharge Registers for 1782-1879 are on Ancestry, although those for 1859-1862 are missing. These are arranged over two pages; be sure to look at the next image for the right hand page of the book. Ancestry describes this database as follows:
​“This database contains a number of different records documenting prisoners in Dorchester Prison, including prisoner registers, description of prisoners books, and one volume with photographs of some of the prisoners between 1887 and 1901. Most of the records deal with prisoners held at the prison that currently stands on North Square, which was completed in 1795. Prior to this, the prison had been located in High East Street.”
Not all the women that we are researching can be found in these records but many can.
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The following may also be useful UK, Licences of Parole for Female Convicts, 1853-1871, 1883-1887 available on Ancestry.
“This database contains licences for women to be set at large in the UK between 1853 and 1887. The records can be searched by year of licence, name, estimated birth year, and court and year of conviction. Their contents varies but can include next of kin, religion, literacy, physical description, a medical history, marital status, number of children, age, occupation, crime, sentence, dates and places of confinement, reports on behaviour while in prison, letters or notes from the convict, and (from 1871 forward) a photograph.”
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Criminal Records held at the National Archives are also available on Ancestry and FindmyPast. The Research Guide on the National Archives website is a good introduction.
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Dorset baptism registers are also on Ancestry. Searching the latter using the keyword ‘Prisoner’ may reveal babies that were born to mothers who were in prison.
Many of these women appear in the newspapers, often as repeat offenders.
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The references for the census returns for Dorchester Prison are as follows:
1841 HO107 294/7 folios 28-31 20
1851 HO107 1858 folios 37-41
1861 RG9 1353 folio 103 The prisoners are listed by initials only. The gap in the admission books at this points means that we will only be using the staff from this census
1871 RG10 2010 folios 24-28 Although this lists the prisoners by initials only, we have been able to identify most of them from the admission books and if you have been allocated one of these women, you will have been given the full name.
1881 RG11 2110 folios 89-91
1891 RG12 1652 folio 57
1901 RG12 2001 folios 115-117
Useful Resources
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Barton, Alana Fragile Moralities and Dangerous Sexualities : two centuries of semi-penal institutionalisation for women Routledge (2004)
Bennett, Rachel. ‘“Bad for the Health of the Body, Worse for the Health of the Mind”: Female Responses to Imprisonment in England, 1853–1869​’ in Social History of Medicine Vol. 34.2 (2021) pp. 532–552
Hawkin, David T Criminal Ancestors: a guide to historical criminal records in England and Wales The History Press (2009) The eight appendices list hundreds of classes of criminal records and their whereabouts.
Wade, Simon Tracing your Prisoner Ancestors: a guide for family historians Pen and Sword (2020)
Williams, Lucy Criminal Women 1850-1920: researching the lives of Britain's female offenders Pen and Sword (2018)
​Williams, Lucy Wayward Women: female offending in Victorian England Pen and Sword (2016)
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Day, Chris How to Trace your Criminal Ancestors (2016)
National Archives Research Guide to researching Criminals and Convicts
The Prison: the story of an institution
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If you have further information about any of the women whose stories are told here, please do get in touch. The information in these stories is accurate to the best of our knowledge, given the sources that were available to us at the time of writing. We cannot be held responsible for any errors of fact that may have inadvertently included. Please inform us if you believe that any errors have been made. Where the women have descendants, we have tried to contact them to get permission to tell their ancestor's stories. This has not always been possible. If we have told a story of your ancestors and you would rather we removed it, please do contact us.
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Clara Bartlett c.1855-? from Long Bredy, Dorset – Lawbreaking, Prostitution, Dorchester Prison. 5 minute read. ​​
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Mary Maria Burden, later Mary Maria Austin 1852-1911 from Langton Herring, Dorset – Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 5 minute read.
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Elizabeth Clode aka Elizabeth Smith aka Elizabeth Whitchurch 1843- from Talaton, Devon – Lawbreaking, No Descendants, Dorchester Prison. 3 minute read.
Kate Coombs 1862-1882 from Falmer, Sussex – Lawbreaking, No Descendants, Sickness, Dorchester Prison. 8 minute read.
Frances Elizabeth [Fanny] Derham aka Frances Elizabeth Kent, Later Frances Elizabeth Down 1829-1908 from Morden, Dorset – Illegitimacy, Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 13 minute read.
Mary Green c.1797-1843 from Gillingham, Dorset – Illegitimacy, Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 4 minute read.
Mary Huggins, later Mary Spencer 1859-1917 from Chideock, Dorset – Domestic Abuse, Lawbreaking, Prostitution, Dorchester Prison. 4 minute read.
Mary Elizabeth Johnson, later Mary Elizabeth Blundell 1822-1880 from Little Haughton, Northamptonshire – Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 10 minute read.
Louisa Ann Martin aka Louisa Ann Collingwood 1846-? from Sherfield, Hampshire – Disability, Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 12 minute read.
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Hannah Pitman, later Hannah Holloway, afterwards Hannah Hoskins 1849-? from Chaldon Herring, Dorset – Lawbreaking, No Descendants, Dorchester Prison. 8 minute read.
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Emma Pitt 1844-1929 from Wimborne, Dorset – Illegitimacy, Infanticide, Lawbreaking, Women at Work, Dorchester Prison. 6 minute read.
Elizabeth Ring c. 1825-? from Bradford Abbas, Dorset – Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 4 minute read.
Mary Small c.1785-? from Carmarthenshire , Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 7 minute read.
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Elizabeth Soper, later Elizabeth Gale 1866-1924 from Rampisham , Dorset – Illegitimacy, Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 7 minute read.
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Fanny Vincent 1846-? from Wyke Regis, Dorset – Lawbreaking, No Descendants, Women at Work, Dorchester Prison. 2 minute read.
Mary Voss 1816-1890 from Stinsford, Dorset and Elizabeth Voss, later Elizabeth Legg 1845-1920 from Fordington, Dorset – Alcoholism, Illegitimacy, Lawbreaking, Dorchester Prison. 7 minute read.​