'An increasing mass of heathens in the bosom of a Christian land': The railway and crime in the nineteenth century

Continuity and Change

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 1997, Pages 55-78

  Ireland, R W ^a  

^a ABERYSTWYTH UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CRIME; RAILWAYS;

UK;

EID: 0031393934     PISSN: 02684160     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0268416097002816     Document Type: Article

References (130)

1. For a wide-ranging and intelligent overview of the changes, see J. Simmons, The Victorian railway (London, 1991).
2. Report from the Select Committee on Railway Labourers; 1846 (530.), XIII, 411 (hereafter Select Committee) estimated some 200,000 in the near future; see page iii. Simmons suggests about 210,000 in 1847 (Victorian railway, 180). R. Stephens MP in his Presidential Address to the Institute of Civil Engineers claimed that 90,000 men were directly employed by the railways and another 40,000 collaterally. See the report of the address in the Carmarthen Journal, 25 January 1856. For a perceptive analysis of the geographical origins of railway navvies, see D. Brooke, The Railway navvy (Newton Abbot, 1983) Ch. 1 (particularly, for Wales, pp. 30-2). Note the relatively high proportion of men from outside South Wales employed on the South Wales Railway line in 1851 -just under two-thirds of the men apparently coming from outside the five counties of South Wales (ibid., Table V, p. 190). Brooke's Ch. 8 also merits examination.
3. Report from the Select Committee on Railway Labourers; 1846 (530.), XIII, 411 (hereafter Select Committee) estimated some 200,000 in the near future; see page iii. Simmons suggests about 210,000 in 1847 (Victorian railway, 180). R. Stephens MP in his Presidential Address to the Institute of Civil Engineers claimed that 90,000 men were directly employed by the railways and another 40,000 collaterally. See the report of the address in the Carmarthen Journal, 25 January 1856. For a perceptive analysis of the geographical origins of railway navvies, see D. Brooke, The Railway navvy (Newton Abbot, 1983) Ch. 1 (particularly, for Wales, pp. 30-2). Note the relatively high proportion of men from outside South Wales employed on the South Wales Railway line in 1851 -just under two-thirds of the men apparently coming from outside the five counties of South Wales (ibid., Table V, p. 190). Brooke's Ch. 8 also merits examination.
4. Report from the Select Committee on Railway Labourers; 1846 (530.), XIII, 411 (hereafter Select Committee) estimated some 200,000 in the near future; see page iii. Simmons suggests about 210,000 in 1847 (Victorian railway, 180). R. Stephens MP in his Presidential Address to the Institute of Civil Engineers claimed that 90,000 men were directly employed by the railways and another 40,000 collaterally. See the report of the address in the Carmarthen Journal, 25 January 1856. For a perceptive analysis of the geographical origins of railway navvies, see D. Brooke, The Railway navvy (Newton Abbot, 1983) Ch. 1 (particularly, for Wales, pp. 30-2). Note the relatively high proportion of men from outside South Wales employed on the South Wales Railway line in 1851 -just under two-thirds of the men apparently coming from outside the five counties of South Wales (ibid., Table V, p. 190). Brooke's Ch. 8 also merits examination.
5. A computer database of the rich resource of this volume, Carmarthen Record Office (hereafter CRO) Ace. 4916, made interrogation of this information (though sadly not of the other sources) much easier. See R. W. Ireland and C. Breay, 'Hard labour on a hard disk: Carmarthen's Register of Felons on computer', The Carmarthenshire Antiquary, XXIX (1993), 61. The material contained within the present article is drawn from a much wider study of criminal justice in nineteenth-century Carmarthenshire. I might perhaps observe that the importance of the railway in that study emerged as the work progressed; I had (perhaps stupidly) given no thought to its potential significance at the outset.
6. See R. W. Ireland, 'The felon and the angel copier: criminal identity and the promise of photography in Victorian England and Wales' Criminal Justice History (1995).
7. The question of the 'typicality' of the Carmarthenshire evidence is a vexed one but one which is not crucial for the purposes of this article. Clearly there were instances of criminality amongst navvies and railwaymen and offences committed in trains and railway stations in the country as a whole, and I seek merely to draw attention to the importance of the analysis of such records. Whether the Carmarthenshire evidence is anomalous in respect of, for example, the frequency with which particular offences were committed will be a matter capable of determination only when similar surveys have been undertaken for other localities.
8. Simmons, Victorian Railway, 337. I concede that canals had already made an impact, particularly in South Wales, as had road improvement. The railway impact was, I would maintain, of a different order of magnitude.
9. Ibid., 338. Note, however, the coal traffic from the valleys to Cardiff and then beyond. For an important survey of a particular aspect of railway building in Wales, see D. Jones, The coming of the railway and language change in North Wales 1850-1900 (Aberystwyth, 1995).
10. Ibid., 338. Note, however, the coal traffic from the valleys to Cardiff and then beyond. For an important survey of a particular aspect of railway building in Wales, see D. Jones, The coming of the railway and language change in North Wales 1850-1900 (Aberystwyth, 1995).
11. D. S. M. Barrie, A regional history of railways, vol. XII: South Wales (2nd ed., Nairn, 1994), 230.
12. For a fuller account of the construction and operation of the lines in this area, see Barrie, Regional history, esp. pp. 230-2, and R. Emrys Jones, Rheilffordd Cymru (Penygroes, 1979). For the 1852 feast, see W. Spurrell, Carmarthen and its neighbourhood (2nd ed., Carmarthen, 1879), 152.
13. For a fuller account of the construction and operation of the lines in this area, see Barrie, Regional history, esp. pp. 230-2, and R. Emrys Jones, Rheilffordd Cymru (Penygroes, 1979). For the 1852 feast, see W. Spurrell, Carmarthen and its neighbourhood (2nd ed., Carmarthen, 1879), 152.
14. For a fuller account of the construction and operation of the lines in this area, see Barrie, Regional history, esp. pp. 230-2, and R. Emrys Jones, Rheilffordd Cymru (Penygroes, 1979). For the 1852 feast, see W. Spurrell, Carmarthen and its neighbourhood (2nd ed., Carmarthen, 1879), 152.
15. Half-yearly report of the South Wales Railway, in the Carmarthen Journal, 5 March 1852.
16. Carmarthen Journal, 25 January 1856.
17. See Appendix B, No. 8 of the Eighth Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners (London, 1842), 235-42.
18. Quoted in ibid., 239. It may be noted that the railways were more pervasive than the canals, the construction of which had also of course involved large numbers of navvies. Carmarthenshire had seen four canals of significance constructed between 1767 and 1825. See Sir J. E. Lloyd, A history of Carmarthenshire (Cardiff, 1939), vol. II, 359-60.
19. Quoted in ibid., 239. It may be noted that the railways were more pervasive than the canals, the construction of which had also of course involved large numbers of navvies. Carmarthenshire had seen four canals of significance constructed between 1767 and 1825. See Sir J. E. Lloyd, A history of Carmarthenshire (Cardiff, 1939), vol. II, 359-60.
20. Select Committee, iii. The evidence and conclusions on the issue of policing and the comparison between the Scottish system, regulated by a rather different system, and the English one, is important but cannot be pursued here. See for example para. 594, and see 2 Vict. c.80, 8 & 9 Vic c.3. For a brief discussion of early railway policing, see J. R. Whitbread, The railway policeman (London, 1961), ch. 3, and Brooke, Railway navvy, 109 et seq.
21. Select Committee, iii. The evidence and conclusions on the issue of policing and the comparison between the Scottish system, regulated by a rather different system, and the English one, is important but cannot be pursued here. See for example para. 594, and see 2 Vict. c.80, 8 & 9 Vic c.3. For a brief discussion of early railway policing, see J. R. Whitbread, The railway policeman (London, 1961), ch. 3, and Brooke, Railway navvy, 109 et seq.
22. Ibid., see e.g. p. v and paras. 49-51, 2065, 2838-9 and 2726-7. It was not unknown apparently for contractors to use their own navvies to settle disputes violently on their behalf.
23. Ibid., see e.g. para. 27. But note Brooke's warning as to the danger of over-emphasizing such instances (Railway navvy, 21).
24. Ibid., see e.g. para. 27. But note Brooke's warning as to the danger of over-emphasizing such instances (Railway navvy, 21).
25. Ibid., see e.g. para. 402. The evidence of the navvy Thomas Eaton on this point is to be found at para. 2997.
26. Carmarthen Journal, 16 January 1852. For details of Howells, who came from Haverfordwest, see the Felons' Register in the CRO (hereafter FR) no. 390.
27. Carmarthen Journal, 23 January 1852. The question of the license is interesting, for it is clear that the railway builders would create a demand for both alcohol and lodging, either or both of which might be provided by persons who were unlicensed for that purpose - see for example Carmarthen Journal, 4 June 1852 for instances of selling beer to navvies on a Sunday and an unlicensed lodging house accommodating 'Irish'.
28. Carmarthen Journal, 30 January 1852. For a fuller discussion of the problems of identity, see Ireland, 'Felon and angel copier'.
29. There are some difficulties here. Whilst, as will become clear, Irish workers formed an identifiable component amongst the railway labourers, it need not be the case that references to 'the Irish' necessarily relate only to those labourers. For example the case below, which concerns two Irishmen, only one of whom was a railwayman, shows contact between the occupational grouping and other (permanent or transient) Irish inhabitants. Brooke (see above, note 2) gives 6 per cent of the SWR employees in 1851 as born in Ireland, and note also his comments at pp. 31-2 and Ch. 5 in Railway navvy. For comments upon the role of the Irish in criminality, see R. Swift, 'Crime and the Irish in nineteenth century Britain', in R. Swift and S. Gilley eds., The Irish in Britain 1815-1839, 163 et seq. and note pp. 170-1 on navvies, and the same author's 'Anti-Irish violence in Victorian England: some perspectives' Criminal Justice History 15 (1994), 124, and esp. at p. 131. Whilst it would be satisfying to separate the occupational from the national groupings more precisely, such a task is beyond me. A similar problem recurs with references to 'the Cornish'. Some Cornishmen may have been employed by the railway but the references seem to be more generally to Cornish miners (see the diary of P.C. David Williams 1857-1858 (CRO Mus. 112), 30 June 1858.
30. There are some difficulties here. Whilst, as will become clear, Irish workers formed an identifiable component amongst the railway labourers, it need not be the case that references to 'the Irish' necessarily relate only to those labourers. For example the case below, which concerns two Irishmen, only one of whom was a railwayman, shows contact between the occupational grouping and other (permanent or transient) Irish inhabitants. Brooke (see above, note 2) gives 6 per cent of the SWR employees in 1851 as born in Ireland, and note also his comments at pp. 31-2 and Ch. 5 in Railway navvy. For comments upon the role of the Irish in criminality, see R. Swift, 'Crime and the Irish in nineteenth century Britain', in R. Swift and S. Gilley eds., The Irish in Britain 1815-1839, 163 et seq. and note pp. 170-1 on navvies, and the same author's 'Anti-Irish violence in Victorian England: some perspectives' Criminal Justice History 15 (1994), 124, and esp. at p. 131. Whilst it would be satisfying to separate the occupational from the national groupings more precisely, such a task is beyond me. A similar problem recurs with references to 'the Cornish'. Some Cornishmen may have been employed by the railway but the references seem to be more generally to Cornish miners (see the diary of P.C. David Williams 1857-1858 (CRO Mus. 112), 30 June 1858.
31. Carmarthen Journal, 2 April 1852.
32. See the diary of P.C. Williams, 1857-1858, 26 December 1857: 'There was a row between some Irish lads and the Whites of under the bank. I went there and seen all to their lodgings.' On the next night 'there was also a little noise with the Irish at Kidwelly fach'.
33. Ibid., 26 December 1857.
34. Carmarthen Journal, 12 December 1851, FR nos. 401 (Reeves), 402 (Jones) and 403 (Rees). Jones' and Rees' connection to the railway was discovered by cross-reference to newspaper reports, an exercise too vast to have been undertaken in the case of all such general occupational attributions in the Felons' Register. Again, therefore, I stress the danger of using the bare figures presented here.
35. Carmarthen Journal, 19 December 1851.
36. FR nos. 391, 392 and 393, October 1851. The coins were sixpences. They received, respectively, 6, 3 and 9 months with hard labour. See also Swift, 'Crime and the Irish', 166.
37. Select Committee, para. 3095.
38. See FR nos. 379 (Abraham Martin, stealing a hatchet, 1 month with hard labour), 390 (Thomas Howells, see above, note 18) and 429 (Joseph Briggs, theft of boots, acquitted).
39. FR nos. 440 and 441, Henry Jones (acquitted) and John Thomas (12 months with hard labour).
40. John Reeves; see above, note 25.
41. FR no. 378. Bestiality, it would appear from the records of this period, was a crime for which it was impossible to secure a conviction in Carmarthenshire.
42. Again there are problems which render statistical analysis dangerous. I do not know whether all the 'railway labourers' were involved in the construction of new lines or the maintenance of existing ones. I have included also some miners who seem to be from a gang previously resident at Sugar Loaf and connected with the railway but excluded 'engine drivers' who may have been employed on the construction. The individuals, their date of remand, occupation as recorded, offence charged and disposition are as follows: FR no. 1016 (25 April 1864: James Wilson, excavator, stealing an apron, 1 month with hard labour, or mhl), no. 1017 (25 April 1864: Thomas Wilson, excavator, stealing an apron and an oven 1 mhl), no. 1021 (25 May 1864: Thomas Franklin, railway navvy, assault with intent to murder, 6 mhl), no. 1029 (13 April 1864: David Lewis, platelayer, stabbing and wounding, 18 mhl), no. 1039 (25 August 1864: Lewis Thomas, navvy, stealing a sovereign, 9 days), nos. 1040 and 1041 (3 September 1864: Thomas Jones and Henry Smith, navvies, burglary, acquitted), nos. 1074 and 1975 (13 March 1865: Edmund Evans and David Lloyd, railway labourers, stealing fowls, 3 mhl), no. 1105 (25 October 1865: William Jones, railway labourer, stealing from person, 14 days hi), nos. 1106 and 1107 (31 October 1865: Peter Davies, railway labourer, stealing stockings, 14 days hi), nos. 1116, 1117 and 1118 (2 December 1865: Richard Hughes, John Thomas and William Thomas, miners, damage, wounding and assault 6, 11 and 17 mhl), no. 1155 (23 June 1866: Thomas Nicholls, miner and navvy, stealing tin pot and fowl, 14 days hl), no. 1159 (6 August 1866: David Jones, railway labourer, stealing a coat, 1 mhl), no. 1169 (13 September 1866: Henry Lawrence, labourer, horsekeeper and navvy, stealing pork and a muffler, 14 days hl). Note the prevalence of operating with accomplices, here and at notes 27 and 30 above. Notable too in this period is FR no. 1139, Elizabeth Hill, 'discharged by proclamation' on 6 April 1866, having been accused of fraud. She was the 'wife of a miner', again of the Sugar Loaf gang. Her case raises the issue of the involvement of the families of railway employees in criminality. It is likely that wives or children of railway employees (and indeed such employees themselves when they had moved on to other employment) would be identified by their current employment if they had one, making them difficult to detect in the record sources.
43. Given the nature of the evidence surveyed here it is impossible to hazard the proportion of such 'outsiders' to 'locals'. Analysis of census figures would provide more detail.
44. FR no. 520. I cannot be sure that he, or the persons referred to in the next two notes, was employed on the railway (see my comment at note 33 above) but I am content with the proposition.
45. FR no. 595.
46. FR no. 1317.
47. I should make it clear that it is not part of my contention that the railway created ab initio the category of workplace crime, merely that it provided on a significant scale the opportunity for it in new localities. Offences of theft and other malfeasance in the course of employment would be likely to have occurred in other forms of employment, such as within factories. Whether incidence of crime in employment was more or less marked on the railway than in other occupations is a question clearly outside the scope of this article and one which would depend on a series of detailed investigations of this nature. My point is merely to note that the change wrought by this industry in this locality is notable, whilst some of the broader consequences of mobility suggested here are obviously more immediately relevant in this context. For a fine analysis of the prosecution of workplace crime in the metropolis, see J. S. Davis, 'Prosecutions and their context: the use of the criminal law in later nineteenth century London', in D. Hay and F. Snyder eds., Policing and Prosecution in Britain 1750-1850 (Oxford, 1989), 401-13. Her thesis as to the 'contingency' of prosecution in this area is convincing, though my own researches have not revealed whether similar principles applied in respect of railway servants. See also J. S. Davis, 'A poor man's system of justice: the London police courts in the second half of the nineteenth century' The Historical Journal 27 (1984), esp. p. 318.
48. I should make it clear that it is not part of my contention that the railway created ab initio the category of workplace crime, merely that it provided on a significant scale the opportunity for it in new localities. Offences of theft and other malfeasance in the course of employment would be likely to have occurred in other forms of employment, such as within factories. Whether incidence of crime in employment was more or less marked on the railway than in other occupations is a question clearly outside the scope of this article and one which would depend on a series of detailed investigations of this nature. My point is merely to note that the change wrought by this industry in this locality is notable, whilst some of the broader consequences of mobility suggested here are obviously more immediately relevant in this context. For a fine analysis of the prosecution of workplace crime in the metropolis, see J. S. Davis, 'Prosecutions and their context: the use of the criminal law in later nineteenth century London', in D. Hay and F. Snyder eds., Policing and Prosecution in Britain 1750-1850 (Oxford, 1989), 401-13. Her thesis as to the 'contingency' of prosecution in this area is convincing, though my own researches have not revealed whether similar principles applied in respect of railway servants. See also J. S. Davis, 'A poor man's system of justice: the London police courts in the second half of the nineteenth century' The Historical Journal 27 (1984), esp. p. 318.
49. FR no. 586. (He was originally from Llangeitho, Cardiganshire.)
50. FR no. 717 (born in Chepstow).
51. FR no. 863 (born in Staffordshire).
52. FR no. 1125 (born in Wiltshire), cf. the John Irving case, CRO, Quarter Sessions papers Box 21 (references to these papers hereafter are to QS and the Box number).
53. FR no. 743 (born in Devon).
54. FR no. 1229 (born in Llanelli).
55. See witness depositions and conviction, 18 August 1875, QS Box 20.
56. FR nos. 1090 and 1091. (Bryant was born in Bristol and Comley in Wiltshire but both were recorded as last resident in Gloucester.)
57. FR no. 1168 and witness depositions in QS Box 8. (Cumberland, at six feet tall a giant in Carmarthen Gaol, was born in Dorset.)
58. FR nos. 1404 and 1405 (both local men). See also witness depositions in the case of Joshua Cockayne (10 February 1876) on committal for theft of gin, QS Box 22.
59. See Edward Hawkins, 'gardner and porter' on the SWR, FR no. 570. (He was born in Somerset.)
60. See William Beynon, FR no. 1255, a local man and a porter.
61. FR no. 1006.
62. FR no. 625. He was also tried for an unconnected offence of larceny and had served time in Cardigan Gaol.
63. FR no. 515. He too had been in gaol at Cardigan.
64. See the depositions in the case of Thomas Evans, 6 January 1875, QS Box 19.
65. See the remarks of Governor Gardner of Bristol, Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords appointed to consider the present state of discipline in gaols and houses of correction; 1863 (499.), IX, 1, para. 3584.
66. See QS Box 10.
67. Depositions of 6 May 1874, QS Box 17. Note also the attraction of the station to beggars, as in the case of William Davies, convicted 28 December 1876, QS Box 21.
68. Simmons, Victorian Railway, 334. The problem here was in relation to the security of women passengers.
69. FR nos. 712 and 713.
70. See Depositions of 19 September 1874, QS Box 18.
71. FR no. 545.
72. FR no. 1242; see also no. 1307.
73. Depositions of 21 October 1874, QS Box 19.
74. Depositions of 18 October 1876, QS Box 23.
75. See John Williams, FR no. 473.
76. As in Catherine Connolly's first case; see note 63 above.
77. Depositions of 28 February 1877, QS Box 21.
78. Depositions of 29 May 1873, QS Box 16. For theft of a greater quantity by a carter, see convictions of 14 March 1874, QS Box 17.
79. Depositions of 22 July 1875, QS Box 20.
80. See Hannah Perrott and Mary Davies, depositions of 16 April, 1873; note also William Morgan's case, depositions of 18 June 1873, where he throws coal down from a truck to women (for these cases, see QS Box 16), and FR nos. 472,653 and 654: Ann James's case (see note 69 above) and those of Mary Anthony and Sophia Lloyd, depositions of 7 January 1876, QS Box 22.
81. See depositions in the case of Evan Powell, 16 April 1873 (this theft was in fact of lime from a truck); for more of P.C. Morgan's victims, see depositions re: William Morgan (18 June 1873), David Harries (18 June 1873), Hannah Perrott and Mary Davies (16 April 1873) - all of these cases are in QS Box 16. In July of the same year P.C. Morgan was assaulted by one John Hughes in Station Road, Llanelli. It is interesting to speculate as to whether there may have been a connection (see conviction of 30 July 1873, ibid.).
82. See for example the depositions of Tudor Davies, inspector of the Llanelly Railway and Dock Co. (1 January 1873), Josh Dalby, 'Inspector of the Great Western Railway' (29 January, 1873) and Daniel Somerdon (?) 'Policeman of the Great Western Railway' (28 May 1873), all in QS Box 16. For the powers of railway companies to appoint policemen, see Whitbread, Railway policeman, 31 et seq. And notice the terminology elsewhere, where a railway clerk could be described as a 'booking constable' (see e.g. William Fortune FR no. 1125, above, at note 42).
83. See witness depositions in the case of Thomas Jones, 28 March 1874, QS Box 17. William Jones had been employed on this work before on a time basis.
84. Mary Davies's case (and Hannah Perrott's case, see note 70, above).
85. Evan Powell's case, see note 71, above.
86. See the cases of Elizabeth Hanfield, a 14-year-old girl (FR no. 472, acquitted in 1853) and Ann Lewis and Elizabeth Davies (FR nos. 653 and 654, both discharged before trial in 1857). It is possible that the appearance of these individuals in the Felons' Register in the 1850s shows that at that time women's criminality in this respect was less frequent than its routine summary prosecution in the 1870s would suggest.
87. See for example the cases of John Jones, 1 January 1873 and David Williams, 29 January 1873 (both in QS Box 16).
88. FR no. 718.
89. See John Jones's case, note 77, above.
90. See Thomas Jones's case, note 73, above.
91. For example the case of Thomas Daniels, 12 September 1874, QS Box 18. Compare the case of David Thomas, drunk in a carriage whilst employed by the SWR, 24 August 1859, QS Box 7. For legislation relating to the sobriety and conduct of railway servants, see 3 & 4 Vict. c.97 s. xiii.
92. See the cases of Samuel Thomas, 10 February 1877, QS Box 21, or John Daniels, 19 July 1875, QS Box 19.
93. See the conviction of Thomas Evans, 2 October 1861, QS Box 7. He was convicted that at Pontardulais station he 'did unlawfully and wilfully commit a certain nuisance on the Platform... by "making water" thereon in the front of the carriages containing passengers then being at the station there.' It seems to have been a popular pastime at this particular station. See the conviction of William Prosser on 9 October 1861 (ibid.). William Williams's 'nuisance' at Llandeilo station whilst drunk (conviction 23 July 1859, ibid.) is probably of the same order, as certainly was David Jenkins's at Derwydd Road (21 June 1873, QS Box 16). Similar principles apply to offences such as using false weights at a station (22 August 1857, QS Box 5) and cruelty to animals (pigs in a truck, 1871, QS Box 14). Pigs in transit provided another splendid case which, though not criminal but civil in character, deserves mention here. A plaintiff who had noticed that one of 63 pigs entrusted to the South Wales Railway was missing, applied to the St. Clears station master 'who said that the pig had been killed by accident, but that every care had been taken by [sic] the carcase, which had been sold to the best advantage and he [presumably the plaintiff] was welcome to the produce. The alleged accident was said to be the falling of the pig through a hole in one of the trucks' ('Jeffries v South Wales Railway', Carmarthen Journal, 22 February 1856).
94. As in the case of Peter Skym, 28 October 1875, QS Box 22, and David Thomas, 12 July 1876, QS Box 23. For the offence see 3 & 4 Vict. c.97 s.xvi.
95. As in the cases of Thomas Davies, 13 January 1855, QS Box 5, and James Edwards, 13 August, 1873, QS Box 16. Edwards's victim was a GWR porter. Again note 3 & 4 Vict. c.97 s.xvi.
96. There are many of these, e.g. the cases of Samuel Evans and Thomas Davies, 13 December 1855, QS Box 5.
97. See Robert Day, 27 February 1875, QS Box 19.
98. E.g. William Howells, 23 November 1861, QS Box 7 (attempting to enter) and John Evans, 29 July 1875, QS Box 19 (leaving).
99. E.g. Aaron Williams, 10 February 1877, or David Saunders, 7 March 1877, both cases in QS Box 21.
100. It is, I suggest, possible that the increasing use of the law to introduce offences relating to such diverse matters as health and safety, vaccination, education, animal welfare and the like in the second half of the nineteenth century may have been an element in the movement towards the recognition of a 'criminal class' of hardened offenders. As the law brings more individuals in peril of conviction, the dichotomy between 'criminal' and 'non-criminal' may be seen as too crude. The real social problem becomes identified then not as the criminal simpliciter but as the 'hardened' or 'real' criminal. For the construction of the idea of a criminal class, see J. Davis, 'The London garotting * panic of 1862: a moral panic and the creation of a criminal class in mid-Victorian England', in V. A. C. Gattrell, B. Lenman and G. Parker eds., Crime and the law: the social history of crime in Western Europe since 1500 (London, 1980), 190. But note the risk of overstating the importance of one manifestation of a general fear, and see S. J. Stevenson, 'The "criminal class" in the mid-Victorian city: a study of policy conducted with special reference to those made subject to the provisions of 34 & 35 Vict. c.112 (1871) in Birmingham and East London in the early years of registration and supervision' (unpublished D.Phil thesis, University of Oxford, 1983). See also Davis, 'Prosecutions', 423-4.
101. It is, I suggest, possible that the increasing use of the law to introduce offences relating to such diverse matters as health and safety, vaccination, education, animal welfare and the like in the second half of the nineteenth century may have been an element in the movement towards the recognition of a 'criminal class' of hardened offenders. As the law brings more individuals in peril of conviction, the dichotomy between 'criminal' and 'non-criminal' may be seen as too crude. The real social problem becomes identified then not as the criminal simpliciter but as the 'hardened' or 'real' criminal. For the construction of the idea of a criminal class, see J. Davis, 'The London garotting * panic of 1862: a moral panic and the creation of a criminal class in mid-Victorian England', in V. A. C. Gattrell, B. Lenman and G. Parker eds., Crime and the law: the social history of crime in Western Europe since 1500 (London, 1980), 190. But note the risk of overstating the importance of one manifestation of a general fear, and see S. J. Stevenson, 'The "criminal class" in the mid-Victorian city: a study of policy conducted with special reference to those made subject to the provisions of 34 & 35 Vict. c.112 (1871) in Birmingham and East London in the early years of registration and supervision' (unpublished D.Phil thesis, University of Oxford, 1983). See also Davis, 'Prosecutions', 423-4.
102. See Simmons, Victorian railway, 147 and illustration no. 42.
103. There are a number of examples - see the convictions of Peter Skym, 28 October 1875, QS Box 22; John Owen, 1 March 1876, also QS Box 22; and David Thomas, 12 July 1876, QS Box 23.
104. 25 March 1875, QS Box 19.
105. FR no. 1015.
106. 29 August 1857, QS Box 5. Note 3 & 4 Vict. c.97 s.xiii for railway servants, s.xv for others. Note also the conviction of David Morris for having timber within three feet of the Llanelly and Llandeilo main line and refusing to remove it (23 July 1859, QS Box 7).
107. Carmarthen Journal, 11 March 1863. He had been remanded to Swansea, since Carmarthen Gaol was being rebuilt at this time.
108. QS Box 22 (4 February 1876).
109. QS Box 21 (depositions in the Jones case were taken on 2 December 1876, though I am unaware of the outcome of this case).
110. The conviction of Joshua was on 23 December 1876 (QS Box 21).
111. See Home Office Circular 37437, 24 September 1874. A copy was retained by Carmarthenshire's Quarter Sessions (QS Box 18). Box 17 contains the conviction of William Matthews, William Davies and William Hopkins (10 December 1873) for damaging 'certain chains and signals', the property of the Llanelly Railway and Dock Co.
112. See R. W. Ireland, 'The felon and the angel copier'.
113. For Davies, 'the Dartmoor Shepherd', see A. Scriven, The Dartmoor Shepherd: 50 Years in prison (Oswestry, n.d.). For a fictionalized version of his life, see D. Constantine, Davies (Newcastle, 1985).
114. For Davies, 'the Dartmoor Shepherd', see A. Scriven, The Dartmoor Shepherd: 50 Years in prison (Oswestry, n.d.). For a fictionalized version of his life, see D. Constantine, Davies (Newcastle, 1985).
115. The first is the case of Jane Davies in 1863; see R. W. Ireland, 'Perhaps my mother murdered me: child death and the law in Victorian Carmarthenshire' in C. Brooks and M. Lobban eds., Communities and courts in Britain 1150-1880 (forthcoming), Ch. 13. The second case, that of Mary Davies, dates from 1880, the child's body being found in her bag; see Carmarthen Chronicle no. 287, November 1880.
116. Diary of P.C. Williams, 24 March 1858. The journey was accomplished by steam packet.
117. 1869; see QS Box 11. In the same box a separate Quarter Sessions account gives the sum as £4.18.5d.
118. Carmarthen Journal, 1 February 1856.
119. These are certificates under 29 & 30 Vict. c.52. Similar standard rail claim forms exist for gaol commitment certificates. For examples of both see, for example, QS Box 16.
120. Simmons, Victorian railway, 32.
121. See J. Walvin, Leisure and society 1830-1950 (London, 1978), 27; 1,100 people were carried by train to one execution in 1849.
122. Carmarthen Journal, 16 March 1888. It is not recorded whether at this time Berry was wearing the same clothes as he did at the hanging, when he is described as 'unostentatiously dressed in a plain suit of dark clothes and wearing a red Turkish fez'!
123. Carmarthen Journal, 16 April 1852.
124. Ibid., 16 January 1852.
125. For employers' liability, see M. Wiener, Reconstructing the criminal: culture, law and policy in England 1830-1914 (Cambridge, 1990), 203-9.
126. Select Committee, para. 22154.
127. See Carmarthen Journal, 5 March 1852 and 2 April, 1852. Perusal of the local press reveals more such accidents; see for example the crushing of Richard Jones (Carmarthen Journal, 16 January 1852).
128. See Carmarthen Journal, 5 March 1852 and 2 April, 1852. Perusal of the local press reveals more such accidents; see for example the crushing of Richard Jones (Carmarthen Journal, 16 January 1852).
129. See the evidence to the Commission on Railway Accidents, 1877 (Minutes of evidence taken before the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes of accidents on railways, and into the possibility of removing such causes by further legislation; 1877 [c. 1637-I.], XLVIII.173), paras. 34, 981 et seq., particularly in relation to working hours. On the further issue of the criminality of railway fraud and its pervasiveness, as well as further information on accidents, see R. W. Kostal, Law and English railway capitalism (Oxford, 1994). Toff Vale Railway Co. v. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (1901), A.C.426, was a landmark decision in the history of trade union liability.
130. Details of such a broader process cannot be discussed here. There is no doubt that patterns in the administration of criminal justice in Wales changed considerably during the nineteenth century as they did in England. Yet the change may have been the more profound in (rural) Wales where a tradition of 'informal' or 'unofficial' settlement of 'criminal' matters seems to have persisted well in to the nineteenth century. In the context of changes produced by such procedural developments as the encouragement of prosecutors, the creation of the 'new' police and an increasingly interventionist criminal code, the relatively different starting point of the Welsh experience would have added, it is suggested, a sense of greater acceleration. For a review of the Welsh evidence, see D. J. V. Jones, Crime in nineteenth century Wales (Cardiff, 1992), passim, especially Ch. 1. The process did not occur without resistance; see Ireland, 'Perhaps my mother'. I hope to address this issue in more depth in the future.