My great grandfather named above was born at Priest Weston in 1853. He was missing from his family home at Churchstoke on the 1891 census night. He appears have been in Shrewsbury Prison instead. On several occasions during the 1890's he and his wife Mary were fined for poor school attendance of their children but paid fines and his wife was threatened with a week in Shrewsbury gaol when in 1893 she protested about the fine. No mention of William attending Court on that occasion. Was he still in gaol ? I want to discover the details of his offence, trial and sentence. Knowing that Shropshire Archives holds some records for Montgomeryshire as well as Shropshire I have tried there but without success. To reduce the timeframe William was potentially missing from home his child no 8 was born in April 1890 and children 9 and 10 were born in March 1895 so narrows the dates to 1889 - 1894 ? Perhaps he was regularly in trouble with the law ? Any help would be appreciated.
Wendy Smith
Thank you Mike. I will try The National Archives and work backwards towards Shropshire. I did wonder whether the trial would be recorded in the Montgomery Archives which I believe are at Llandrindod Wells. I do live locally in Shropshire so thought I would try the Shropshire Archives first. I have seen the publicised tours of The Dana but knowing that executions (and burials) were also held there makes me uncomfortable about the tour. But the gaol is part of my family history so perhaps I will try it.
Wendy Smith
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Hello Wendy
If you put 'Shrewsbury Prison Records' (without the quotes) into your favourite search engine(s) you should see a selection of possibilities including The National Archives but some of the references there refer back to Shropshire Archives which will also come up from your search.
You are probably aware that Shrewsbury Prison closed as a prison a few years ago so any records which were still held at the prison at that time should now be in an archive somewhere.
If you live reasonably locally and want a day out in Shrewsbury I think you can still go on a tour of the prison and whilst it has probably changed quite a lot since your relative was there it will give you some idea of 'life behind bars'.
Mike