England Old Bailey Central Criminal Court (National Institute)

Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey)
The Old Bailey in the City of London is England’s most famous criminal court. Between 1674 and 1834, when it became known as the Central Criminal Court, its proceedings were published eight times a year as a periodical. The records are at the Guildhall who have a useful online guide #7 Old Bailey Sessions Papers in Guildhall Library and Other Printed Sources for London Criminals. These records cover 100,000 trials and are now available on the website Old Bailey with indexes to the names of the victims, witnesses, judges, jurors, lawyers and other parties, as well as those indicted; Stockdill (Was Your Ancestor a Criminal, Victim or Trial Witness? Journal of One-Name Studies Vol 8 #2, page 13-15) described the site when it commenced online.

A Royal Pardon of George IV

In 1834 the Old Bailey was designated the Assize court for London and the surrounding counties and the name change to Central Criminal Court took place at the same time. Post-1834 records are at TNA and include:


 * After trial calendars.
 * Printed shorthand notes of proceedings.
 * Depositions.
 * Indictments.
 * Court books.
 * Appeals, criminal petitions and transportation records.

Their research guide L27 describes these records.

Court of Criminal Appeal
Cases from lower courts could be appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeal, and a newspaper report of one is shown below. It merged with the Supreme Court Appeal Court in 1966 which sat in two divisions, civil and criminal (see TNA research guide L29).

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Information in this Wiki page is excerpted from the online course English: Court Records-Criminal, Civil and Ecclesiastical offered by The National Institute for Genealogical Studies. To learn more about this course or other courses available from the Institute, see our website. We can be contacted at [mailto:wiki@genealogicalstudies.com wiki@genealogicalstudies.com]

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