| Description | The Habitual Criminals Act of 1869 required a register with an accompanying photograph to be kept of all criminals held in gaols (Habitual Criminal Returns registers). Arthur Maddison was employed to photograph the prisoners in Huntingdon Gaol, and a few glass plates have survived in the WH9 series. Here we have an image of a John Leonard. The original glass plate has two images of the prisoner, one with his jacket on and one with it removed, and the identifying no. 234 written on the plate
John Leonard was aged 26 on discharge from prison,was 5 feet 4.5 inches tall, had dark brown hair, hazel eyes and fresh complexion. He had been born in Gamlingay [Cambridgeshire], and was apprehended in Hilton, was single and a labourer. A name was tattooed on his left forearm with a star above and below, another name tattooed on his right forearm with a cock and fish underneath. He was apprehended in Hilton and convicted at Huntingdon Quarter Sessions on the 16 October 1876 for stealing one jacket, one pair of trousers, one pair of stockings and one pair of boots. He was sentenced to seven years penal servitude and after that to five years police supervision. He was due to be liberated on the 15 October 1883, and was removed to Pentonville Prison. A printed copy of his previous convictions has been pasted into the Habitual Criminal Returns register, and records 15 offences from April 1861 to May 1876
Huntingdonshire Archives hold two Habitual Criminal Returns registers 1870-1878 (Reference 4440/367/89). All the images in the first register have been digitised and can be viewed on our CALM catalogue. |