| 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 Jonah Mansfield . The original glass plate has two images of the prisoner, with the identifying no. 239 written on the plate.
Jonah Mansfield was aged 32 on discharge from prison, was 5 feet 1.5 inches tall, with dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a fresh complexion. He had been born in Great Staughton, was married and a labourer. He had a mole on his right breast. He had been apprehended at Great Staughton and convicted at St Neots on the 20 October 1876 for stealing a quantity of chips value one shilling and six pence. He was sentenced to one month's hard labour, and was due to be liberated on the 26 November 1876 and to return to Great Staughton. Details of three previous convictions committed between 1867 and 1874 have been written into the register
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. |