FASCINATING

This new website is truly
fascinating.

Being a huge fan of English history, and
particularly the 17th to mid 18th century
I will be spending hours on here!

Thousands of Britons, Americans and
a fair few Australians began searching
an online archive yesterday for news of
the nefarious dealings of their distant
ancestors in Victorian London.

Records of trials at the Old Bailey
throughout the 1800s and early 1900s
have been placed online, from
infamous murders to bungled
bicycle frauds, all catalogued
into a searchable archive.

Accounts of The Proceedings of the
Old Bailey were originally collated and
circulated from 1674 in what became
a popular London publication.

By the early 20th century the readership
had declined and the authorities were
no longer willing to bear the expense.
The last edition rolled off the presses
in April 1913; thereafter the complete
record was contained in a handful
of rare leather-bound collections.

The new records include the indictment
for “acts of gross indecency” of Oscar Wilde
and Alfred Taylor in May 1895.

There is also the case of Dr Hawley Crippen,
who murdered his wife, a Camden music-
hall singer, and was arrested while
fleeing to America with his mistress.

But for all the affairs of the great and good,
the real value of the record for social
historians lies in the countless details
of London life and proof of emerging
and declining social trends.