Website Wednesday - The Digital Panopticon

The Digital Panopticon traces London convicts in Britain and Australia, 1780-1925.  The database traces the lives of 90,000 convicts sentenced at the Old Bailey between 1780 and 1875, linking Old Bailey trials to relevant entries in fifty databases of criminal justice and civil records. The 'Life Archives' allow users to discover both the pre- and post-trial histories of Old Bailey convicts. They allow users to see differences between the punishment sentences handed down by the court and the punishments convicts actually experienced, and make it possible to compare the impact of imprisonment and transportation on convicts' lives. 

Datasets include :

Trial Records

• Old Bailey Proceedings 1740-1913
• Old Bailey Associated Records 1740-1834
• Newgate Calendars of Prisoners for Trial 1782-1853
• England and Wales Criminal Registers 1791-1892

Post-Trial and Sentencing Records

• Capital Convictions at the Old Bailey 1760-1837
• Home Office Criminal Entry Books 1782-1876
• Judges Reports on Criminals 1784-1827
• Petitions for Pardon 1797-1858

Transportation Records

• Middlesex Convicts Delivered For Transportation 1785-1792
• British Transportation Registers 1787-1867
• Convict Indents (Ship and Arrival Registers) 1788-1868
• Surgeons Notes from Transport Vessels 1817-1857

Colony Records

• New South Wales Convict Indexes 1788-1873
• New South Wales Convict Savings Bank Books 1824-1868
• Van Diemen's Land Founders and Survivors Convicts 1802-1853
• Van Diemen's Land Founders and Survivors Convict Biographies 1812-1853
• Van Diemen's Land Convict Labour Contracts 1848-1857
• Western Australia Character Books and General Registers 1850-1868
• Western Australia Convict Probation Records 1850-1868

Imprisonment Records

• Bridewell House of Correction Prisoners 1740-1795
• Deaths in London Prisons 1760-1869
• Hulks Registers 1801-1879
• Prison Registers 1770-1951
• Middlesex House of Detention Calendars 1836-1889
• Newgate Calendars of Prisoners 1855-1931
• UK Convict Prison Captions and Transfer Papers 1843-1871
• UK Licences for the Parole of Convicts 1853-1925
• Metropolitan Police Register of Habitual Criminals 1881-1925
• Prisoner Photograph Albums 1871-1873

Records of Convict Tattoos

• Tattoos, 1793-1925

Civil Records

• Records Associated with London Lives 1740-1800
• Census Returns for England and Wales 1841-1911
• FreeBMD Deaths, 1837-1925