Was your Scottish ancestor a criminal? Discover your ancestor’s name, age, birth details, crime, and place of imprisonment in this index covering 1828 to 1884.
Each result offers a transcript of relevant details from the source registers:
First name(s)
Last name
Sex
Age
Birth year
Birth county
Birth country
Occupation
Residence
Crime
Prison
Prison county
Prison country
Archive
Archive reference
The transcripts are a product of the index project undertaken by Graham and Emma Maxwell. The project pertained to the Scottish Borders Prison Registers held at the National Archives of Scotland, comprising series HH21. The full transcription, which can be ordered for a small fee, includes such additional fields as height, weight, eye color, education, and religion, as well as information on the trial and sentencing. You can place an order by following the link in the Useful links and resources section. Additionally, some prison registers included photographs of the prisoners.
Start your search broadly by searching on a name only.
If searching by name yields many results, narrow your search by year or place (prison or prison county).