Ancestors lost in the crowd?
New to family history research?
Perhaps these articles on our website may help:
Census 1841 - 1911

Birth, Death and Marriage Registration

The London Gazette

Newspaper archives

Trade Directories

Essex Court Cases

Apart from Census Returns and BMD certificates, finding references to our working class ancestors such as the ‘ag labs’ of the census returns is very difficult. Newspapers are one possible source where they may be referred to in court cases, either as defendant, victim, or more rarely, as a witness.

This is an ongoing project to create a list of court cases and those involved taken from newspaper reports and the Calendars of Prsioners at the Essex Record Office 'ERO'. Because of the time taken to transcribe, regretfully it is not possible to supply all the details of each and every case. The aim is to provide you with a starting point for further research. The information is linked via each location's home page - See our A to Z pages.

About the courts: The Assize Court dealt with most serious offences in Essex and in the early part of the 19th century the sentence of the court could be death by hanging, or transportation, thus the database may be of great interest to Australians with convict ancestors. Newspapers covering the most notorious cases would carry detailed testimony of the witnesses, while other cases merely mention the names, offence, place and sentence. The Quarter Sessions generally heard crimes which could not be tried summarily by the Justices of the Peace in the local Petty Sessions. Petty Sessions or County Magistrates Courts covered a number of parishes and dealt with minor offences and held committal proceedings for the more serious offences.

Some of the records are available online at the Essex Record Office. Go to SEAX, their online catalogue. SEAX. In the Document Reference search box top right type> Q/SMc . You'll then have listed all the Calendars of Prisoners for Essex Quarter Sessions and Essex Assizes they have in their collection. Many of the images you can view online. Not all the Calenders are preserved. Most of the Calenders will provide a little more information on the offences.

There are several other court records stored in the ERO. You could try the Process Book of Indictments: Document Reference Q/SPb. If you have found the defendant's name on the above Calendars, then the Process Book also show the parish the defendant came from. Useful information to confirm the person's identity.

About the newspapers: These newspapers are available online at the British Newspaper Library's 19th century collection (see our newspapers article); another source would be at the Essex Record Office where copies of the more local papers such as the Essex Standard, Chelmsford Chronicle, Essex Herald and Essex Chronicle would have covered many of the cases in great detail. Sadly these newspapers are not online. Be flexible over the spelling of names, then as like today, newspapers often get the names wrong!

Further resources:
Ancestry.co.uk digital images from The National Archives: Home Office Criminal Registers for England and Wales under Series HO 26 and HO 27 for the period 1791-1892. The database is fully searchable by name and other information supplied may include age, birthplace (not after 1802), crime, sentence and when and where tried.
Essex Record Office for newspapers, and Assize Court and Quarter Session records.
National Archives guide to Assize Records.
The National Archives podcast: From crime to punishment: criminal records of our ancestors from the 18th and 19th centuries.
British Newspaper Library.