A new on-line archive may be of interest for late 19th century research: Masonic publications.
http://www.masonicperiodicals.org/

The archive consists of periodicals held at the Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London. Covering the period between the late 18th and early 20th centuries, it currently consists of 75,000 pages.

Not the easiest site to navigate, and a quick look at sample articles shows that most names are written as initials surname, or surname initials, which could make things difficult. However, looks a useful resource if one has hints of possible Freemason in your family tree.

As a short cut I would try this link.
http://mpol2.cch.kcl.ac.uk/Olive/ODE/MasonicLibrary/
Click on the tab> search (top left). Look in> All publications. Then type in your search terms.

Findmypast.co.uk have released a substantial number of new records under the overall title of
Crime, Prisons & Punishment 1770-1934

The current 518,000 records help you discover if your ancestors were criminals and passed through the justice system in England and Wales between 1817-1931. Soon it will be extended to cover the years 1770 – 1934 with thousands more additional records.

Many contain information on criminals from Essex.

They are from a number of sets of records at The National Archives:

Admiralty: registers of convicts in prison hulks (TNA ref: ADM6)

Central Criminal Court: after-trial calendars of prisoners (TNA ref: CRIM9)

Home Office: calendar of prisoners (TNA ref: HO140)

Home Office: criminal petitions (TNA ref: HO17)

Metropolitan Police: Criminal Record Office: habitual criminals’ registers and miscellaneous papers (TNA ref: MEPO6)

Home Office and Prison Commission: prison records (TNA ref: PCOM2)

More details on this page on their website: Crime, Prisons & Punishment 1770-1934

New on Ancestry.co.uk are the UK’s Civil Divorce Records covering the period 1858 to 1911.

This database contains records from civil divorce proceedings that followed the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act. This removed divorce from the jurisdiction of the church to the civil courts.

Divorce was an expensive matter and therefore only available to a small part of the society. Nevertheless, even if they were not wealthy it is still worth searching for your ancestors’ names in case they a rementioned as a party to the divorce.

The database may contain the following information:
name
gender
spouse
spouse’s gender
type of record
petition year
date and place of marriage
names and birth details of children
copy of marriage certificate

More background information appears on the search page for Civil Divorce Records.