How do I trace the record of a prisoner in prison registers?

From 1839 onwards prison administration was increasingly brought under central government control, and most registers of prisoners kept by Scottish prisons after 1800 are now held by the National Records of Scotland. Most are among Home and Health Department records (HH21 and HH12), but some are among Sheriff Court records (SC). These mainly cover the period from the early 1800s onwards, and consist of registers maintained by at least 49 prisons, generally containing name, date of admission, committing magistrate and court, age, height, where born, nationality, occupation, religion, health, offence, particulars of trial, sentence if convicted, and date liberated or removed. Some prison registers have been digitised and more details can be found in the ScotlandsPeople Guide to prison registers <https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/prison-registers> [accessed 24 April 2024]

Using prison registers

In the late 19th century, many prisons adopted a registration system, whereby prisoners received a two-part number based on the year of admission and a running number – for example, the 498th prisoner admitted to a prison in 1908 would have the number 498/08, and his or her details would be recorded under that number in the register. The registers may be indexed internally, indexed in separate volumes, or not indexed at all, depending on the prison. Look at the appropriate catalogue for the prison registers concerned (HH21, HH12 and/or SC). In the case of the HH21 and HH12 catalogues, the arrangement is rather haphazard. Registers for a prison may appear in more than one place in the catalogue. Prisons in larger towns and cities which had more than one prison are problematical. In some cases, registers ascribed to one prison (e.g. Aberdeen East) may be from another (e.g. Aberdeen West). Where a town or city had more than one prison, the registers for all the relevant prisons should be searched. Another problem is that some of the indexes to registers are described as registers. In general, be prepared for a lengthy search.