Where can I find the employment record of a prison warder?

Staff records in the true sense for the Scottish prison service begin only in 1893. From then until 1946 staff registers were compiled and these are now held by the National Records of Scotland (HH87 – Prison service staff registers).

For the period prior to this the search for details of prison staff will be time-consuming and probably unrewarding. The ‘Prisons – Administrative Records’ series (HH12) in the National Records of Scotland should be examined for possible records. The most likely source among these records are the Governors’ Journals of individual prisons, which ought to record members of staff starting and leaving (or being dismissed), and absences due to illness or other causes. However, as the journals are a form of logbook, the search through these for details of individual staff members can be tedious.

For the period prior to 1839 the main source of information on burgh jails, tolbooths, lock-ups, etc., will be the minute books of the burgh or town council concerned. A search through these for information on the appointment of individual warders is likely to be even more tedious and unrewarding than the search through Governors’ Journals for prisons after 1839.