More Barlinnie memories as prisoner photos appear online

After a new article about memories Barlinnie Prison’s execution chamberA series of photographs of Victorian prisoners have now been released.

Pictures of Victorian inmates at Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison can now be found on the family history website People of Scotland.

Along with 180,000 records containing details of people who were imprisoned between 1882 and 1899, 2 thousand rare images were also added to the site.

There are 180,000 criminal records in total, and some people are imprisoned more than once. Researchers can view digitized copies of the original logbooks.

Only some inmates were caught on camera. Photos show the day the detainees were released. Most were sentenced to only a few days in prison for minor crimes.

The difficult social conditions of the period are clearly seen in the photographs. John Porter is a three-time convicted felon, all at the age of 18. Porter was accused of “being a thug and a vagabond” at a time when homeless people were imprisoned for minor crimes.

Barlinnie opened in 1882 and gained a reputation as a tough prison. Prisoners performed hard labor breaking rocks from a local quarry. Penalties for misbehavior were severe.

Jessica Evershed, archivist at National Records of Scotland, who runs the Scotland’s People website, said: “Prison records are an excellent resource for social history research. You can even trace your own relatives in these records, and in some cases, even find a photograph of your ancestors.

“These photographs are a great resource for researchers. Scotland’s People website now allows you to add faces to names in a way that is not possible with other records.

“Although some people at Barlinnie prison were convicted of serious crimes, most prisoners were serving short sentences. The most common records concern minor crimes such as petty theft and drunkenness.

The People of Scotland website is the official site of the Scottish Government, browsing government records and archives and providing access to centuries of birth, marriage, death and census records. It is used by hundreds of thousands of people each year to apply for copies of official certificates and to conduct family history, biography, local history and social history research. Opening an account with Scotlands People and searching the indexes is free.

You can find a more detailed article on the subject. People of Scotland Website describing the history of Barlinnie prison, with information about prisoners and their crimes.

Other archive images of Barlinnie Prison were also included in the article dated 11 October Sitting with prisoners – Caithness reporter’s execution chamber footage in new BBC series.

More images of the now-demolished execution chamber are posted below.