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Ancestry UK

County Bridewell, Witney, Oxfordshire

An Oxfordshire County Bridewell, or House of Correction was opened at Witney in about 1611, perhaps loacated at the east side of High Street. It moved to a new site by the market place in about 1743 but that building had become the Three Crowns Inn by 1766. In 1783, the bridewell was an outbuilding in the yard of a privately owned house.

In 1784, John Howard described it as follows:

One day-room (16 feet 4 inches by 14 feet 4) for men and women: two night-rooms adjoining (9 feet 2 inches by 6 feet 7, and 6½ feet high); with only a grate of 9 inches square in each door. The prison is not secure. No allowance but to the sick, who have six-pence a day and medicines. No chimney: no straw: no water. Clauses against spirituous liquors not hung up. Keeper's salary, £20: fees, 4s. 2d. no table.

At my last visit I found a room built for men 16½ feet by 12½, in which are two cells 7 feet by 4½ with apertures in the doors 9 inches square. Upstairs are two rooms for the fick (9 feet 2 inches by 8 feet 4, and 6 feet 5 inches high), with apertures in the doors of 14 inches by 12. No chimney.

The house does not belong to the county: the prison is in the court-yard of the keeper's house, for which he pays £14: 14: 0 a year. Prisoners have no use of the court; their window was formerly accessible to passengers. I then saw a crowd of men talking at the grate with the prisoners, who were all of them women; and was informed there was sometimes riot and confusion on such occasions.

At my visit in 1779, the prisoners were at work: the keeper now is a manufacturer, and employs them. He pays them for their work, two pence a pound for the chain, and three-halfpence for the shoot; so that each earns (as he said) about three pence a day.

To this prison were committed,

In the year 1773,Prisoners 49.   In 1779,Prisoners 51.
1774,- - 44. 1780,- - 36.
1775,- - 73. 1781,- - 38.
To Oct. 31, 1776,- - 67. 

The most at any one time 18.

When I was there in 1776, Oct. 31,Prisoners 6.
1779, Feb. 26,- - 7.
1782, Oct. 26,- - 2.

The bridewell continued until 1787, when the justices ordered its closure. When the new bridewell at Oxford was opened, the Witney site was up for sale and in 1790 was bought by the parish for use as a workhouse.

Records

Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.

  • No individual records identified for this establishment — any information welcome.
  • The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 4DU. Has a wide variety of crime and prison records going back to the 1770s, including calendars of prisoners, prison registers and criminal registers.
  • Find My Past has digitized many of the National Archives' prison records, including prisoner-of-war records, plus a variety of local records including Manchester, York and Plymouth. More information.
  • Prison-related records on Ancestry UK include Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951, and local records from London, Swansea, Gloucesterhire and West Yorkshire. More information.
  • The Genealogist also has a number of National Archives' prison records. More information.

Bibliography

  • Prison Oracle - resources those involved in present-day UK prisons.
  • GOV.UK - UK Government's information on sentencing, probation and support for families.

Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.