Family Historian User Group

I am currently reviewing my 4th Great Grandfather's hanging. One of his co-conspirators has "Admitted Evidence" in the "Event of Trial" column in the Jail records, does anyone know if that's the same as turning "Queens Evidence" in current terminology, I suspect it is,as he appears to have been release from Jail after a day or so, where as my 4xG grandfather was hung and the 3rd man transported for life.

What records are you looking at?

I don't know if it would help you answer this question, but have you checked the British Newspaper Archive for accounts of the trial?

This month's Lost Cousins newsletter has a promo code to get a month's access for one pound.

For the 2great-uncle who was transported in my husband's family, the news went ALL OVER the country, so you may have many chances of getting a hit.

I have found a single newspaper entry in for the trial in 1795, I was already using the BNA special offer, but it only mentions the two who were due to hang. I am looking at are the "Dorchester Prison. NG/PR 1. Dorchester" which are the details of the Prison inmates, from the Dorset Record Office records on Ancestry.

Ah, I haven't had a World sub on Ancestry for a while now, so I'm limping along on a month here and there on Find My Past when they throw a promo code. And every now and again when Ancestry.co.uk offers free access for a weekend, I'll go grab whatever I can from the record sets that are offered.

P.S. I was hoping to find a glossary of trial-related terms at http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/ but I don't see one.

Ancestry had a 4 months for £20 deal last month so I signed up for a while, the DRO seem to have put a large amount of their holding on including lots of Poor Law and Church accounts, not indexed but hidden away in the Catalogue.

I have found another page on the BNA and I think it says "Kings Evidence" so I suspect that answers my question, the scan is not too easy to read.

I'll see if the paper which is a Bath one is available in Bath Library and see if my sister can get me a better copy.

I thought about going for the Ancestry promo, but decided not to because (unlike Brightsolid) they don't make it easy to unsubscribe.

It's a pity we can't just pick and choose all the good features and make one really good website. When I am using BNA, I miss features that I have on Genealogy Bank, and vice-versa. And having used Find My Past both before and after the re-design I can see why the long-time users are unhappy with the new site.

Jane

If you do a Google search with "<your ancestor's name> 1795 trial Dorset UK" there are a few hits which you may, or may not, have seen already.

David