| Description | Letters, printed material and manuscript notes relating to: prisons; policing; juvenile delinquency, reformatory, ragged and industrial schools; vagrancy; and licensing in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. Also reference material on the same subjects from other locations.
Prisons material
- General material relating to prisons and sentencing (DD2397/1-2, 59-61, 69, 93, 124, 196 )
- Material relating to Aberdeen Prison (DD2397/9-10, 18)
- Letters from staff at Aberdeen and Peterhead Prisons (DD2397/ 14-15, 51-52, 54, 56-57)
- Report by the Governor of Aberdeen Prison (DD2397/3, 64)
- County of Aberdeen Prison Board material (DD2397/2, 4-5, 7, 9, 19-20, 49, 53, 59, 62-63, 71-74,146, 193)
- Printed Reports Respecting the Prisons in the County of Aberdeen 1846, 1849 - 1859 (DD2397/12-13, 22, 24, 29, 36, 41, 43, 65-68, 79-80, 170, 188-190, 200)
- County of Aberdeen Prison Board Account of Revenue and Expenditure (DD2397/21, 70, 122, 177, 191)
- Material relating to tickets of leave (DD2397/125, 167-168, 171-172)
Policing material
- County of Aberdeen Rural Constabulary Force Returns of Crimes and Offences, Convictions and Vagrant, Hawkers and Tinkers apprehended, 1841-1848, 1850-1853, 1855-1858 (DD2397/26-28, 48, 81-88, 90-92, 98, 126, 174, 187)
- County of Aberdeen Rural Constabulary Abstract of Expense 102
- County of Aberdeen Rural Constabulary Force General Orders and other instructions (DD2397/103-105, 107-111, 113-114, 116-118, 184-185)
- County of Aberdeen Rural Police Committee material (DD2397/77, 99, 106, 115, 121, 127)
- Letters from Aberdeen Superintendent of Police (DD2397/ 58 )
- Letters from Aberdeenshire Superintendent of Police (DD2397/112, 115, 153, 167, 171-172 )
Juvenile offenders and reformatory, ragged and industrial schools material
- Material relating to juvenile delinquency and offenders (DD2397/5, 47, 49, 62-63, 74-76, 134, 136-137, 143, 146, 149, 150, 160, 179-181)
- Juvenile Prisoner Lists (for Old Machar and St Nicholas parishes, and those committed to prison in Aberdeen) (DD2397/31-35, 37-40, 44-46, 56, 58)
- Material on reformatory, ragged and industrial schools (DD2397/ 11, 17, 23, 130-133, 135, 139, 144, 153, 155, 158, 161, 165-166, 182-183, 197)
- Material relating to the Reformatory and Refuge Union (DD2397/159, 162-164, 173, 178, 182)
- Aberdeen House of Refuge (founded 1836) (DD2397/ 50, 142, 152, 154)
- Aberdeen School of Industry for Boys (founded 1841) (DD2397/ 138)
- Aberdeen Juvenile School of Industry (school founded 1845) (DD2397/ 141)
- Aberdeen Child's Asylum (founded 1846) (DD2397/140, 145, 147)
- Oldmill Reformatory School, Aberdeen (DD2397/152, 156, 157, 176)
- Material relating to licensing (DD2397/8, 55, 77, 201)
- Material relating to vagrancy and begging (DD2397/74, 94-96, 98, 101)
- Material relating to Volunteer Corps (DD2397/198-199, 202)
- Aberdeen Sherriff Proclamation re. dogs (DD2397/119-120)
Material from outside Aberdeenshire:
- Reports on Houses of Correction in Yorkshire (DD2397/151) and Monmouthshire (DD2397/140)
- Kincardineshire report on lunatic criminals, proclamation on vagrancy, and account of assessments (DD2397/6, 94, 175)
- Perth County Police Returns (DD2397/194-195) and Perth Ragged School (DD2397/133)
- Crime Statistics East District Renfrewshire (DD2397/ 78)
- East Lothian Police staffing (DD2397/186)
The items have been assembled in a guard book at some stage, and individual items have been assigned numbers during the cataloguing process. The numbers 100 and 169 were not used. |
| Administrative History | Probably the papers of Alexander Thomson (1792 - 1862) of Banchory House, Aberdeenshire, as several of the letters are addressed to him. Thomson was a member and some time chair of the Aberdeen County Rural Constabulary Committee and also served on the County of Aberdeen Prison Board. He took a particular interest in juvenile crime and reformatory, ragged and industrial schools (The Spectator, 29 May 1869, pp. 18-19: "Memoir of Alexander Thomson of Banchory").
Other papers of Alexander Thomson are held at the University of Aberdeen Special Collections Centre (reference MS 3244) and there is a photograph of Thomson and his wife, Jessy, in the Dougan photographic collection at the University of Glasgow Special Collections (reference Dougan 101 Item 2). |