| Description | These volumes record the previous convictions of prisoners, for which the prison sentence was generally carried out at Reading Prison. They also appear to be updated with further convictions up to the 1910s. The current convictions probably date from between 1908 and 1915 but no dates are given and it is very unclear how the volumes have been arranged, possibly it is by date of current conviction. Instructions at the front of each volume state that the volumes have been created in order that there should be a universal system to record previous convictions and that the criminal history of each prisoner can be readily seen. The book is 'the only authorised source from which calendars, penal records and other documents will be compiled'.
Each prisoner's details are recorded on a double page with previous convictions listed in a random order giving the sentence given, court convicted at, date offence committed, name under which they were convicted, age, height, and where they served their sentence (it would appear with a few exceptions that only convictions served at Reading were recorded). They also give the register number for each conviction and a reference to which nominal register volume and page number they can be found in. The nominal registers have a similar cross reference to the record of conviction books and re-committal books so if the nominal register survives this should be used as the initial starting point for a search. |