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Archiver > AUS-Tasmania > 2005-03 > 1109980001


From: Village People <>
Subject: Re: [AUS-Tas] Branding of convicts
Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2005 10:46:41 +1100 (EST)
In-Reply-To: <005801c520b5$bf1dd560$31481bd3@desw>


Just on the subject of branding - while we were at
Lancaster Castle (Eng) in 2000 we took an internal
tour of Court Rooms used in trials and sentencing.
Prisoners in these Court Rooms were branded while
still in the "dock" directly after being sentenced.
The brand was placed on the upper part of the hand
between the thumb and forefinger.

I assume this was a similar set up throughout the
Courts of the day.

Doug.

--- Des & Lorraine Wootton <>
wrote:
> My gggrandfather, William Baxter was tried for
> Desertion from the 59th Regt
> of Foot in Barbados in 1842.
>
> His convict record says he is 'branded "D" on left
> side'.
>
> Another convict in the same 'batch' had 3 "D"s
> branded - presumably one for
> each time he'd deserted.
> Really the members of the Army & Navy seem to have
> been treated just as
> harshly as the convicts.
>
> I guess it is all relative to the times in which
> they lived - they were not
> always the 'good old days'!
>
> Lorraine.
>
> ---- Original Message -----
> From: "Lesley Uebel" <>
> To: <>
> Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 10:00 AM
> Subject: [AUS-Tas] Branding of convicts
>
>
>
> Hi Peter
>
> It was proposed by Captain Alexander Maconochie in
> 1840 that convicts be
> branded.
>
>
> In my private letters to Lord Howick and Mr.
> Crawford, I have suggested the
> fixing on all criminals under the new System a small
> private brand (as
> between
> the toes or elsewhere) which shall be invisible
> unless specifically sought
> for,
> but yet shall identify cases of second conviction in
> any part of the World.
> And
> this may be worthy now of offical consideration. If
> approved of, it should
> be
> affixed immediately on conviction, in which case it
> would add much to the
> dread
> of conviction, and it should not be lawful to seek
> for it on a man's person
> until after conviction on any subsequent charge, so
> that it may not operate
> to
> his prejudice on trial, though it should affect his
> treatment afterwards,
> and
> probably also his sentence. With this reservation, I
> think that it would be
> useful and not improperly harsh. The object of
> detecting renewed conviction
> in a
> reformatory system is very important; and however
> minute the mark were made,
> and
> the more minute the better, it yet might be so
> varied as to express degrees
> of
> offence, and thus not bear unnecessarily harshly on
> minor offenders.
>
> Source: HRA Series I Vol XX
>
> Regards
>
> Lesley Uebel
> mailto:
>
> CLAIM A CONVICT
> http://users.bigpond.net.au/convicts/index.html
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Thomas [mailto:]
> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 10:42 PM
> To:
> Subject: [AUS-Tas] RE: Convict sentencing surnames
>
>
> There was another thread on this recently.
>
> In the olden days, prior convictions, or outstanding
> warrants, could
> only be proved if either -
> A. the prisoner admitted them; or
> B. there was an available witness who knew &
> recognized the prisoner,
> and whose testimony to those matters was accepted by
> the court.
>
> >From the 1890s (well after the convict era),
> Fingerprinting improved the
> presentation of evidence to the court, but only in
> the limited
> circumstances where the prisoner had previously been
> 'printed, and
> someone knew his alias. It has only been possible
> to match prints to
> names, when the prisoner was unco-operative, since
> the 1980s.
>
> For these reasons, it was the practice, at various
> times to brand (M for
> manslayer; T for thief; D for deserter) or otherwise
> disfigure convicted
> criminals. As I understand it, in Merrie Olde
> England, branding by
> civil courts was sometimes on the face, but more
> often on the hand, at
> the base of the thumb.
>
> Those of you who have seen enlistment papers for the
> first AIF will note
> that the Certificate of Medical Examination makes
> reference to "...
> traces of corporal punishment, or evidence of having
> been marked with
> the letters D. or B.C.; ...". Apparently, at
> different times, tattoos
> were preferred to brands. Usually, the Army placed
> these marks on the
> left side of the chest.
>
> I don't know what "B.C." signifies.
>
> If you read "The Surgeon of Cawthorne" by Simon
> WINCHESTER, he refers to
> the practice, in the American Civil War, of branding
> deserters on the
> face, to impose a lifetime of very public ostracism.
>
>
> Peter THOMAS
> Darwin, AUSTRALIA
> <>
>
>
>
> ==== AUS-Tasmania Mailing List ====
> Tasmanian Sites of Interest
> Coal River Valley History
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/aogreen/default.htm
>
>
>
> ==== AUS-Tasmania Mailing List ====
> Tasmanian Sites of Interest
> Coal River Valley History
> http://www.users.bigpond.com/aogreen/default.htm
>
>

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