Victorian-Era Barlinnie Prisoners’ Lives Revealed in New Online Archive

The narrative of John Porter, a homeless adolescent incarcerated in Glasgow’s infamous Barlinnie prison 140 years ago, represents one of countless overlooked histories now accessible via recently unveiled photographs. Scotland’s People, a website dedicated to family history, has made public two thousand images and 180,000 prison records dating from the Victorian period. John Porter is featured three times within this collection, spanning from 1883 to 1885, with these images offering a visual insight into his period of incarceration. The accompanying records specify that he was initially committed to Barlinnie at the age of 17, serving 60 days for being a “rogue and vagabond” under legislation that outlawed begging and sleeping rough. His third image within the digital repository depicts his last entry at Barlinnie, at 18 years old, appearing distinctly more mature. He received a sentence of three months of hard labour, a punishment that for certain inmates entailed breaking rocks from the local quarry. Porter was committed to Barlinnie a total of five separate occasions between the ages of 17 and 18, each instance involving brief terms of imprisonment. Not all inmates were photographed. The pictures depict incarcerated individuals on the day of their discharge. The majority had served brief sentences, typically for minor infractions. The severe societal circumstances of that period are discernible in these images. The five accommodation halls at Barlinnie were constructed progressively between the years 1882 and 1897. Conditions within the Glasgow prison were arduous, leading inmates to refer to it as “Bar-hell” and the “bighouse.” Instances of misconduct frequently led to prisoners being handcuffed and confined in a canvas jacket overnight. While the majority of inmates had committed only minor transgressions, such as petty larceny and intoxication, the prison also accommodated individuals who had committed more severe crimes. Among these were Thomas Johnston, aged 17, who murdered his step-father, John Wood, during a dispute concerning the standard of his breakfast. The digital collection additionally revealed that the notorious criminal, Hugh Abernethy, was also incarcerated at Barlinnie. It indicates Abernethy received a 12-month sentence following his well-known unsuccessful attempt to shoot his lover, Euphemia Hamilton, on two occasions, upon discovering she was married and had an illegitimate child. Scotland’s People, an entity managed by the National Records of Scotland, characterized the recently released images as a “fantastic resource for researchers” that will enable individuals to “put faces to names” in a manner not achievable with other types of records.