For queries within the area of Lancashire between the Ribble and the Mersey.
This board covers the areas of all our Groups - Liverpool, Southport, Warrington, Skelmersdale, Leigh and Widnes.
Name: Henry James Hanford
Age: 24
Date of Trial: 22 Jul 1844
Offence: Uttering counterfeit coin
Location of Trial: Liverpool Boro', Lancashire, England
Sentence: 5 weeks Imprisonment
Looking at the register page. I think the offence was fraud. I can't see anything in the contemporary press about it
Quite a find, if that's the same Henry James Hanford!
Married 25th of January 1844.
Commits fraud and is sentenced (22nd of July, the same year) to 5 weeks imprisonment.
Mary's letter to Cape Governor Harry Smith is dated June 4th, 1849. She writes "his last letter <was> dated November the 1st 1846".
We may have narrowed down his date of departure to a 2 year period.
No. He got just 5 weeks imprisonment. It's probable that Perry and Wright were on the same indictment. Perry got 9 months, Wright was found not guilty.
No. He got just 5 weeks imprisonment. It's probable that Perry and Wright were on the same indictment. Perry got 9 months, Wright was found not guilty.
Right, so 5 years meant 5 years. I wish I knew why he left his wife, with child, so suddenly.
In 1844, what would the social ramifications have been of being found guilty of such a crime?
My apologies; that's what happens when you comment seconds after waking up! Nonetheless, 5 weeks meant 5 weeks?
So that's from the Criminal Register HO 27; Piece: 73; Page: 145? I wonder if there is a way to get more information about the trial i.e. court transcript etc.
Thanks again, I really appreciate everyone's responses.
I'm not, but always interested in new records, are these available on the National Archives site?
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
Reading the information on that subject on the NA site it's unlikely case information has survived. I think the registers on Ancestry and FMP in addition to any newspaper coverage are the only likely sources available.
This article on NA's website indicated that Crown and gaol books and Indictments are a good place to start, while the Depositions have been heavily weeded and only capital cases survive. So I could probably forego PL27 and just have PL26 and PL28 searched.
Education Officer wrote:Maybe he was involved in other dubious affairs and after being caught once did a runner to avoid being caught.
That's exactly what I'm trying to determine; why he would abandon, so suddenly, his wife with child.
Henry mentioned in his letter, November 1846, that he was in partnership, in South Africa, with a man named Shiel / Shields. Philip Caveney of the Knysna Historical Society found a child born 12 September 1881 to RW Shields (first mention of this name in Knysna).
Perhaps I should spend some time researching Shields. Could he have been an old friend from Liverpool?
An update! I've received, from the Liverpool Records Office, a copy of the parchment that details Henry James Hanford's misdemeanor.
It seems he had pretended to be the Commander of the Schooner Margaret (in the possession of Isaac Oldham Bold) and had engaged the services of a certain Nicholas Harrick to be a Seaman aboard the Schooner Margaret. He had then signed two Shipping Notes (to the value of 2 pound, 5 shillings each) which apparently he did not have the power and authority to do.
Interestingly, the Schooner Margaret was "about to sail on a voyage to the Coast of Africa". So this is definitely our Henry James Hanford.
Thanks for the update - love a bit of a scandal don't we.
MaryA Our Facebook Page
Names - Lunt, Hall, Kent, Ayre, Forshaw, Parle, Lawrenson, Longford, Ennis, Bayley, Russell, Longworth, Baile
Any census info in this post is Crown Copyright, from National Archives
My apologies; that's what happens when you comment seconds after waking up! Nonetheless, 5 weeks meant 5 weeks?
