Yorkshire Gaol Drama
I found my four times Great Grandfather in a gaol in Richmond, Yorkshire in the 1851 census! I was horrified! What was his crime? Were we descended from the criminal class? Our family was based in Salford, Lancashire and we had never heard stories about criminality. Then I noticed that his family were there too. That was strange! What was going on here? Peter, wife Mary, children Elizabeth, Ellen, Robert, John and Christopher, all there plus “Amos, prisoner”. Did I have the right family? Yes, that was definitely them. Took a deep breath and zoomed into the image on Ancestry.com for a closer look at that pencil-written entry, and what followed was a realisation, a moment of clarity – he was the Gaoler, his wife was the Matron, his children just children. Phew! Normal service was resumed, we were innocent! We had a family visit to Richmond in 2007 and visited the gaol, a tiny place. We took photographs of the building and the front door. We felt connected to them,...