Twelve Months in a Victorian Gaol
By E. Vernon Jones
Official records are often tantalizingly brief and, what is more, notorious for what they neglect to say. Yet they manage to provide a wealth of historical information that might otherwise be lost. Stored in the County Archivist's Department at Carmarthen is the Gaoler's Journal (CRO 4916) which presents a picture, albeit seen through a glass darkly, of life in Carmarthen County Gaol during the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. Typical are twelve months in the years 1845-6, arbitrarily chosen only because the Governor, Henry Westlake, was obliged to start a new report book on 22 September 1845.
Because the daily entries are largely repetitious only the more interesting information is reproduced in the abstract that appears hereafter, but in the interests of authenticity the culled material is preserved in the Governor's own language, quaint if not wholly literate, which is not altogether surprising when it is realised that it was still a time when illiteracy was widespread, when a prisoner who could 'read and write perfect' was a noteworthy inmate. Yet, as a result of the daily schooling which was part of the prison regime, many prisoners ended their incarceration more literate than they
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