Hi Caroline. I have a person on my tree who may very well have featured in
those Female Prisoners Registers and I would be grateful if you could pass
on the procedure for accessing them. My lass was not a convict, but a repeat
offender (soliciting, shoplifting, abusive behaviour etc), who copped at
least two stints in Fremantle from about 1908 onwards.
Regards,
Beverley
I had occasion to look through the Fremantle Prison Females Prisoners Registers kept in the State Record Office recently. Obviously none of those were old convicts but interesting none the less.Each prisoner had half a page allocated to them with their details and the details of their offences. Quite a few had photographs attached. These are about the size of a postage stamp and usually 2 shots, one side view, one front (one had hat on, the other hat off). A few of the more interesting women had sheets of paper pasted into the book because a half page was not enough to record the numerous times they had spent in prison. The majority of offences were for drunkenness, offensive language or loitering>
