For the past couple of years I have been volunteering in the museum library, and have written the occasional blog on particularly interesting publications in our library. While the library is closed during the building works I’ve been busily occupied with research for Past Forward. My research focus has been crime and punishment in Salisbury, particularly during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. My most productive source has been another the museum library’s gems – William Dowding’s Fisherton Gaol: statistics of crime 1801-1850.
William Dowding (1806-1876) was Deputy Governor of the new Fisherton County Gaol from 1827 to1837 while his uncle (also William Dowding) was Governor, the younger man becoming Governor himself from 1837. The gaol was at the junction of Wilton and Devizes Roads, near what is now St Paul’s roundabout. Dowding kept an extraordinarily detailed record of convictions from 1801-1850, combining the meticulous data gathering of a statistician with the vivid narrative of a tabloid journalist. For each year, on the left hand page there are tables of statistics of crimes and punishments while on the facing page there are descriptions of executions and other punishments.
Dowding recorded over 1,000 criminal trials in the 50 year period and describes the 55 executions which took place. Murder was the most common reason for the death penalty (17 cases) but offenders were also hanged in Salisbury for livestock theft (12), burglary (7), arson (6), rape (6), highway robbery (4), forgery (2) and riot (1). Dowding’s period as governor included the last public whipping in Salisbury (James Wicks aged 16 and Henry Wicks aged 14 for stealing 5 ducks in 1838) and the last public hanging (William Wright for murder in 1855).
I could find out more about William Dowding and his family because he lived during the era of the first censuses, which began in 1841. In the 1841 census he is recorded as Governor of the gaol aged 35, living with his wife Emma Noke Dowding aged 30, the Gaol Matron, and three young children. Also living at the Governor’s residence here in the new Fisherton Gaol are a servant and a nursemaid. The census records prison staff (three turnkeys) and a total of 62 prisoners with their occupations. By the next survey in 1851, the complement of domestic servants has grown to three servants and a governess for the growing Dowding children. The prison population was now 90 prisoners. We know from a prison return of 1843 that William Dowding earned £300 a year as Governor, while his wife Emma was paid just £20 a year.
Three hundred pounds a year was a solidly middle-class salary for a civil servant, and would have been sufficient to support a family household with domestic servants. However, in addition, the Dowding family would have had accommodation at the Governor’s house on the prison site. As Matron, Emma Dowding would have been responsible for women prisoners, including discipline, welfare and health. Census returns and prison records show that in Fisherton Gaol there were usually 10-20 women prisoners at any one time overseen by the Matron. The low salary of £20 a year reflected the expectation that the Matron’s duties would be undertaken by the wife of the Governor, and that his salary was as head of the household and family breadwinner.
The Rules for Wiltshire Prisons required the matron to “keep a journal recording occurrences of importance within her departments…and make a daily written report to the Governor”. Emma Dowding kept such a journal and diligently reported occurrences to the Governor, her husband. Areas of concern included female prisoners complaining about the cocoa, gossiping through the keyhole, using bad language, telling falsehoods and damaging shoes.
Dowding seems to have been a well regarded and educated man of good standing. His compendium of prison statistics was produced by public subscription and attracted a prestigious list of sponsors. The account of his inquest in 1876 states “He was highly respected, and not only by the magistrates, many of whom only knew him officially, but by all who were acquainted with him in social life. His end was quiet and peaceful. A good many, however, will regret that such an upright, straightforward, and genial man should suddenly have passed from our midst”. William Dowding is buried in Devizes Road Cemetery, Salisbury.
There is a copy of “Fisherton Gaol: statistics of crime 1801-1850” in the Salisbury Museum library and the Salisbury Public Library. While the Museum library is closed researchers can view the copy in the public library on request at the reference desk.
Thank you Bob. We look forward to hearing about more of our library’s gems soon!