Victorian Trial Advice Please

[Lavenderdays]

I need to write a chapter involving a Victorian trial in court. I could do with researching and reading around the subject, i.e the sort of things that the judge might say etc. I've found a few things on-line but wondering if anyone else has come across any good literature about this; this is probably the hardest scene I have written so far, so any advice welcome.

If you don't want to look at court reports, you might find something helpful from press coverage of famous trials. Oscar Wilde was tried several times for gross indecency? in the 1890s and the trial received quite a lot of publicity. The reporting of his trial might help, depending on what crime your character(s) are up in front to the bench for. Alternatively, you might find a famous case that relates to the charges in your story to look at that press coverage? Good luck.

I think it would be worth getting the introductory subscription to the Times which gives you archive access - the court reports from that era are quite detailed with verbatim quotes from judges.

Thanks RMA, I have stumbled across some court cases today and printed some off to re-read which will be very useful but it is a good tip to look at newspaper coverage. It is the opening bit that I am not sure of when the charges are read out by the judge (I believe).

I don't think I want to go into too much detail because it is just one chapter of events but it still has to be realistic, it's going to be tricky to get a balance I think. My other chapters aren't massively long, so I don't want this one to stand out in that way, and I also want the book to maintain momentum. My character has to be condemned of murder and I have got to build a case for this, even though actually he is innocent = wrongly accused but it has to look convincing.

Good luck. It's not my area of expertise but the impression I got was the the middle class got the benefit of the doubt and the working class aka the 'criminal class' would get convicted on the assertion of their betters. The stereotype was that the police beat confessions out of the accused rather than building a case.

I think it would be worth getting the introductory subscription to the Times which gives you archive access

Many public libraries give free access to the Times archives, among other things. Go into your public library website and see what online resources they have. Many of them you can access from home, just by typing in your library card number.

Thanks Marta, I'll have a look at this tomorrow. I am procrastinating now, because I think I am feeling overwhelmed; none of the rest of the book has seemed this difficult to write probably because it has been less factual (I have only this chapter and one other left to write). Even the last chapter of my book seemed easier to write somehow.

The trouble with The Times is that it leaves out aspects of a trial that would have been obvious to readers. Local papers tend to carry more detail I find. The British Newspaper Archive is really good for those. If you find an interesting trial, look it up in a few different papers and you will get a more rounded picture of who said what and when.

have you tried www.oldbaileyonline.org/ ? It has detailed coverage, verbatim statements etc. Here's a link to a specific case my distant relative was involved in if you don't want to fiddle about with searches. www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t19030309-318&div=t19030309-318&terms=klosowski#highlight

If you can get access to Find My Past (in lots of libraries) you can access the British Newspaper Archive through them.

Thank you everyone, I think I stumbled onto the oldbaileyonline and found some useful info on there. I am tentatively beginning to write this chapter, which I am finding the most difficult (I have left it until last) and I have procrastinated over it but now I figure it is better to get something down on paper and unpick the holes/errors later on.

Have a look at: www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719082641/
Now, it's just after the Victorian period, but not that much would've changed. Each chapter covers a different case and at the end of each there's a lot of sources. May be useful!