‘Highland hotel robbers’ among 100,000 Victorian prisoner records now online

The once-notorious “Highland hotel robbers” are among more than 100,000 Victorian prisoners whose records have been made available online.

Scotland’s People, the official site for Scottish government records, has published details of more than 100,000 inmates from Ayr and Inveraray jails.

In the summer of 1883, American James Edward Lyon and Eliza Thorpe targeted well-to-do guests in fancy hotels from Argyll to Aberdeenshire.

Cash, jewellery and other valuables went missing and Lyon and Thorpe always seemed to be around when it happened.

The pair, who travelled as man and wife, were arrested at a hotel in Edinburgh, while their associate Joseph Dowling was caught red-handed with some of the stolen items.

At their trial the men were convicted but the case against Thorpe, who was 20 years old, was found not proven.

Lyon was sentenced to seven years behind bars.

Photographs of Lyon, Thorpe and Dowling were kept in an album of interesting cases by the local procurator fiscal.

Their entries in the registers for Inveraray prison are among 4,600 records for the jail now on Scotland’s People.

Men, women and children were incarcerated at Inverary in the 19th century, with the youngest being seven-year-old James McCulloch, who was caught stealing.

The oldest was 82-year-old Ann Kerr, who was found guilty of “vagrancy”.

The newly published records also include 98,000 entries from Ayr Prison from 1841-1911.

Notable prisoners included murderers Joseph Calabrese, Thomas Bone and Mary Boyd. All of them were sentenced to death but were spared.

Scotland’s People said prison records provide a rare glimpse into the lives of people, often in desperate circumstances, who may have left few other records behind.

They provide details including names, imprisonment dates and details of their offences, and can also include details of an inmate’s physical characteristics, health, religion and level of literacy.

Archivist Veronica Schreuder said: “Prison registers are a rich source of information for social researchers and family historians alike.

“While it can be a shock to find an ancestor in prison, it can sometimes lead to details that are unlikely to have been preserved for most people.

“Finding out the colour of their hair, details of their health or whether they could read or write can turn a name and some dates into a much more rounded person.

“And, of course, if they have committed a serious crime, it can explain a lot about the decisions of other relatives such as moving area, changing a name or simply never talking about them.”

The additions mean there are more than 400,000 historical prison records available to search on Scotland’s People.

This includes the old Edinburgh prisons, Barlinnie, Perth and Largs.

Histories of both prisons and more on the cases highlighted in this story are available at Scotland’s People.