Bridget Kelly born Chatham

[cats meat man]

Thank you Debra. Fascinating reading. Do we know if Bridget was transferred to Millbank?

[Debra A]

Thank you Debra. Fascinating reading. Do we know if Bridget was transferred to Millbank?

She was, CMM.
She was sent to Millbank from Clerkenwell on 30 Oct 82 to 12 April 83 when she was transferred to Woking.

Just for interest here's her description and previous from the file:

Complexion-fair
Hair-brown
Eyes-dark grey
height 5ft 5 and a half inches
build-stout
shape of face-oval

Scar on forehead left arm and thumb right hand
ears pierced

previous convictions:
7 days 2/1/80 Worship St -drunk
7 days 7/4/80 Thames-disorderly
12 mos. 30/4/80 Thames-assault
14 days 13/11/80 Worship St-assault
1mo. 2/12/80 Worship St-assault
2 mos. 6/1/81 Worship St (stg print) [stg=stealing?]
21 days 3/8/81 Worship St-riotous
18 mos. 19/9/81 Middlesex sessions Ly person [I think this is larceny from the person] /stg 6/- + 4mos. for wounding

Strangely, there doesn't seem to be a sentence covering the census in April 81 when she was in Tothill Fields.

[Bridewell]

Scar on forehead left arm and thumb right hand
ears pierced

If Bridget was MJK, wouldn't Barnett have used the scars to identify her, rather than less specific thing like hair & eye colour?

Regards, Bridewell.

[Debra A]

If Bridget was MJK, wouldn't Barnett have used the scars to identify her, rather than less specific thing like hair & eye colour?

Regards, Bridewell.

Hmm. I doubt it. Weren't these all sites of wounds/defensive wounds?
Not as obvious as if Mrs Carthy or Mrs Phoenix really knew and described MJK then Barnett could have identified her by her false teeth?!

[Debra A]

If Bridget was MJK, wouldn't Barnett have used the scars to identify her, rather than less specific thing like hair & eye colour?

Regards, Bridewell.

hair?

[Bridewell]

hair?

Hi Debs,

Apologies. That's what you get for relying on memory. He actually said,

"I identify her by the ear and the eyes".

A bit strange, in itself, when read in conjunction with Dr Bond:

"The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows and ears being partly removed."

What was he able to identify about a partly-removed ear exactly?

Regards, Bridewell.

[Debra A]

The peculiar shape...apparently. Ask Tom Robinson.
And where does the distinctive hair come from?

[cats meat man]

Looking at Bridget's photo and physical description, kindly posted by Debra, would not rule out her being MJK,in my opinion. The hairline and jawline look similiar to the MJK crime scene photo, although I'm not an expert at that type of thing. Then there's the nodules of consolidation in the substances of the lung to take into account.

[cats meat man]

She was, CMM.
She was sent to Millbank from Clerkenwell on 30 Oct 82 to 12 April 83 when she was transferred to Woking.

Just for interest here's her description and previous from the file:

Complexion-fair
Hair-brown
Eyes-dark grey
height 5ft 5 and a half inches
build-stout
shape of face-oval

Scar on forehead left arm and thumb right hand
ears pierced

previous convictions:
7 days 2/1/80 Worship St -drunk
7 days 7/4/80 Thames-disorderly
12 mos. 30/4/80 Thames-assault
14 days 13/11/80 Worship St-assault
1mo. 2/12/80 Worship St-assault
2 mos. 6/1/81 Worship St (stg print) [stg=stealing?]
21 days 3/8/81 Worship St-riotous
18 mos. 19/9/81 Middlesex sessions Ly person [I think this is larceny from the person] /stg 6/- + 4mos. for wounding

Strangely, there doesn't seem to be a sentence covering the census in April 81 when she was in Tothill Fields.

Hi Debra. I was wondering If Bridget was awarded any additional days to her sentence, perhaps as a punishment for something she had done during her 2 mos sentence 06/01/81. Is there any info in her file to indicate this?
The female convict prison at Woking looks to be Knaphill in 1883.

[Debra A]

Hi Debra. I was wondering If Bridget was awarded any additional days to her sentence, perhaps as a punishment for something she had done during her 2 mos sentence 06/01/81. Is there any info in her file to indicate this?
The female convict prison at Woking looks to be Knaphill in 1883.

Hi CMM,

I think that is what probably happened too. Her file only concerns her last stay in prison when she was released earlier on licence (the April 81 stay would be a couple of sentences previous)
Looking at her records though she was trouble and always in fights. On her last sentence she lost 73 days remission for bad behavior and was always losing marks towards remission for acts of disobedience or violence.
She even had to be taken back to prison from the East End refuge Finchley while awaiting release because she refused to do the laundry work allocated to her and went AWOL.
So, yeah...it wouldn't surprise me if her 2 mos. was extended too.

[Bridewell]

Licence

Hi CMM,

I think that is what probably happened too. Her file only concerns her last stay in prison when she was released earlier on licence (the April 81 stay would be a couple of sentences previous)
Looking at her records though she was trouble and always in fights. On her last sentence she lost 73 days remission for bad behavior and was always losing marks towards remission for acts of disobedience or violence.
She even had to be taken back to prison from the East End refuge Finchley while awaiting release because she refused to do the laundry work allocated to her and went AWOL.
So, yeah...it wouldn't surprise me if her 2 mos. was extended too.

Hi Debs & CMM,

I don't know if procedures were the same than as now but, if an offence was committed whilst she was on licence, she would probably have been recalled to prison. Any term of imprisonment imposed for the new offence could have been consecutive to that.

Regards, Bridewell.

[cats meat man]

Thank you Debra & Bridewell. There's also the difference between concurrent and consecutive sentences if this applied back then:
Concurrent sentences. When sentences run concurrently, defendants serve all the sentences at the same time.
Consecutive sentences. When sentences run consecutively, defendants have to finish serving the sentence for one offence before they start serving the sentence for any other offence.
If a defendant is convicted of a number of crimes that carry lengthy prison terms, the difference between consecutive and concurrent sentences can be tremendous. The same factors that judges tend to consider when deciding on the severity of a sentence (for example, a defendant’s past record) also affect their decisions on whether to give concurrent or consecutive sentences.
It does look like Bridget was regularly in breach of her licence conditions and recalled as a result. The link below is interesting as it mentions emigration, ' a woman named Kelly ' and the name of Bridget in 1887:
The website also lists prisoners released on conditional licence to places like the East End Refuge at Finchley.

[cats meat man]

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1887/sep/01/supply-civil-service-estimates#S3V0320P0_18870901_HOC_207