Registers of case notes from Perth Prison Criminal Lunatic Department covering admissions during the years 1846-1902 can now be explored. Some of these case notes link to previously released register entries, providing further information about these prisoners. Others are completely new to the website and can now be searched, consulted and downloaded. Many of these records also include a photograph of the prisoner. They can be searched in the same way as the entries for Perth Prison.

Discover more about two of the prisoners Colin Sinclair Murray Brown and Andrew Reid in this new release in our news and features section.

Entries can be searched in the Prison registers category on the website.

Also newly available are additional admission register entries for Perth Prison, with corresponding images of the registers, covering the years 1922–1924, which have been added to the Scotland’s People website, enhancing a previous release from 2022. The records can be searched for free and the images viewed and downloaded for a small fee.

These admission registers, which were created and maintained by Perth Prison staff, generally note the particulars of the trial and sentence for each prisoner as well as personal details such as place of birth, occupation, age, height, and religion. They can be searched by name, age, year of admittance, prison name and country of birth. There is a wealth of information in these volumes for genealogists and social historians.

Read a brief history of Perth Prison in our article for more information on this institution.

Image

Please note that some of these records relate to the admission, treatment and release of prisoners with mental health issues in the 19th century. Terms and language from this historical context are present. As such, there are several references to historical medical terms that are no longer medically accurate or acceptable.