I have just found a detailed account of My GG Grandfather's bankruptcy trial in the BNA.
Andrew Mitchell, farmer in Balbeggie, Perthshire has ran at a loss for eleven years.
It states his address and that he is now in Perth Civil prison. Can I get access to the prison records or find more about his case elsewhere?
The year is 1880.
Best regards
Scott
Prison records
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Re: Prison records
Hello Scott,
I suppose the articles you’ve seen were in the Glasgow Herald, November 27, 1880, and the Dundee Courier, January 01, 1881.
There’s a very detailed description of the bankruptcy examination in Perth Sheriff Court. He was incarcerated on behalf of a creditor who objected to ‘cessio’ being granted on the grounds that he had been reckless and dishonest and had intent to defraud etc.
You can read all about Scottish prisons and location of records here.
http://www.scan.org.uk/knowledgebase/to ... _topic.htm
Civil debtors
Town councils were obliged to provide accommodation in burgh jails for debtors who failed to repay their debt on time. A debtor could be imprisoned on the demand of a creditor in order to compel them to repay the debt or to surrender goods to the same value. Debtors were detained, usually only for short periods, until the debt had been paid and the creditor sanctioned their release. The Act of Grace of 1696 required creditors to pay an aliment for imprisoned debtors who could not maintain themselves, but the costs of imprisoning debtors was often met by burghs. If the debtor escaped, the burgh was liable for the repayment of his debts. A debtor who had been in prison for a month could raise an action of 'cessio bonorum' in the Court of Session and, if he could prove that he had fallen into debt because of misfortune, he could obtain release by dividing his property between his creditors. The prison reformer, James Neild, calculated that in 1809 there were 112 debtors in 32 prisons in Scotland and the number dropped after 1835 when imprisonment was no longer allowed for debts under £8, 6 shillings and 8 pence. Imprisonment for civil debt was generally abolished in 1880.
There’s mention in the Dundee Courier, on June 15, 1881, that the Bankruptcy and Cessio (Scotland) bill was read a second time. Maybe the abolishment of debtors prisons was slightly later than 1880.
I couldn’t find any reference to his case in the online search at the NAS or anything in the Edinburgh Gazette. But see also http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/crime.asp
Hope that helps,
Alan
I suppose the articles you’ve seen were in the Glasgow Herald, November 27, 1880, and the Dundee Courier, January 01, 1881.
There’s a very detailed description of the bankruptcy examination in Perth Sheriff Court. He was incarcerated on behalf of a creditor who objected to ‘cessio’ being granted on the grounds that he had been reckless and dishonest and had intent to defraud etc.
You can read all about Scottish prisons and location of records here.
http://www.scan.org.uk/knowledgebase/to ... _topic.htm
Civil debtors
Town councils were obliged to provide accommodation in burgh jails for debtors who failed to repay their debt on time. A debtor could be imprisoned on the demand of a creditor in order to compel them to repay the debt or to surrender goods to the same value. Debtors were detained, usually only for short periods, until the debt had been paid and the creditor sanctioned their release. The Act of Grace of 1696 required creditors to pay an aliment for imprisoned debtors who could not maintain themselves, but the costs of imprisoning debtors was often met by burghs. If the debtor escaped, the burgh was liable for the repayment of his debts. A debtor who had been in prison for a month could raise an action of 'cessio bonorum' in the Court of Session and, if he could prove that he had fallen into debt because of misfortune, he could obtain release by dividing his property between his creditors. The prison reformer, James Neild, calculated that in 1809 there were 112 debtors in 32 prisons in Scotland and the number dropped after 1835 when imprisonment was no longer allowed for debts under £8, 6 shillings and 8 pence. Imprisonment for civil debt was generally abolished in 1880.
There’s mention in the Dundee Courier, on June 15, 1881, that the Bankruptcy and Cessio (Scotland) bill was read a second time. Maybe the abolishment of debtors prisons was slightly later than 1880.
I couldn’t find any reference to his case in the online search at the NAS or anything in the Edinburgh Gazette. But see also http://www.nas.gov.uk/guides/crime.asp
Hope that helps,
Alan