As one of the lead genealogists working on Who Do You Think You Are?, I’m always fascinated by the stories that get passed down by families. When we began researching Strictly Come Dancing star Amy Dowden’s Welsh ancestry for the programme, we uncovered a long-whispered family story about a shooting on the Jenkins branch of her tree. Naturally, Amy was determined to discover whether there was any truth behind the rumour and this in turn led us to a rare opportunity to explore Assize court records. The Assizes dealt with some of the most serious crimes in England and Wales, including murder, rape and manslaughter and the Assize records helped us piece together the full story.
An old family Bible
Amy’s maternal family came from Tregaron in Cardiganshire, and during our research we connected her with a distant cousin, Wynn, who had spent years researching the family history. He showed Amy an old family Bible written in by her 3x great grandfather, Evan Jenkins. Inside was a chilling entry recording the death of Amy’s 3x great aunt, Elinor Jenkins, who was described as having been “shot dead by the cruel man Offley Owen Nov 11th 1888, aged 14”. It seemed that the truth was there in black and white. Amy was shocked and saddened to discover how young Elinor was when she died.
As part of our investigation for the programme, we then tracked down Elinor’s death certificate, which corroborated the account in the Bible. Old newspaper reports added even more detail, revealing that Offley Owen claimed the shooting had been a tragic accident while he was showing Elinor how to use a gun, unaware it was loaded.
Amy wasn’t entirely convinced by that explanation at first, so she continued digging through available records to discover what happened next.
Coroners' inquests
One of the key records we examined was the coroner’s inquest, which was routinely held after any sudden or unnatural death to establish the cause and determine whether the accused would face criminal proceedings.
In this case, Offley Owen was indicted for manslaughter and the case progressed to the Assize court in Carmarthenshire. He pleaded not guilty and, somewhat surprisingly, the prosecution chose not to call witnesses. Offley was ultimately acquitted and discharged – an outcome that genuinely shocked Amy when we revealed it during filming.
Thanks to detailed newspaper coverage, we were able to trace the progress of the case through the Assize system. Assizes, which comes from the French word assises, meaning ‘sittings’, were one of the principal criminal courts in England and Wales from the 13th century until 1971, when they were replaced by the Crown Court.
Initially, criminal cases were heard in local magistrates’ courts, which decided whether they should proceed to the Assizes for trial. The judges of the Assize courts were from the King’s (or Queen’s) Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, who would travel around the seven geographical circuits
of England and Wales to hear cases.
London and Middlesex cases were heard at the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey, proceedings of which can be searched online. The other jurisdictions were Home, Midland, Norfolk, Oxford and Western, although this was reorganised in the 19th century, with Wales added to the system in 1830. Prior to that, Welsh records can be found at the National Library of Wales.
In the ‘rural’ circuits, Assizes would be held twice a year, at Lent and in Summer. However, by the 19th century, Winter Assizes were also held to deal with the increasing criminal workload. Initially, they heard civil matters, but by the 15th century they also became responsible for criminal cases, which became the main focus. Courts were held in towns that had a jail and a court circuit could last up to five weeks. Until 1733, Assize records were written in Latin with many abbreviations.
Criminal Assize records
As we discovered while researching Amy’s story, Assize records can be incredibly rich sources for family historians, particularly if an ancestor was involved in a high-profile criminal case.
Although records of smaller courts can be found in local archives, Assize records are held in The National Archives (TNA) at Kew and a detailed guide can be found on TNA’s website.
Criminal Assize records can include the following types of documents:
• Crown and gaol/ minute books
The best starting point, as they list the name of the accused, charges against them, the plea, verdict
and sentence.
• Indictments
These set out the nature of the charge the defendant was facing and also contain notes relating to the plea, verdict and the sentence handed down. They are stored in large bundles and may contain additional documents such as coroner’s inquisitions and trial minutes. Until 1916, they were handwritten. After this date they used standardised text.
• Depositions and examinations
These pre-trial witness statements can provide remarkable detail, although survival rates are patchy except in capital cases such as murder and riot. Files from the mid-20th century onwards may also contain trial exhibits.
• Proceedings
Although transcripts of trials were not kept, proceedings recording large parts of the trial were sometimes published, especially for the Old Bailey.
• Other records
You may also find pleadings, draft minutes of the trial, jury lists and coroner’s inquisitions included.
Searching the records
As Amy found in her episode, it’s best to know when and where the trial took place. Newspaper reports are invaluable for this, as court proceedings were often covered in extraordinary detail. Search online on the British Newspaper Archive and also Findmypast. The National Library of Wales, meanwhile, holds an extensive collection of Welsh newspapers.
Calendars of Prisoners can also help pinpoint the correct court and date. These can be searched on Ancestry and Findmypast.
Visit in person
Once you have this information, you need to visit The National Archives in person to view its collection of Assize records (in series ASSI) as they are not available online.
The records are further organised by the circuit the trial took place in and the type of record you wish to view. An index to these records can be found on TNA’s website.
Offley’s case was heard in Carmarthenshire and records were found in Crown and Gaol Books (ASSI 76), Indictments (ASSI 71) and Depositions (ASSI 72).
ASSI 72 can be searched by name, which is how we identified Offley Owen’s surviving record. If you suspect an ancestor appeared before the Assizes, it’s always worth searching The National Archives catalogue using both the surname and the ASSI series reference.
Assizes didn’t operate in Scotland, which had a separate criminal justice system, so Scottish cases need to be researched through the National Records of Scotland.
