‘Afternoon,’ he greeted the young man behind the desk, as he signed his name and History Card number into the visitors’ book. ‘Could I get a camera licence for today, please?’
‘Certainly. It’s five pounds. If you can just complete this short form,’ he said, sliding a piece of paper over to him.
Morton filled in the necessary paperwork, paid the fee, then strode quickly to the Visitor Lounge, where he deposited his coat and bag in a locker and placed his laptop, notepad and pencil in a clear plastic bag.
He took the stairs to the first floor, then made his way to the Archive Study Area, where there was another shiny red desk with the word ‘Collection’ in white letters. ‘Hello, I’ve pre-ordered some documents,’ Morton said to the lady behind the counter, who was youngish but with incongruously long grey hair.
The lady nodded. ‘And your name?’
‘Morton Farrier,’ he said, passing her his History Card.
‘Lovely.’ She spun her chair around, stood and moved to the long run of black shelving behind her. It was divided into neat oblongs, open at the front for delivery to the researcher and open at the back for loading from the holding rooms below. She stood for a moment, pacing up and down the shelving, stopping to check document references, then, when she reached a stack of several tantalising cardboard boxes, turned to look at Morton. ‘Any preference?’
He hurriedly withdrew his notepad and scanned down to see what he had ordered. ‘Erm… Domestic Proceedings, please,’ then, when he received a quizzical look back, read the reference number: ‘PS/BOW/05.’
The lady nodded, pulled out a cardboard box from near the bottom of the stack and handed it over with a smile.
Morton thanked her and paused a moment whilst he looked around the room for a suitable seat. He found a spot not too far away, but with good light from the windows and vacant spaces on either side, giving him room to spread out and use his laptop, if necessary.
The box, Morton found, as he carefully withdrew a great stack of sepia paperwork, was arranged chronologically. Each case was separated and bound in the top left corner by a treasury tag. When he had ordered the documents through the LMA website late last night, there had been a warning attached, stipulating that records from the earliest years of the Bow Street Magistrate’s Court were incomplete, with some cases or entire years missing altogether. This box contained whatever cases existed from 1825 to 1835.
The first case comprised just three pieces of painfully thin paper. Morton thought it amazing that time, mixed with almost two hundred years of handling by the public, had not reduced them to dust.
His index finger hovered cautiously above the document, as he began to decipher the handwriting.
Date of commencement: 5th July 1825
Location: Woking, Surrey
Nature of investigation: Rioting
By whom directed: Sir Richard Birnie
Principal Officer(s): Henry Goddard
Detail: To take notes, observe and obtain information as to the names of the authors and ringleaders attending these seditious meetings. Requires silence, discretion and activity.
Summary: Having spent fifteen nights in the town working incognito, I acquainted myself with many of the men involved in these riots…
The description of the case continued onto the second sheet, naming all of the men believed to have been involved in the riots, and with information of the subsequent arrests. The final piece of paper was a breakdown of the £25 bill, the majority being spent on the Principal Officer’s time.
The next case, directed by a private individual, Mr John Lister, was for an officer to investigate a suspected arson attack on his home, for which he paid £20 for the privilege of a suspect being arrested.
Morton found himself reading with great interest among the case files—the murder of a parish constable in the Forest of Dean; a bank robbery in Romford; forgery at the Bank of Scotland; defending the King against pickpockets; food riots in Nottingham—to the point that he realised that he had become side-tracked from his actual task.
He needed to refocus and just check the dates and nature of investigation of each case, before moving on.
Working under these new parameters, Morton paced quickly through 1825 and into 1826, unhappily skipping over intriguing cases which the Bow Street Officers had investigated.
He reached the summer of 1826 and sighed with relief; a case file did exist for the capture of the Aldington Gang.
Date of commencement: 2nd August 1826
Location: Dover, Folkestone, Aldington, Kent
Nature of investigation: Smuggling, Murder
By whom directed: The Admiralty
Principal Officer(s): Jonas Blackwood & Thomas Nightingale
Detail: To make enquiries, observe and take notes of sufficient detail to apprehend and bring to justice a barbaric group of smugglers operating on the Kent and Sussex coast, and to specifically identify and bring to justice, the murderer of Quartermaster Richard Morgan.
Summary: I spent several weeks on the coast, inhabiting a public house popular with the lower classes, obtaining information on this most vicious group of men. I discovered the location of their suppliers and boat-builders in Boulogne, the names of the principal characters and ringleaders, as well as the place which serves as the nucleus of their operations. Herewith is a fair account of the arrests: At 11pm on 16th October, I proceeded with a party of officers and seamen previously assembled from Fort Moncrief, led by Lieutenant Hellard, and having marched in the direction of Aldington, reached that place about 3am in the morning. No time was lost in making the necessary arrangements, so that every house in which I expected to arrest a prisoner was surrounded by sentinels, nearly at the same moment. I then instantly advanced to the dwelling of George Ransley, the leader of this ruffian band, and was fortunate enough to get so close to his house before his dogs were disturbed, that he had not time to
