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Photograph of woman prisoner, 1873 (Catalogue reference: PCOM 2/291/127)

This is a brief guide to help you with your research. The National Archives holds many records of criminal trials, although these rarely include detailed information such as transcripts of evidence. The records are scattered and there is no central name index to criminal trials, so unless you know when and where your ancestor was tried it can be very difficult to trace trial records.

  • What do I need to know before I start?

    • Try to find out:

      • the name of the accused, including variant spellings
      • when and where the trial took place
      • what kind of court tried the offence 

  • What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?

    • Criminals calendars (1868-1971)

      Search Discovery, our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies, by year range in HO 140 to find records which give the place and date of trials. The records are arranged by year and then alphabetically by county. These records are usually opened to the public after 75 years.

    • Trial records of the Supreme Court of Judicature and Central Criminal Court (1834- )

      Search our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies by surname or charge for criminal trial records in J (includes Crown Court records from 1972 onwards) and CRIM. If the charge is not known, search using the word 'charge'. This will eliminate non-criminal records. Please note that not all of these records have been catalogued by name.

      You can use AND to find more than one term in a description, for example Smith AND larceny.

    • Criminal appeal case files (1945- )

      Search our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies by last name in J 82 for case files of criminal appeals.

    • Records of the Justices of Assize (1554-1971)

      Browse the ASSI departmentThe highest level in our records hierarchy, usually corresponding to the government department of origin in our cataloguea search tool with descriptions of tens of millions of documents from the UK central government, law courts, and other national bodies for records of the Justices of Assize. First look up the county in the research guide English criminal trials 1559-1971 - key to assize records to find out which assizes records to investigate further.

    • Judges' reports on criminals (1784-1830)

      Search, by name and/or keyword, the judges' reports on criminals in HO 47.

      These can include witness statements, character references of witnesses, as well as memorials and petitions from friends and relatives of the accused.

  • What other resources will help me find information?

  • The National Archives is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Related guides

Did you know?

The assizes were held twice each year from the 13th century to 1971 in each county, and were grouped into a number of circuits. In 1971 they were replaced by the crown courts.

The National Archives does not hold transcripts of criminal trials. When searching trial records the most informative are often depositions, indictments and case files.

The parish given for the defendant in the indictments is not necessarily their place of residence - it is often where the crime took place.

Defendants often gave aliases, so the trial records might be under a different name.

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