Crown Office Cases (AD8)
This is an index to Crown Office cases. It is based on the National Records of Scotland AD8 series. The basic records include the following columns:
Name of accused
This includes maiden surnames for married or widowed women, and often includes aliases. It can also include tee-names, mostly for people from fishing villages in the north of Scotland.
Date when first committed to prison
This is useful for linking the accused to entries in prison registers, which the NRS is gradually publishing on the Scotland's People website.
Place where Accused committed, and by what Magistrate
This is not necessarily the residence of the Accused, but is instead usually the head town of a Sheriffdom or the county town.
Crime
This is often self-explanatory, but not always. Some entries merely cite the statute in the form of e.g. 17 & 18 Vict. c 80 s 60. In most cases, we have expanded such entries to clarify which law is being applied. In this instance, 17 & 18 Vict. c 80 s 60 is Section 60 of the Registration Act 1854 - in other words, the person was accused of providing false information to a registrar. You can view a comprehensive list of 19th century statutes with links to the full texts here.
Date of forwarding precognition to Crown Agent
A precognition is a written statement from a witness or accused setting out the alleged facts of the case.
Crown Counsel to whom transmitted
This is not usually relevant to genealogical searches.
Indicted or how disposed of
This is very useful for identifying the relevant archival source for any further records, as well as locating the case in bound volumes of minutes or precognitions.
Plea
A guilty plea often means that the court records are limited in terms of information, although they may include precognitions and indictments, which set out the alleged facts of the case.
Verdict
Scotland of course has three verdicts: Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven, although the last two are essentially functionally identical.
Sentence
Usually self-explanatory, although you may see the Scots word assoilzied, meaning freed or absolved of guilt.
The index currently includes NRS references AD8/1-30 and contains 54,460 entries, covering the years 1890-1919. We will be adding later years shortly. The series is closed for 100 years, so our index will eventually run up to 1922, with subsequent years added annually after the new year. It complements our existing Crown Counsel Procedure Books indexes, which run from 1822 to 1879. The AD8 series is a little more detailed than AD9.
What next?
Armed with the AD8 entry, it should be possible to locate the archival records relating to the trial or indictment, if they survive. The Sheriff Court criminal records are mostly unindexed (but we're working on an index to them, watch this space), but when you order an AD8 record, we will offer the option of a search for any surviving detailed records of the case.
Updates: 11,726 records covering AD8/11-15, 1900-1904 inclusive, added 7 September 2023.
Updates: 11,827 records covering AD8/16-20, 1905-1909 inclusive, added 26 October 2023.
Updates: 5,908 records covering AD8/21-25, 1910-1914 inclusive, added 27 January 2024.
Updates: 3,617 records covering AD8/26-30, 1915-1919 inclusive, added 31 March 2024.
- Name of accused
- Date when first committed to prison
- Place where Accused committed, and by what Magistrate
- Crime
- Date of forwarding precognition to Crown Agent
- Crown Counsel to whom transmitted
- Indicted or how disposed of
- Date of trial
- Plea
- Verdict
- Sentence
Name of accused
This includes maiden surnames for married or widowed women, and often includes aliases. It can also include tee-names, mostly for people from fishing villages in the north of Scotland.
Date when first committed to prison
This is useful for linking the accused to entries in prison registers, which the NRS is gradually publishing on the Scotland's People website.
Place where Accused committed, and by what Magistrate
This is not necessarily the residence of the Accused, but is instead usually the head town of a Sheriffdom or the county town.
Crime
This is often self-explanatory, but not always. Some entries merely cite the statute in the form of e.g. 17 & 18 Vict. c 80 s 60. In most cases, we have expanded such entries to clarify which law is being applied. In this instance, 17 & 18 Vict. c 80 s 60 is Section 60 of the Registration Act 1854 - in other words, the person was accused of providing false information to a registrar. You can view a comprehensive list of 19th century statutes with links to the full texts here.
Date of forwarding precognition to Crown Agent
A precognition is a written statement from a witness or accused setting out the alleged facts of the case.
Crown Counsel to whom transmitted
This is not usually relevant to genealogical searches.
Indicted or how disposed of
- "Indicted" means that the accused was sent to the High Court or Circuit Court for trial.
- "Section 31" means that the accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced using an abbreviated procedure. This means that there was no trial, and any additional records will likely be limited in terms of information.
- "No proceedings" means that no charges were brought against the Accused, so there will not be any trial records.
- "Sh & Jury" means there was a solemn trial in the relevant Sheriff Court before a sheriff and jury. Not all Sheriff Court criminal records survive, but they can be of great interest and may include precognitions, minutes, witness statements and other productions.
This is very useful for identifying the relevant archival source for any further records, as well as locating the case in bound volumes of minutes or precognitions.
Plea
A guilty plea often means that the court records are limited in terms of information, although they may include precognitions and indictments, which set out the alleged facts of the case.
Verdict
Scotland of course has three verdicts: Guilty, Not Guilty and Not Proven, although the last two are essentially functionally identical.
Sentence
Usually self-explanatory, although you may see the Scots word assoilzied, meaning freed or absolved of guilt.
The index currently includes NRS references AD8/1-30 and contains 54,460 entries, covering the years 1890-1919. We will be adding later years shortly. The series is closed for 100 years, so our index will eventually run up to 1922, with subsequent years added annually after the new year. It complements our existing Crown Counsel Procedure Books indexes, which run from 1822 to 1879. The AD8 series is a little more detailed than AD9.
What next?
Armed with the AD8 entry, it should be possible to locate the archival records relating to the trial or indictment, if they survive. The Sheriff Court criminal records are mostly unindexed (but we're working on an index to them, watch this space), but when you order an AD8 record, we will offer the option of a search for any surviving detailed records of the case.
Updates: 11,726 records covering AD8/11-15, 1900-1904 inclusive, added 7 September 2023.
Updates: 11,827 records covering AD8/16-20, 1905-1909 inclusive, added 26 October 2023.
Updates: 5,908 records covering AD8/21-25, 1910-1914 inclusive, added 27 January 2024.
Updates: 3,617 records covering AD8/26-30, 1915-1919 inclusive, added 31 March 2024.
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1905-1909
Abbott - Cowan Cowan- Hamil Hamil - Macallaster Mcallister - Monterrey Montgomerie - Smith Smith - Zook 1910-1914 Abel - Greig Grierson - Moodie Moodie - Zetland 1915-1919 Abbie - McCallum McCann - Zemratas 1920 onwards coming soon |
