Will there be more on this court case?

[AudreyF]

I have just been bowled over to suddenly find court proceedings at the Old Bailey on 6th March 1905 for William Millar Fleming. I wonder if there would be anymore to be found out from newspaper reports of the time? I've never used newspaper searches before so don't really know where to start.

The proceedings are here https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/brow...=t19050306-250

(I don't actually claim William as my ancestor but he is the man that gave us our family name. It is complicated! William was the second husband of Teresa Hitchcock formerly Kiernan. When her first husband (Thomas Hitchcock) died and she re-married and had more children the children of her first marriage took on the Fleming name. Teresa's eldest son (Thomas James Fleming, born Hitchcock) married Bertha in 1910 and they had a son in 1911 - James William Hitchcock Fleming - note the 'nod' to father and stepfather. Bertha and Thomas separated but didn't divorce. Bertha met another man - Charles Ernest Hawkins who regularly switched his forenames around and, even, sometimes used his wife's surname. Charles Hawkins and Bertha Fleming had a son (my father-in-law) and gave him the Fleming surname (for appearances) although he had Hawkins as a middle name. So, in the interests of a complete family history and knowing where my married name comes from I am looking into William Millar Fleming - as if life is complicated enough already!)

Thank you for any guidance.

[Pam Downes]

The best easily-accessible newspaper archive to start with is the British Newspaper Archive (BNA).
https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/search
It has national and regional coverage but obviously the years and coverage differs for each paper.

To search for William, start by selecting the year. So 1900-1949; then 1900-1909; 1905; March; 1-7.
6 March was a Monday, and you would expect trial news to be reported the next day, so select 7.
In the search box at the top of the page enter William Fleming, and tick the 'keep filters' and 'exact search' boxes.

Results will show anything where the name William and/or Fleming occur, so you could have a William Brown or a Robert Fleming, as well as William Fleming - the latter being the one you actually want to see.

If no success for the 7th, try again with the 8th and 9th. To do that, in the filter panel, click on the little x beside the 7, then select the 8-14 dates, then the individual 8. You could leave it and search for the whole week, but the results come in no particular order, and with a name like William you're going to get a lot of them.

If you get a result, then if you register with the BNA you get three 'views' free. After that you have to pay.
Alternatively most of the BNA is available on Findmypast, and depending on your subscription, free to view.

If you were in the UK, your local library might have The Times Digital Archive available to view free at home.

ADDED: As usual, done things wrong way round. Should have looked at the Old Bailey stuff first.
Having had a quick look, I would doubt there would be much more in a newspaper, but never say never.

Pam

[Megan Roberts]

Findmypast have the Calender of Prisoner records for the Old Bailey (HO140) and that gives you some additional information.

He had 2 known prior convictions. He got 2 months at the South Westersn Police Court on 4 March 1903 for stealing towels - convicted as William Fleming, and then he got 6 months at the Mansion House Court on 16 March 1904 for stealing clothes that time convicted as WALTER Fleming.

It was quite common for repeat offenders to change their names to try to hide their previous convictions and so minimise their sentences - after all at this time it was down to officers of the law to recognise them. It's also interesting to see that all his offences seem to have been committed in the first few months of each year - when he's cold and hungry?

This time the records show that was a 35 year old salesman who was taken into custody on 18 February and initially went before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House Magistrates. He apparently had 3 similar charges laid against him but only one was put to trial and for that he got 18 months hard labour in Wormwood Scrubs.

[AudreyF]

Well, I'm becoming quite pleased he isn't truly mine! Thank you so much ………..