Mincemeat comfort for Victorian prisoner!

The entries in the Governor’s Journal kept by James Foster, Governor of Lincoln Prison from 1855 to 1877, tell us that some relief to lighten the misery of those in the condemned cells was often through food and drink prescribed by the prison surgeon.

The Journal entry for 17^th December 1860 records – ‘at the request of Convict Richardson the surgeon has allowed him to have two mince pies and ½ loaf of bread extra daily making in all 3lbs of bread per day.’

26 year old convict Thomas Richardson had been sentenced to hang for the murder of police constable Alexander Mc Brian at Wyberton near Boston.  Mc Brian had been shot in the arm by a man he swore was Richardson but it was dark and the perpetrator wore a ‘billycock hat’ pulled down over his eyes.  Despite having the wounds dressed by the local vicar, Mc Brian lived for a few days after the shooting and then died of his wounds.  On the 24th October 1860, Richardson had spent the night of the shooting in the Crown & Anchor in Skirbeck near Boston and had then walked back to Wyberton in the early hours of the morning.  The shooting took place in the graveyard.   

 The hanging was scheduled to take place on Cobb Hall at Lincoln Castle on 21^st December 1860 but over a thousand people signed a ‘memorial’ or petition pleading for clemency.  Luckily for Richardson his death penalty was reprieved the day before he was due to hang and on 9^th January 1861 it was commuted to penal servitude for life. In 1863 he was transported on the Norwood to Australia.

The mince pies that Richardson enjoyed in his condemned cell in December 1860 would have been different to those we eat today, as they would have contained minced beef along with the usual fruit, suet, candied peel and spices.  Mrs Beeton included a recipe for mince pies in her famous book ‘Household Management’, published in 1861, which included 1 lb. of lean beef and 3 lbs. of beef suet!!