Welsh Journals

now more than 200 single cells in which to accommodate them. 1870-1877: The Early Days of Usk County Gaol (2) From the early autumn of 1871 through to the late summer of 1872 a terrible small pox epidemic spread throughout South Wales, resulting in the loss of many hundreds of lives. A number of cases are known to have occurred in the County Gaol, though it would appear there was only one fatality, and that was an infant sent in with its mother, who had been committed for fourteen days. The infant, whose name is not recorded in the report of the visiting justices, died on October 15th, 1871. Between 1870 and 1877 two prisoners are known to have committed suicide In their cells, the first a female who hung herself on the second morning after her committal in 1871, and the second a mate who did likewise in January, 1876. Once again the names of the deceased are not mentioned in the Gaol reports. There were also two escape attempts between 1870 and 1877, the first early in 1874 when a male prisoner managed to get away but was later recaptured, and the second directly after the Michaelmas Quarter Sessions of 1876, when a man who had just been sentenced made his escape by breaking through the ventilator of a closet in the lock up beneath the court. He was still at liberty three months later. The most notable single occurrence at the County Gaol during its early years, however, was the execution on August 24th, 1874, of twenty two year old James Henry Gibbs, who was sentenced to death for murdering his wife, Susan Ann Gibbs, at St Mellons near Newport on May 12th, 1874. It was the first execution to take place at the County Gaol, and Gibbs, who had been butler to George Williams, Esq., of Llanrumney Hall, pleaded his innocence to the last. The report of the visiting justices, dated October 20th, 1874, states that 'all the observances required by Act of Parliament were duly carried out, and the whole arrangements were to the satisfaction of the High Sheriff, who personally attended the execution. The 1877 Prisons Act In conformity with the Prisons Act of 1877 Usk County Gaol was removed from the control of the local visiting justices on March 31st, 1878, and on the following day was placed under the control of a Prison Commission which had been set up as a sub department of the Home Office. In their final report, dated April 2nd, 1878, the Visiting justices noted: .it is a great satisfaction for us to be able to say that we believe the Commissioners who yesterday on behalf of the State took it over will find that they have had transferred to them a well arranged and good conditioned prison, in which are established effective discipline and varied and beneficial employment as also hard labour, and that the prisoners are generally healthy and, strange as it may sound contented, and a governor earnest and interested in his work, whose cordial cooperation with us we beg to acknowledge, along with a staff of officers to whose well