The Old Bailey Online, 1674-1834

From 1674 onwards more or less detailed transcriptions of felony trials held at the Old Bailey were published eight times a year. Individual editions range in length from a couple of pages in the 1670s to hundreds of pages of text in the 1820s and 30s. Early editions were intended for a popular audience and reproduced extended descriptions of only the most salacious and interesting trials. From the 1710s the Proceedings became more full and extensive, and from the 1780s onwards they reliably reproduced the vast majority of material presented in the court room (although from the same period they also began to censor sodomy and rape trials). From the 1789s again, the Proceedings became an official publication, directed overwhelmingly at a legal audience.