Dumb O Jemmy and Others: Deaf People, Interpreters and the London Courts in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

Abstract

This article reviews eighteenth- and nineteenth-century proceedings of the London Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) that involved deaf people. The use, role, and status of sign language and interpreters in these settings are described. These proceedings provide important information about deaf people's experiences within the court system of the time and insight into their communication during this era. Moreover, they illuminate attitudes toward deaf people in the period immediately before and after the creation of schools for deaf children in Britain.