MikhailT/lj-speech huggingface dataset:
It was large and comparatively commodious, being maintained on a better footing than any other part of the prison.
The inmates were privileged, either by antecedents or the fortunate possession of sufficient funds to pay the charges of the place.
Neild takes it for granted that the former rather than the latter prevailed in the selection,
and tells us that in the state side, quote, such prisoners were safely associated whose manners and conduct evince a more liberal style of education,
and who are therefore lodged apart from all other districts of the jail. End quote.
The state side contained twelve good-sized rooms,
from twenty-one by eighteen feet to fifteen feet square, which were furnished with bedsteads and bedding.
7. The press yard was that part set aside for the condemned.
Its name and its situation were the same as those of the old place of carrying out the terrible sentence inflicted on accused persons who stood mute.
The long narrow yard still remained as we saw it in Jacobite times,
and beyond it was now a day room for the capital convicts or those awaiting execution.
Beyond the press yard were three stories, condemned cells, fifteen in all, with vaulted ceilings nine feet high to the crown of the arch.
The ground floor cells were nine feet by six;
those on the first floor were rather larger on account of a set-off in the wall; and the uppermost were the largest, for the same reason.
Security was provided for in these condemned cells by lining the substantial stone walls with planks studded with broad-headed nails;
they were lighted by a double-grated window two feet nine inches by fourteen inches; and in the doors, which were four inches thick,
a circular aperture had been let in to give ventilation and secure a free current of air.
In each cell there was a barrack bedstead on the floor without bedding.
8. The female felons were deprived of part of the space which the architect had intended for them.
More than half their quadrangle had been partitioned off for another purpose,
and what remained was divided into a master's and a common side for female felons.
The two yards were adjoining, that for the common side much the largest.
There were nine wards in all on the female side, one of them in the attic,
with four casements and two fireplaces, being allotted for a female infirmary
and the rest being provided with barrack beds, and in dimensions varying from thirty feet by fifteen to fifteen feet by ten.
The eight courts above enumerated were well supplied with water;
they had dust-bins, sewers, and so forth, "properly disposed," and the city scavenger paid periodical visits to the prison.
The prisoners had few comforts, beyond the occasional use of a bath at some distance, situated in the press yard,
to which access was granted rarely and as a great favor. But they were allowed the luxury of drink -- if they could pay for it.
A recent reform had closed the tap kept by the jailer within the precincts, but
there was still a "convenient room" which served, and, quote,
near it a grating through which the debtors receive their beer from the neighboring public-houses.
The felons' side has a similar accommodation, and this mode of introducing the beverage is adopted because no publican as such
can be permitted to enter the interior of this prison. End quote. The tap-room and bar were just behind the felons' entrance lodge,
and beyond it was a room called the "wine room," because formerly used for the sale of wine, but
in which latterly a copper had been fixed for the cooking of provisions sent in by charitable persons.
Quote, On the top of the jail, continues Neild, are a watch-house and a sentry-box, where two or more guards, with dogs and firearms,
watch all night. Adjoining the felons' side lodge is the keeper's office, where the prison books are kept, and his clerk,
called the clerk of the papers, attends daily. End quote.
Having thus briefly described the plan and appropriation of the prison, I propose to deal now with the general condition of the inmates, and the manner of their life.
Of these the debtors, male and female, formed a large proportion.
The frequency and extent of processes against debtors seventy or eighty years ago will appear almost incredible
in an age when insolvent acts and bankruptcy courts do so much to relieve the impecunious,
and imprisonment for debt has almost entirely disappeared.
The number of processes against debtors annually was extraordinary.
Neild gives, on the authority of Mr. Burchell, the under sheriff of Middlesex,
a table showing the figures for the year ending Michaelmas 1802.
In that period upwards of 200,000 writs
had been issued for the arrests of debtors in the kingdom, for sums varying from fourpence to £500 and upwards.
Fifteen thousand of these were issued in Middlesex alone, which at that time was reckoned as only a fifteenth of Great Britain.
The number of arrests actually made was 114,300 for the kingdom, and 7020 for Middlesex.
Barely half of these gave bail bonds on arrests, and the remainder went to prison.
Quite half of the foregoing writs and arrests applied to sums under £30.
Neild also says that in 1793,
5719 writs and executions for debts between £10 and £20 were issued in Middlesex,
and the aggregate amount of debts sued for was £81,791.
He also makes the curious calculation that the costs of these actions if undefended
would have amounted to £68,728, and if defended,
£285,950; in other words, that to recover eighty odd thousand pounds,
three times the amount would be expended.
An elaborate machinery planned for the protection of the trader, and altogether on his side, had long existed for the recovery of debts.
Alfred the Great established the Court Baron, the Hundred Court, and the County Court, which among other matters entertained pleas for debt.
The County Court was the sheriff's, who sat there surrounded by the bishop and the magnates of the county;
but as time passed, difficulties and delays in obtaining judgment led to the removal of causes to the great Court of King's Bench,
and the disuse of the inferior courts.
So much inconvenience ensued, that in 1518 the Corporation obtained from Parliament an act empowering two aldermen
and four common councilmen to hold Courts of Requests, or Courts of Conscience, to hear and determine all causes of debt
under 40 shillings arising within the city.
These courts were extended two centuries later to several large provincial towns, and all were in full activity when Neild wrote,
and indeed supplied the bulk of the poor debtors committed to prison.
These courts were open to many and grave objections.
The commissioners who presided were, quote, little otherwise than self-elected
and when once appointed continued to serve sine die; they were generally near in rank to the parties whose causes they decided.
Often a commissioner had to leave the bench because he was himself a party to the suit that was sub judice.
The activity as well as the futility of these courts may be estimated from the statement given by Neild
that thirteen hundred and twelve debtors were committed by them to Newgate between 1797 and 1808,
and that no more than 197 creditors recovered debts and costs.
The latter indeed hung like millstones round the neck of the unhappy insolvent wretches who found themselves in limbo.
Costs were the gallons of sack to the pennyworth of debt.
Neild found at his visit to Newgate in 1810,
fourteen men and women who had lain there ten, eleven, and thirteen years for debts of a few shillings,
weighted by treble the amount of costs.
Thus, amongst others, Thomas Blackburn had been committed on October 15th for a debt of 1 shilling 5 pence.
for which the costs were 6 shillings 10 pence.
Thomas Dobson, on 22nd August, 1799, for 1 shilling, with costs of 8 shillings, 10 pence.
and Susannah Evans, in October the same year, for 2 shillings, with costs of 6 shillings, 8 pence.
Other cases are recorded elsewhere, as at the Giltspur Street Compter, where in 1805 Mr. Neild found a man named William Grant
detained for 1 shilling 9 pence, with costs of 5 shillings.
and John Lancaster for 1 shilling, 8 pence, with costs of 7 shillings, 6 pence. Quote.
These surely, I thought," says Mr. Neild, "were bad enough! But it was not so. End quote.
He recites another most outrageous and extraordinary case, in which one John Bird,
a market porter, was arrested and committed at the suit of a publican
for the paltry sum of 4 pence, with costs of 7 shillings, 6 pence.
Bird was, however, discharged within three days by a subscription raised among his fellow-prisoners.
Mr. Buxton, in his "Inquiry into the System of Prison Discipline,"
quotes a case which came within his own knowledge of a boy sent to prison for non-payment of one penny.
The lad in question was found in Coldbath Fields prison, to which he had been sent for a month in default of paying a fine of forty shillings.
He had been in the employ of a corn-chandler at Islington, and went into London with his master's cart and horse.
There was in the City Road a temporary bar, with a collector of tolls who was sometimes on the spot and sometimes not.
The boy declared he saw no one, and accordingly passed through without paying the toll of a penny.
For this he was summoned before a magistrate, and sentenced as already stated.
The lad was proved to be of good character and the son of respectable parents.
Mr. Buxton's friends at once paid the forty shillings, and the boy was released.
The costs in heavier debts always doubled the sum; if the arrest was made in the country it trebled it.
Neild gives a list of the various items charged upon a debt of £10, which included instructions to sue,
affidavit of debt, drawing praecipe (1 pound, 5 shillings), capias, fee to officer on arrest,
affidavit of service, and many more, amounting in all to twenty-seven,
and costing 11 pounds, 15 shillings, 8 pence, within ten days.
Before dealing with the debtors in Newgate, I may refer incidentally
to those in other London prisons, for Newgate was not the only place of durance for these unfortunate people. There were also the King's Bench,
the Fleet, and the Marshalsea prisons especially devoted to them,
whilst Ludgate, the Giltspur Street, and Borough Compters also received them
the latter two being also a prison for felons and vagrants arrested within certain limits.
The King's Bench was a national prison, in which were confined all debtors arrested for debt or for contempt of the court of the King's Bench.
The population generally amounted to from five hundred to seven hundred, the accommodation being calculated for two hundred.
Every new-comer was entitled to a "chummage" ticket, but did not always get it,
being often obliged to pay a high rent for a bed at the coffee-house or in some room which was vacated by its regular occupant.
No fixed rates or rules governed the hiring out of rooms or parts of a room, and all sorts of imposition was practiced.
The best, or at least the most influential prisoners, got lodging in the State House, which contained "eight large handsome rooms."
Besides those actually resident within the walls,
another two hundred more or less took advantage of "the rules," and lived outside within a circumference of two miles and a half.
In these cases security was given for the amount of the debt,
and a heavy fee at the rate of £8 per £100, with £4 for every additional hundred.
Besides these, a number had the privilege of a "run on the key," which allowed a prisoner to go into the rules for the day.
The foregoing rentals and payments for privileges, together with fees exacted on commitment and discharge, went to the marshal or keeper of the prison,
whose net annual income thus entirely derived from the impecunious amounted to between three and four thousand pounds.
The office of marshal had been hereditary,
but in the 27th George II the right of presentation was bought by the Crown for £10,500.
The marshal was supposed to be resident either within the prison or the rules.
He seems to have felt no responsibility as to the welfare or comfort of those in charge, and out of whom he made all his money.
The prison was always in "the most filthy state imaginable."
The half or wholly starved prisoners fished for alms or food at the gratings.
When they were sick no more notice was taken of them than of a dog.
A man dying of liver complaint lay on the cold stones without a bed or food to eat.
Dissolute habits prevailed on all sides; drunkenness was universal, gambling perpetual.
The yards were taken up with rackets and five courts, and here and there were "bumble puppy grounds," a game in which the players rolled iron balls
into holes marked with numbers.
How to make most profit out of the wretched denizens of the jail was the marshal's only care. He got a rent for the coffee-house and the bake-house;
the keeper of the large tap-room called the Brace, because it was once kept by two brothers named Partridge, also paid him toll.
The sale of spirits was forbidden, but gin could always be had at the whistling shops, where it was known as Moonshine, Sky Blue,
Mexico, and was consumed at the rate of a hogshead per week.
The Fleet, which stood in Farringdon Street,
was a prison for debtors and persons committed for contempt by the courts of Chancery, Exchequer, and Common Pleas.
It was so used for the date of the abolition of the Star Chamber in the 16th Charles I.
the warden of the Fleet at the commencement of the eighteenth century, are too well known to need more than a passing reference.
A committee of the House of Commons investigated the charges against Bambridge, who was proved to have connived at the escape of some debtors,
and to have been guilty of extortion to others. One Sir William Rich, Bart., he had loaded with heavy irons
In consequence of these disclosures, both Bambridge and Huggin, his predecessor in the office, were committed to Newgate,
and many reforms instituted. But the condition of the prison and its inmates remained unsatisfactory to the last.
It contained generally from six to seven hundred inmates, while another hundred more or less resided in the rules outside.
The principle of "chummage" prevailed as in the King's Bench,
but a number of rooms, fifteen more or less, were reserved for poor debtors under the name of Bartholomew Fair.
The rentals of rooms and fees went to the warden, whose income was £2372.
The same evils of overcrowding, uncleanliness, want of medical attendance,
absence or neglect of divine service, were present as in the King's Bench, but in an exaggerated form.
The Committee on Jails reported that, quote, although the house of the warden looked into the court,
and the turnkeys slept in the prison, yet scenes of riot, drunkenness, and disorder were most prevalent, end quote.
The state of morals was disgraceful. Any woman obtained admission if sober, and if she got drunk she was not turned out.
There was no distinct place for the female debtors, who lived in the same galleries as the men.
Disturbances were frequent, owing to the riotous conduct of intoxicated women.
Twice a week there was a wine and beer club held at night, which lasted till two or three in the morning.
In the yard behind the prison
were places set apart for skittles, fives, and tennis, which strangers frequented as any other place of public amusement.
Matters were rather better at the Marshalsea.
This very ancient prison, which stood in the High Street, Southwark,
was used for debtors arrested for the lowest sums within twelve miles of the palace of Whitehall;
also for prisoners committed by the Admiralty Court.
At one time the Marshalsea was the receptacle of pirates, but none were committed to it after 1789.
The court of the Marshalsea was instituted by Charles I. in the sixth year of his reign,
to be held before the steward of the royal household, the knight marshal, and the steward of the court,
with jurisdiction to hold pleas in all actions within the prescribed limits. The court was chiefly used for the recovery of small debts under £10
but its business was much reduced by the extension of the Courts of Conscience.
The prison was a nest of abuses, like its neighbor the King's Bench
and came under the strong animadversion of the Jail Committee of 1729.
As the business of the Marshalsea Court declined, the numbers in its prison diminished.
The population, as reported by the committee in 1814, averaged about sixty,
and the prison, although wives and children resided within the walls, was not overcrowded.
Their conduct too was orderly on the whole.
Drunkenness was not common, chiefly because liquor was not to be had freely, although the tapster paid a rent of two guineas a week for permission to sell it.
The inmates, who euphemistically styled themselves "collegians,"
were governed by rules which they themselves had framed, and under which subscriptions were levied
and fines imposed for conduct disapproved of by the "college."
A court of the collegians was held every Monday to manage its affairs, at which all prisoners were required to attend.
A committee of collegians was elected to act as the executive, also a secretary or accountant to receive monies and keep books,
and a master of the ale-room, who kept this the scene of their revels clean, and saw that boiling water was provided for grog.
Bad language, quarreling, throwing water over one another was forbidden on pain of fine and being sent to Coventry;
but the prevailing moral tone may be guessed from the penalty inflicted upon persons singing obscene songs before nine p.m.
Yet the public opinion of the whole body seems to have checked dissipation.
The poorer prisoners were not in abject want, as in other prisons,
owing to many charitable gifts and bequests, which included annual donations from the Archbishop of Canterbury,
the Lord Steward of the Household, the steward and officers of the Marshalsea Court, and others.
Legacies had also been left to free a certain number of debtors, notably that of £100 per annum
left by a Mr. Henry Allnutt, who was long a prisoner in the Marshalsea, and came into a fortune while there.
His bequest, which was charged upon his manor at Goring, Oxon, and hence called the Oxford Charity,
was applied only to the release of poor debtors whom £4 each could free.
The supreme control of the Marshalsea was vested in the marshal of the royal household; but although he drew a salary of £500 a year,
he did nothing beyond visiting the prison occasionally, and left the administration to the deputy marshal.
The latter's salary, with fees, the rent of the tap and of the chandler's shop, amounted to about £600 a year.
The compters of Ludgate, Giltspur Street, and the Borough were discontinued as debtors' prisons (as was Newgate also)
on the opening of Whitecross prison for debtors in 1815.
Ludgate to the last was the debtors' prison for freemen of the city of London,
clergymen, proctors, attorneys, and persons specially selected by the Corporation.
At one time the Ludgate debtors, accompanied by the keeper,
went outside and beyond the prison to call on their creditors, and try to arrange their debts, but this practice was discontinued.
There were fifteen rooms of various sizes, and as the numbers imprisoned rarely exceeded five-and-twenty, the place was never overcrowded,
while the funds of several bequests and charities were applied in adding to the material comfort of the prisoners.
The Giltspur Street Compter received sheriffs' debtors, also felons, vagrants, and night charges.
It was generally crowded, as debtors who would have gone to the Poultry Compter were sent to Giltspur Street when the former was condemned as unfit to receive prisoners.
The demands for fees were excessive in Giltspur Street.
Those who could not pay were thrown into the wards with the night charges,
and denied admission to the "charity wards," which partook of all the benefits of bequests and donations to poor debtors.
The Borough Compter was in a disgraceful state to the last. The men's ward had an earth, or rather a mud, floor,
and was so unfit to sleep on that it had not been used for many years, so that the men and women associated together indiscriminately.
The rooms had no fireplaces, so it mattered little that no coals were allowed.
There were no beds or bedding, no straw even.
In one room Mr. Neild found a woman ill of a flux shut up with three men;
the latter raised eighteen pence among them to pay for a truss of straw for the poor woman to lie on.
Neild found the prisoners in the Borough Compter ragged, starving, and dirty.
I come now to the debtors in Newgate. The quarters they occupied were divided, as I have said, into three principal divisions
the master's side, the cabin side, and the common side. Payment of a fee of 3 shillings gained the debtor admission to the two first named;
those who could pay nothing went, as a matter of course, to the common side;
a further fee was, however, demanded from the new-comer before he was made free of either the master's or the cabin side.
This was the reprehensible claim for "garnish," which had already been abolished in all well-conducted prisons, but which still was demanded in Newgate.
Garnish on the cabin side was a guinea at entrance for coals, candles, brooms, etc., and a gallon of beer on discharge;
on the master's side it was thirteen and fourpence, and a gallon of beer on entrance, although Mr. Newman,
in his evidence in 1814, said it was more,
and gave the garnish for the common side at that sum, which is five shillings more than Mr. Neild says was extorted on the common side.
Numerous tyrannies were practiced on all who would not and could not pay the garnish.
They were made to wash and swab the ward, or they were shut out from the ward fireplace, and forbidden to pass a chalked line drawn on the floor,
and so were unable either to warm themselves or to cook their food.
Besides these fees, legitimate and illegitimate, there were others which must be paid before release.
The sheriff demanded 4 shillings, 6 pence for his liberate, the jailer 6 shillings, 10 pence more, and the turnkey 2 shillings;
and thus when the debtor's debt had been actually paid, or when he had abandoned his property to the creditors, and, almost destitute,
looked forward to his liberty, he was still delayed until he had paid a new debt arising, quote,
only out of a satisfaction of all his former debts, end quote. The fees were not always extorted, it is true;
nor was non-payment made a pretext for further imprisonment, thanks to the humanity of the jailer, or the funds provided by various charities.
There was this much honest forbearance in Newgate in these days,
that debtors who could afford the cabin and master's side were not permitted to share in the prison charities.
These were lumped together into a general fund,
and a calculation made as to the amount that might be expended per week from the whole sum, so that the latter might last out the year.
It generally ran to about six pounds per week. The money, which at one time had been distributed quarterly, and all went in drink,
was after 1807, through the exertions of the keeper of the jail, spent in the purchase of necessaries.
But this weekly pittance did not go far when the debtors' side was crowded, as it often was;
notably as when numbers filled Newgate in anticipation of Lord Redesdale's bill for insolvent debtors,
and there were as many as three hundred and fifty prisoners in at one time.
The city also allowed the poor debtors fourteen ounces of bread daily, and their share of eight stone of meat, an allowance which never varied,
issued once a week, and divided as far as it would go -- a very precarious and uncertain ration.
The bread was issued every alternate day; and while some prisoners often ate their whole allowance at once,
others who arrived just after the time of distribution were often forty-eight hours without food. The latter might also be six days without meat.
Share in the weekly allowance of meat might also be denied to debtors who had not paid "garnish," as well as in the weekly grant from the charitable fund.
Hence starvation stared many in the face, unless friends from outside came to their assistance,
or the keeper made them a special grant of 6 pence per diem out of the common stock;
or the sixpenny allowance was claimed for the creditors, which seldom happened, owing to the expense the process entailed.