Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-04-06
Newgate Prison.
London Spectator.

Newgate, as q prison-for ii
may for some time to com be
utilized as barrack or a fortress
has a definite history from 1886
to 1877. 1t was an old practice,
and one for which reasons could
easily be assigned, to place pris-
oners over the gateways OF towns,
and, if Stowe is right, the term
"Newgate" was, in the first in
stance, used to designate the
gate made in the wall OF the city
of London after the rebuilding of
st. Paups in 1886. when, the
original thorougnfare from Aid
get in the east TO Ludgate IN the
west having been blocked up by
the Bishop of London, a fresh
one to The north of the cathedral
had to be made. For some hun
dreds of years-and, indeed, al
most till the Newgate calendars
begin-the records OF the great
prison are OF the scantiest. 1t
may be noted, however, that 20
early as the reign OF Henry III !,
Neweate had become "noy some"
"a character which it had even
within the memory OF men of
middle age; that in 1881 it was
broken into by Wat Tyler and his
men and that, like almost all the
ancient institutions OF London, it
received a most substantial bless.
ing from Richard Wilmington
that most magnanimous OF citi-
zens leaving money to rebuild il.
lNewgate had its full share Of the
stormy hundred years of our his-
tory that came to close with the
Jacobits rising Of 1745, and
among its inmates were call sorts
and conditions of men" and
women. 1t entertained cavaliers
ard roundheads and that most
famous and politically most i'm.
partial of highwaymeu, "Jack
Coltlngton, or Mulled Sack" who
is credited with having relieve d
Cromwell of his purse and Charles
III. of plate to the value OF fl 500.
1t was burned in the great fire,
and Wren is said to have rebuilt
it, as he is said to have rebuilt
almost everything. 1t is well
known how closely Newgate is
bound up with the Popish plot
and the stories OF ID ,Dgerfi Id
and Oates. The Jacobite rising
OF 1715 filed it with prisoners,
some OF whom seem to have been
allowed to lead u riotous life,
eating, drinking and gambling to
excess. At least two noted
Jacobites succeeded in making
their escape from the p ison,
probably with the help Of the
Governor, Mr.. Pitt = Charles
Ratcliffe, the brother of the Earl
of Derwentwater, and General
Forster, who played such mis-
cradle part in the Jacobite fiasco
at Preston. Forster got of scot
free, but Ratcliffs scbiehy through
his own imprudence. was recap
tured and executed in 1745.
"Noysome" Newgate had been in
the thirteenth century; what with
overcrowding there were some
twelve hundred prisoners con-
fined within its three quarters of
an acre = filth aud absence Of
ventilation, drainage and even of
light, it became fever den by
the middle of the eighteenth cen
tury. The gaol fever, which had,
indeed, been in the habit of slay-
ing its tens and hundreds within
the prison walls, carried off in
1850 and in rapid succession
nearly fifty outsiders. including
two Judges, the Lord Mayor and
an Alderman. The disgraceful
condition of Newgate-the star
vation of some OF the inmates,
the debauchery OF others-need
not be dwelt upon, for it lasted
more or less till the middle OF
the present century. In ITO
Newgate was again rebuilt. Ten
years later, almost exactly four
hundred years after the exploit
of Wat Tyler, it was broken into
and its inmates we're released by
the Gordon rioters. In 1884,
the Tyburn procession having
been abolished, public executions
were removed to Newgate, ard
till 1868, when the horrible cere-
mony was first performed in pri-
vats, Newgate obtained repul-
sive celebrity for the horrible
levity and crowding which char
acterized these occasions, not to
speak of the danger, which cul-
minated in one Of the first years
Of the century in about hundred
persons being crushed to death
at an execution. With the closing
of Newgate, under the prisons act
Of 1877, its history has come to
an end-at all events, let US hope