Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1889-02-23
NEWGATE PRISON.
THE OLD BUILDING THAT rs TO BE
DEM0LIsHED.
A Jail in Which Some Of the Nest MOTTO.
rious Of England's Criminals
Fave Suffered.


The demolition OF Newgate being pos
sible the Saturday RcUieiC describes rs
follows this famous prison Though the
present building, that looks as il built |
by the same Titans that erected the Pa !
lazzo della Signoria. the Palazzo |
Strozzi and the Pslozzo Pitt, in
Florence, is little more than CEN
fury old, the site which it occupies has |
owned jail ever since the reign of
King John. In fact, it is probable that
even in those DAYS it was an old prison ;
for in the following reign. 4. d. 1918, !
Henry III. commanded the sherifs OF
the city Of London to repair the Jail of
Newgate. and promised TO reimburse
their outlay out OF his own exchequer.
In those days the gate-houses above the
great gates OF the city were habitually
used As prisons, and the records Of York,
Chester, Carlisle. and Newcastle show
that the custom was general one.
budgate, the next gate TO Newgate
along the city wall. was used to incar-
cerate city debtors, and as a prison it
was considered far superior in comfort
to Newgate-so much so, in fact, that
imprisonment in Lujoate ceased TO have
any deterring influence, and in l4l9 an
ordinance was issued by Henry V. closing
the Ludgate prison for debtors because
cit had been found that many false men
OF bad disposition and purpose have
been more willing to take up their abode
there so as to waste and spend their goodies
upon the ease aud hcence that there is
within than pay their debts therefore
all prisoners therein shall he removed and
safely carried to Newgate, there to re-
main each in such keeping as his own
deserts shall demand.F The remedy,
however, was found to be too drastic
for, Z" by reason Of the fUti and corrupt
atmosphere that is in the hateful Jail OF
Newgate. the majority OF the prisoners
thus transferred from Ludgate died, and
Richard Wilmington, in his capacity of
mayor, issued another ordinance re-es-
tabllshing the inil of Ludgate as the pro
per place for "citizens and other repu-
table persons" on the plea (which must
read strangely to those who know any
thing OF the horrors that were then per
petrated in Jail aud out Of it by the
strong on the weak that "eyery person
is sovereignty bound 10 support and be
tender to the lives OF men, the which
God hath bought so dearly with His pre-
cious blood
OF the origin and name Of Newgate
there IRE various explanations. That it
certainly was a gato IN tue city walls
seems undoubted, and Maitland asserts
that It was one Of the four original
gates, giving rs his reason that after the
great fire OF London in 1856, in dig
cling a foundation for tie present Hol-
born bridge, the yostigia of the Roman
military way called Waiting street were
discovered pointing directly TO this gate,
and this ! take 10 be an incOn'cstiblo
proof Of an original gate uul.t over the
said way in this place." This exphna.
ton, however. II such it can bc called.
]-ayes much to be desired IN com
parison with the lucid account given by
Stowe, VINO says that Aewgate, 'the
fifth principal gate OF the city" was
built about the period of the reign OF
Henry /. or Of stephen and that its
building came about owing to Mauritius.
Bishop Of London, resolving to build
cathedral TO replace the old one OF II.
Paul, destroyed in 1885, so magnificent
that "men judged it would never be
performed. it was so wonderful 10 them
for height" Without reference TO the
convenience Of the public-a thing not
much considered in those days the
Bishop inclosed large space Of ground
for cemetery aud church-yard on the
slope OF the hill, aud thereby barred
the great thoroughfare passing from
Ludgate 10 Aldgate, west to east
through the city. This obliged ali
the traffic to make long detour either
north or south Of st. Pauls, so as to get
round TO Ludgate again. there being no
other gate sufficiently large to be ayaila-
ole on that side of London. Both routes,
as Stowe remarks, were "very cumber-
some and dangerous both for horse and
man. For remedy whereof a new gate
was made and 50 called, 10y which men
and cattle. with all manner of carriages,
might pass more directly from Aldgste
through West Cheape to ST. Panls on
the north side, through st. Nicholas
SHAMELESS and NewQate Market to New
gate, and from thence to any part west
ward over Holborn Bridge. or turning
without the gate into Smlthheld and
through Ieeldon Oslington) 10 any part
north and by west.
1t is more probable, however, that this
"new gate" was enlarged from small
one rather than newly made ; for the
straight road down Holborn from Iy-
burn would Of necessity lead straight to
this part OF the wall, fact which most
likely helped in the choice of the new
route made necessary by the Bishops
action. Some authorities support this
view, and Major Griflths, in his admira-
bic ''Chronicles of Newgate, says that
the site of the new gate was identical
with one which was long called Cham
berlain's Gate, because that official had
his court in the Old Bailey, hard by.
From its earliest days there has never
until quite recent times been a good
word said for Newgate jail. Foul,
noisome, pestiferous, a hotbed OF fever,
disease. and vice of all kinds, it was one
Of the most prominent plague spots that
adorned "the good old times" The
"heynouse gaol OF Newgate is the name
given 10 it in a letter which Mr.. Loitie
quotes in his History OF London,
which exists in the Guiltball Library.
That il was overerowded is but little
wonder in the days when the fact Of q
man being proved "masterless was
sufficient to throw him into Jail, aud
when Master Roger lie Skirmisour, "for
keeping a fencing-school for divers men,
and for enticing thither the sons OF re-
spectacle persons so AS to waste and
spend the properiie Of their fathers and
mothers upon bad practices, tue result
being that they themselves become bad
men" was clapped into Newgate.
In 1884 an official inquiry was made
into the state OF the prison, and few OF
the horrors for which it was famous
were exposed. The keepers one idea