Source: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/city-of-york/pp491-498
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 20:34:30+00:00

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York was one of 17 towns whose prisons were brought within the terms of the Gaol Act of 1823, a statute primarily designed to regulate the gaols of counties. (fn. 55) To meet the requirements of that Act, which included the classification of prisoners, the corporation spent upon enlarging and refashioning the building a sum roughly equal to the cost of constructing it. (fn. 56) Early in 1838, however, the city felons were transferred to the castle, and between August and November of that year the new gaol was converted into the city House of Correction, (fn. 57) and that establishment closed. Though the amalgam was still apt to be called 'the City Prison', its character as a house of correction was paramount henceforth.
Davygate takes its name from Davy Hall, a building now demolished, and Davy Hall in turn from the family of David the larderer. This family was one of high antiquity, tracing its ancestry back to the early 12th century if not to a remoter time. (fn. 97) It exercised by inheritance the function of stocking the king's larder in York with both game and domestic animals, (fn. 98) and kindred rights and privileges which may have been implicit in that function or have subsequently accrued to it.
The first of the York larderers known by name was called John. To him and to his son David (I) King Stephen confirmed between 1135 and 1137 certain unspecified socage tenements, together with the larderership, as father and son had held them in King Henry's time. (fn. 99) Presumably the lands had been given in recompence for the burdens of office. A larderer of York is not mentioned again until 1173 when the Crown began to pay David the larderer, presumably the same as the foregoing, a livery of £7 12s. 1d. a year, or 5d. a day, out of the issues of Yorkshire. (fn. 100) David's son Thomas succeeded to that wage and continued to receive it until 1189. (fn. 101) In that year the sum appears twice over in the pipe roll, once as a livery and once among the terre date. This suggests the intention to transmute the annual payments into a territorial reward. But whatever the intention may have been, the sum drops out of the pipe rolls completely for some time to come, so it must be supposed that, if the larderership went on, its only profit was the land that King Stephen had confirmed.
About the time of this award David started proceedings against the citizens of York in the King's Bench, with the idea of asserting the privileges of his serjeanty, some of which the citizens were challenging. (fn. 112) The matter was referred to the justicesin-eyre, who in the eyre at York in 1252 secured from a local jury a statement of the rights and duties of the larderer's office. The statement showed that David and his ancestors were required to 'make' the king's larder, to have the measurement for the king of all corn sold in the city, to look after the forest 'prisons' and to act as the king's purveyors. All these functions were said to have been authorized by charter. David himself laid no express claim to the third and fourth of these rights or duties; perhaps they were burdensome and unprofitable. He claimed, however, to take from every baker, bread shop, alewife, and flesh shamble in the city certain fixed weekly tolls, either in cash or kind, and similar tolls from carts and packhorses entering the city laden with sea fish. (fn. 113) He also said that it was his privilege to distrain for the king's debts within the city and take 4d. for each distress. (fn. 114) The jurors admitted that David exercised all these further liberties, and that since the days of Henry II his ancestors had exercised them, as parcel of their serjeanty, 'until they were hindered therein'. They expressed no view, however, about the authority for their exercise. In the upshot the suit was compromised, David accepting 20 marks from the city in return for releasing all the liberties not grounded upon a charter.
David died in 1271. He was then seised of a house in York, his 5d. a day, two yearly rents within the city, lands in Bustardthorpe (W.R.), and land called 'Cotteburn'. All these he held by the serjeanty of keeping the gaol and the larder and selling the king's distresses. For every such sale 2s. 8d. was due to David. (fn. 115) The third of these liberties was one that had been released to the city in 1253. Evidently it had since been revived. More than this, David was now exacting at each distress eight times the original levy. David was succeeded by David (III) (d. 1280) (fn. 116) and he by Philip the larderer, whose right to the levy was challenged by the Crown in 1293 upon a quo warranto. (fn. 117) Indeed by this time Philip was taking 3s. 4d. or ten times the original levy at each distress, even when the money raised by a sale did not exceed the levy. The Crown confiscated the liberty and amerced the offender. Philip also failed to claim on the first day of the eyre his rights to the custody of forest prisoners, his daily fee, (fn. 118) and estate (landam) in the forest, and his rights to chase hares and foxes, and these lands and rights were likewise confiscated. Whatever the effect of this forfeiture may have been, Philip died in 1305 seised of Davy Hall, his daily fee, and a rent in Bustardthorpe, all which he held by keeping the prison. (fn. 119) David's practice of exacting tolls from the catering trades and deducting brokerage upon the sale of distresses, and Philip's resumption of the second of these practices, easily give rise to the suspicion of extortion. Such an imputation may be just. It is, however, also possible to infer that the duties attaching to their offices were out of proportion to the covenanted rewards. Their estates were never large, and their daily fee, settled in 1173-4, had probably lost its value with the progress of inflation.
Of Davy Hall as a prison very little is known. Philip the larderer was in effective custody of venison trespassers in 1289 (fn. 132) and the prison was being used for like offenders in 1370 (fn. 133) and 1389. (fn. 134) By 1392, however, a person suspected of a forest offence was shut up in York castle. (fn. 135) In any case it would be rash to assume that forest offenders were always enclosed in the larderer's prison, even in its prime.
1. For the prison in the castle see pp. 523-8.
2. R. B. Pugh, 'The King's Prisons before 1250', Trans. R.H.S. 5th ser. v. 11.
3. Close R. 1247-51, 27.
4. See pp. 34, 36.
5. Other northern prisons, e.g. at Gainsborough, Lancaster, and Wakefield, bore this name: O.E.D.; Wright Engl. Dialect. Dict.
6. York Mem. Bk. ii. 254.
7. A testator then left money to prisoners in the castle, in each prison on Ouse Bridge, and in the prisons of St. Peter and the 'bishop'—all the then prisons in the city: Test. Ebor. i. 220. See also below, p. 496.
8. First noticed in 1430: Test. Ebor. ii. 8.
9. Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. and Papers, xxxiii. 213. The phrases 'the man kidcote' and 'the woman's kidcote' are juxtaposed in one document in 1529: Test. Ebor. v. 271.
10. York Civ. Rec. viii. 72-73, where there is a reference to the sheriffs' kidcotes and the mayor's kidcotes, both in the plural.
16. B.M. Add. MS. 35205; Cal. Pat. 1485-94, 72.
17. A. Raine, Med. York, 217.
18. J.I. 1/1057, m. 55d.
19. Test. Ebor. i. 220.
20. Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. and Papers, xxxiii. 213.
21. Widdrington does not mention the location of the kidcotes and Drake and Hargrove write of them without precision. It was apparently Caesar Caine, Widdrington's editor, who first declared that the crypt of St. William's Chap. harboured felons: Analecta. 72 n.
22. York Civ. Rec. v. 39.
25. York Civ. Rec. vi. 151.
27. Hildyard (Antiquities of York, 81) says that the prison 'anenst the kidcoate on Ouse Bridge' was built in 1574.
28. York Civ. Rec. vii. 98.
30. York Civ. Rec. vii. 98.
33. Hildyard, Antiquities of York, 112.
34. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 196.
36. York Civ. Rec. viii. 23.
37. A. Raine, Med. York, 218.
38. J. Howard, State of the Prisons (1780), 367.
39. J. Halfpenny, Fragmenta Vetusta, pl. 22.
40. Howard, State of the Prisons, 367-8; cf. J. Neild, State of the Prisons, 609 n.
41. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 195.
44. A. Raine, Med. York, 298.
45. T. P. Cooper, York, the Story of its Walls, &c. 312.
46. York Civ. Rec. vii. 161.
48. York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 29, f. 3.
50. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Engl. Prisons under Local Govt. 63-64.
51. Knight, Hist. York, 583.
52. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 161-3; E. Baines, Dir. Co. York, ii. (1823), 65; W. White, Dir. W.R. York and Hull, ii (1838), 549.
53. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 162-3.
54. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1836),  (N. and E. District), p. 114, H.C. (1837), xxxii.
55. 4 Geo. IV, c. 64; Webb, Engl. Prisons, 74-76.
56. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 114; App. to 1st Rep. Municip. Corp. Com. Pt. III, H.C. 116, p. 1750 (1835), xxv. The details of reconstruction have not been ascertained, but the dimensions of the cells in what was called the 'New Prison' differed from those in the 'Old Prison'.
57. York Corp. Rec., Min. Bk. 1835-7, f. 315; 1838-42, ff. 8, 9, 39.
58. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 114; (1838),  (N. and E. District), p. 107, H.C. (1839), xxii.
59. Ibid. (1857),  (N. District), p. 64, H.C. (1857-8), xxix.
60. Ibid. (1867),  (N. District), p. 125, H.C. (18678), xxxiv; ibid. (1869), [C. 259] (N. District), pp. 5-6, H.C. (1871), xxix.
61. T. P. Cooper, Hist. Castle York, 267.
62. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1840),  (N. & E. District), p. 157, H.C. (1841, Sess. 2), v; ibid. (1843),  (N. & E. District), p. 131, H.C. (1843), xxv and xxvi; ibid. (1845),  (N. & E. District), p. 13, H.C. (1845), xii.
63. App. to 1st Rep. Municip. Corp. Com. Pt. III, p. 1751.
64. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1851),  (N. & E. District), p. 109, H.C. (1852-3), lii.
65. Ibid. (1864),  (N. District), p. 114, H.C. (1865), xxiii.
66. e.g. in 1843 and 1853: ibid. (1843), p. 132; ibid. (1853),  (N. & E. District), p. 98, H.C. (1856), xxxiii.
67. e.g. in 1851 and 1855: ibid. (1851), p. 109; ibid. (1855),  (N. & E. District), p. 60, H.C. (1857 Sess. 2), xxiii.
68. Ibid. (1848),  (N. & E. District), p. 31, H.C. (1849), xxvi.
69. Ibid. pp. 32-33; ibid. (1851),  (N. & E. District), p. 68, H.C. (1851), xxvii.
70. Ibid. (1841), p. 159; (1845), p. 14; (1851), p. 67.
71. Ibid. (1856), p. 97.
72. Ibid. (1857), p. 64.
73. Ibid. (1865),  (N. District), p. 127, H.C. (1866), xxxvii.
74. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1848), p. 33.
75. Ibid. (1863),  (N. District), p. 68, H.C. (1864), xxvi.
76. York Civ. Rec. v. 64.
82. York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 31, f. 373.
83. J. S. Purvis, St. Anthony's Hall, York (St. Ant. Hall Publ. no. 1), 8.
84. Knight (Hist. York, 467) gives 1646 as the date of reconstruction.
85. J. Howard, State of the Prisons (1780), 369.
86. J. Neild, State of the Prisons, 605-6.
87. Davies, Walks through York, 91; for the name, see p. 483, n. 55.
88. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 179-80: E. Baines, Dir. Co. York, ii (1823), 65; W. White, Dir. W.R. York & Hull, ii (1838), 549.
89. App. to 1st Rep. Municip. Corp. Com. Pt. III, p. 1751.
90. E. Baines, Dir. Co. York, ii (1823), 65.
91. Gaols, Reps. and Schedules, H.C. 104, p. 300 (1824), xix.
92. Rep. of Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 119.
93. Ibid. V.C.H. Yorks. ii. 507-8.
95. Rep. of Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 119.
96. Ibid. (1838), p. 107.
97. In 1293 Philip the larderer claimed that his right to sell the king's distresses rested upon a charter of Wm. I, Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 207. Nathanael of Leaveland, 12th-cent. keeper of the Fleet, claimed a like antiquity for his keepership: Trans. R.H.S. 5th ser. v. 18.
98. Yorks. Fines, 1246-72, 192.
100. Pipe R. 1175 (P.R.S. xxii), 164; the payment is for 2 years.
101. Pipe R. 1189 (Rec. Com.), 75.
102. Bk. of Fees, i. 247, 356.
103. To be distinguished from Davy Tower: see p. 514.
104. Pipe. R. 1230 (P.R.S. N.S. iv), 267.
105. The payment was still being made in 1668: Davies, Walks Through York, 29; an attempt by the citizens of York to withhold part of the payment was frustrated by the Exchequer in 1331: York Mem. Bk. i. 174.
106. The first statement is in 1353: Cal. Inq. p.m. x, p. 12.
107. Yorks. Fines, 1246-72, 192.
108. Trans. R.H.S. 5th ser. v. 18, 21.
110. Trans. R.H.S. 5th ser. v. 17-20.
111. Yorks. Inq. i. 9; Close R. 1247-51, 32; the responsibility of the Exchequer was reiterated in 1249: Cal. Lib. 1245-51, 229.
112. Yorks. Fines, 1246-72, 191-3, where an abstract of the final concord and a translation of the inquest enrolled on the eyre r. (J.I. 1/1046, m. 63) are printed together; the text of the inquest seems slightly corrupt; a deed precedent to the fine is printed in York Mem. Bk. i. 118.
113. The jurors added that he also levied toll on carts laden with flesh.
114. The jurors added that the larderers were aldermen of 'Menestrell', an unexplained phrase.
115. Cal. Inq. p.m. i, p. 244.
116. Cal. Fine R. 1272-1307, 133.
117. Plac. de Quo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 207-8.
118. Here stated to be 4d.
119. Cal. Inq. p.m. iv, pp. 184-5.
120. Cal. Close, 1302-7, 357.
121. Cal. Inq. p.m. x, p. 12.
123. Ibid. p. 91; this seems a more correct version than that given ibid. p. 12; cf. York Mem. Bk. i. 174.
124. Cal. Inq. p.m. x, p. 12.
125. Ibid. xii, p. 403.
126. Widdrington, Analecta, 254-5; Ralph de Leek died seised of property in Hessle; Cal. Inq. p.m. x, p. 91.
127. Widdrington, Analecta, 257; Complete Peerage, v. 229: Herald and Geneal. vi. 396.
128. Davies, Walks Through York, 28.
130. Davies, Walks Through York, 27-28.
131. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 406.
133. Cal. Close, 1369-74, 159.
134. Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 117.
135. Cal. Close, 1389-92, 446.
136. Howard, State of the Prisons (1780), 369-70.
137. Rep. of Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 121.
138. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 132.
139. W. White, Dir. E. & N. Ridings (1840), 83.
140. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 132.
142. Cal. Pat. 1307-13, 431; its bounds are there defined.
144. Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. and Papers, xxviii. 850; xxxi. 319; Test. Ebor. i. 220.
145. [C. L. Burdekin and W. Knipe], Criminal Chronology of York Castle (York, 1867), 5; for a criticism of this book see note 62 below.
147. Howard, State of the Prisons (1780), 369; Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 130-1; Rep. of Inspector of Prisons (1836), p. 121; Returns of Places of Confinement . . . which do not come under the Gaol Act, H.C. 485, p. 123 (1833), xxviii. J. Neild (State of the Prisons, 606-7) also describes the prison in unflattering terms.
148. Return of Gaols, &c. (1818), H.C. 135, pp. 54-55 (1819), xvii; (1820), H.C. 400, pp. 58-59 (1821), xxi; Returns of Places of Confinement, p. 123.
149. Rep. of Inspector of Prisons (1838), p. 107.
150. Test. Ebor. i. 63.
151. For escapes of such see Cal. Pat. 1388-92, 328; 1396-9, 466.
152. Test. Ebor, i. 63, 220; ii. 8, 26; iv. 28; v. 38, 102, 271; vi. 245; North Country Wills (Sur. Soc. 116, 121), i. 83; ii. 21, 207.
153. Assoc. Archit. Soc. Rep. and Papers, xxviii. 830; cf. Cal. Pat. 1396-9, 268.
155. Hargrove, Hist. York, ii. 126-30.
156. Drake, Ebor. 265; cf. York Mem. Bk. i. 152 n.
157. Cal. Close, 1288-96, 4.
158. B.M. Add. MS. 35205; Cal. Pat. 1321-4, 127.
159. Cal. Chart. R. 1427-1516, 110.
160. Drake, Ebor. 574-5; the date of Adams's death is given ibid. 341.
161. Crim. Chron. 1, repeated by Cooper, Hist. Castle York, 254. The form in which this story is told casts doubt upon its truth, but the alleged facts are not inherently improbable; the sources for the book are not stated in it, but there is little reason for questioning the later events that it records.
164. Hist. York, ii. 512.
166. e.g. in 1784: ibid. 95.
170. Rep. Inspector of Prisons (1871) [C. 372] (N. District), p. 157, H.C. (1871), xxix.
171. Yorks. Gaz. 22 Mar. 1902.
172. Ibid. 12 July 1930.
173. Crim. Chron. 149, 161.
175. York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 42, f. 174.
176. 'place where the gallows stood': ibid. 46, f. 427.
177. O.S. map 1/10560 (1853).
178. Ibid.; York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 42, f. 174.
179. York Mem. Bk. i. 20-22.
181. 'place where formerly were the gallows': York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 8, f. 106.
186. Cooper, Hist. Castle York, quoting York Minster fabric rolls.
189. York Corp. Rec., Ho. Bk. 40, f. 9; O.S. Map 1/10560 (1853).

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