The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages

"Then the Warden was informed by Mr. Boughton and Wall, that the day before it happened that Coppin was removed, they had made meanes to borrowe some money upon a pawne, and Coppin professed and swore he had not so much (being fower (4) pounds) as they demanded. Then the Warden caused Coppin's trunck (being new and well locked) to be opened in Coppin's presence, and delivered it to him, in which Trunck within a Bagg put in a Box (as they said) there was about xxixs; and then was sett on foote this rumour when Coppin had advised with Mr. Rookwood to doe it.

"About January 1620, Edward Coppin confessed that he never receaved any money since he came to Prison.

"Mr. Williams saith that he hath heard that Coppin hath confessed that he lost noe money."

So we may acquit the Warden on this count. Poor Man! he had a rough lot to deal with, but it is to our advantage that it was so, for his refutation of the charges brought against him throws a flood of light on the domestic manners of the time, and of the Fleet prison in particular.

The third count against the Warden was one of robbery, "11 lib. 6 s. taken out of the Trunk, and by violence, from the person of a close prisoner sicke in his bed, by the Warden and his seruants." And Harris meets this, as all others, fairly and straightforwardly. Says he: – "This toucheth money taken from one Thraske, then a Jewdaiser, or halfe Jewe, committed close prisoner by the Lords of the Councell, from whom, and such like, though in the Gatehouse, King's Bench, Fleete, &c., it hath beene used to take away and keepe their money, yet the Warden tooke not his until he abused it very dangerouslie, and whether this takeing away may be said Robbery, let the answeare followeing decide.

"And although the complainte be used with a Circumstance, as if the Prisoner were sick, thereby to make a shewe as if the Warden gaped at his death and money; that was most untrue for Thraske was in perfect health."

This prisoner was sent to the Fleet, to be put in the pillory, whipped and branded, and, besides, to suffer solitary confinement, but he found means to write letters to the King and the Lord Chancellor, and the Warden was much blamed for allowing him so to do. But poor Harris, who must have been plagued almost to death by his very recalcitrant charges, could not find out whence his prisoner procured his writing materials, and at last came to the correct conclusion that he was bribing the gaoler who waited upon him. So, with some servants, he personally searched Mr. Thraske's apartment and person, and found his pens, ink, and paper, and also £11 6s. in money, together with a bag and cord with which he used to receive supplies from outside, and by means of which he disseminated his pernicious literature. All of which the Warden very properly confiscated, but the money was kept, and used for the prisoner's benefit. "When Thraske had worne out his cloathes and desired other, the Lord Chauncellor bid the Warden buy for Thraske some cloathes, which was done accordingly, even soe much as Thraske desired; the Warden alsoe gave him money to buy wyne for his comforte at tymes." And, in the long run, the poor Warden declares that he was about £80 out of pocket by his prisoner.

The last charge we will investigate, is that of "Excessiue rates of Chambers." (No. 13 on the list of 19) "Whereby orders no man ought to pay for any Chamber, the Warden allowing bed and bedding, aboue 2s. 4d. a weeke, he exacteth 8s., 10s., 13s. 4d. and of some twentie shillings a weeke without bedding." The Warden replies to this that "the Orders of the Prison are, That noe Parlor Comoners and Hall Comoners must lye two in a Bedd like Prisoners, They of the Parlor at ijs. iiijd. the weeke. They of the Hall at xiiijd. If any such will lye in the Prison then there is noe question of their payment, nor any more required. But the missery is this that none there will pay at all, but stand upon it that they should pay nothing, which is contrary to right, to Custome, and to usage… Ano 1597. The Prisoners then Articling against the Warden Sett forth that one Prisoner paid xxxs. others xxs., xvs., xiis., xs. a weeke for Chamber without Bedd. The Warden then made his Answeare to the Comittees that he took xs. a Chamber, and the rest was for more chambers than one, and in respect of Dyett, though they had none, but fetched it abroad.

"Soe if Prisoners will have more ease than ordinarie, and a Chamber or two for themselves and theirs in the Warden's howse, they are by the orders and Constitutions to Compound with the Warden for it, it being the Warden's freehould, and demyseable… To such prisoners as lye two in a Bedd, the Warden is to find them Bedd, and for Bedd and Chamber they are to pay. Whether by Bedd is meant all furniture of Bedding, that is to be doubted, for it was never put in practise; but as for those which lye in the Warden's freehould by agreement he is not bound to find them Bedd or Bedding except it be so conditioned. And such will hardly vouchsafe to lye on the comon Bedding which passeth from Man to Man; And the Warden can as hardlie buy a new Bedd for every new prisoner which cometh, and therefore the lodgings of ease were provided for men of quality and not for the mean sorte of prisoners, as the accusation would seeme to inferre; And when Mr. Chamberlayne informed against the Warden touching Chambers, All the cheife gentlemen in the Fleete certified under their hands that they held their Chambers by agreement to have a Chamber alone to each, and were contented with the rates."

That the Wardenship of the Fleet was an onerous position, may be inferred from Harris's statement that "he hath had at one tyme the King's prisoners for two hundred thowsand108 pounds debt, besides the affayres of State."

That the office of Warden of the Fleet was of very ancient origin we have seen in the case of Nathanael de Leveland, and he also proves that it was heritable, for he, and his family, had held it for 130 years, and more. And it had a far-reaching jurisdiction, for in the 3 Eliz.109 we learn that "Upon an adjournment of the term to Hertford, several prisoners were committed to the Castle there. This Castle was part of the Duchy of Lancaster. The Queen had granted a patent to A. of the Custody of this Castle for his Life; resolved by the Judges that the Warden of the Fleet shall have the Custody there of the Prisoners committed by the Chancery, Common Pleas and Exchequer: For he is the Officer of those Corts; and although the Patentee has the Custody of the Castle, and though it be the Prison of the County, yet his interest ought to give place to the public weal, and common justice."

In course of time, the Wardenship became a position which was openly sold; and our old friend Harris makes no secret of it. "They likewise alledge that Io Elizabeth it was purchased by Tirrell at the rate of 160 li. per annum and that long after it was held at 100 li. per annum, and refused for 200 li. But now that (thorough extortion) there is made 4,000 li. per annum by the relation delivered to one Mr. Shotbolt.

"To which is answeared, that the purchase paid by Tirrell, (as appears by the deed inrolled) was 6,000 markes or 4,000 li. which, if it be devided at tenne or twelve yeares purchase, being more than an office of that nature was worth in those dayes (which is above three score yeares past) it will bring 400 li. tenne yeares purchase, and therefore here is sutor ultra crepidam, for 160 li. at that rate would yeild but 1,600 li. in money, and there was not then the fift part of the buildings and lodgings which now are.

"Mr. Anslowe (as is credibly informed) held it by fyne (and otherwise) at 600 li. per annum, and had but some part of the benefitts of the prison, nothing of the pallace at Westminster. And as for this Warden's valuation of it at 4000 li. per annum, it might be, supposeing that if the benefitts of the pallace were had &c. But what if the one with the other cost in expences 4,000 li. per annum, what will be then advanced?" &c.

This selling of the Office of Warden, led to a great squabble in the early days of Queen Anne's reign, and it seems to have arisen in this way. A Warden of the Fleet, named Ford, in the reign of William and Mary, was found guilty of suffering one Richard Spencer to escape, but was acquitted of some minor charges, and a certain Col. Baldwin Leighton obtained a grant of the Office on April 6, 1690. On June 25, 1691, this grant was quashed, and Leighton soon after died. A Mr. Tilley, in the fifth year of William and Mary purchased the Inheritance of the said Office, together with the Mansion and Gardens thereto appertaining, but on Dec. 23, 1704, judgment was given in the Queen's Bench that the Office be seized into her Majesty's hands, and this was affirmed in Parliament.

The discipline in the prison at this time seems to have been very bad, so much so that many witnesses who could have spoken of Tilley's misdeeds were hindered from giving evidence, some by being put into dungeons; others, by violence, bribes, or other artifices. Take a case in point, which happened about this time. The case of Robert Elliot and others. "One Francis Chartyres was Arrested at the several Suits of the said several Persons, about the 4th of May last, all their Debts amounting to 140 l. and upwards, which cost them 20 l. to effect: And the said Francis Chartyres being a stubborn and an obstinate Man, and dangerous to Arrest, he having killed several Persons upon the like attempt, and at this Arrest run the Bayliffs through. And after he was taken, he by Habeas Corpus turned himself over to the said Fleet Prison. And Mr. Tilley, and the Turnkey, and one Whitwood, an Officer of the Fleet, were acquainted, by the persons above mentioned, what a dangerous Man he was, and what it cost them to take him; but they took no notice thereof, and declared they would let him out for all of them; and so they did, and the next Day the said Persons Arrested him again, and he went over to the Fleet a second time, and was immediately set at liberty; who coming to the Persons aforesaid, at whose Suit he was Arrested, bid them defiance; saying, He was a Freeman, for that he had given 18 Guineas for it, and they should never have a farthing of their Debts, which they now doubt of, the said Chartyres being gone for Scotland."

Hatton, in his "New View of London," 1708, gives, the boundary of the Rules, and also descants on the pleasantness of the Prison, as an abode. "Fleet Prison, situate on the East side of the Ditch, between Ludgate Hill and Fleet Lane, but the Rules extend Southward on the East side of Fleet Canal to Ludgate Hill, and thence Eastward to Cock Ally on the South side of Ludgate Hill, and to the Old Bayly on the North, and thence Northward in the Old Bayley both sides the Street, to Fleet Lane, and all that Lane, and from the West End, southward to the Prison again. It is a Prison for Debtors from any part of the Kingdom, for those that act or speak any thing in contempt of the Courts of Chancery and Common Pleas; and for the pleasantness of the Prison and Gardens, and the aforesaid large extent of its Rules, it is preferred before most other Prisons, many giving Money to turn themselves over to this from others."

CHAPTER XXII

THINGS got so bad that Parliament ordered a Committee to inquire into it, and they began their sitting in Feb. 25, 1729. But, previously, the prisoners had petitioned the Lord Chief Justice and other justices without effect, and those petitions with Huggins' (who was the Warden) replies were published in a folio pamphlet, which contains much information.110 The first petition was in 1723, and it was mainly addressed to the extortions of the Master, the sixth Article alledging that the fees exacted by the Warden were in excess of those settled by Law, Nov. 14, 1693 – instanced as follows:

The eleventh prayer of this Petition was, "And lastly, that for the better suppressing Prophaneness and Immorality among us, and that the Misery of Imprisonment may in some measure be alleviated by the Observance of good Manners, Cleanliness, and Quietude, we humbly pray your Lordships would enable us to regulate our selves in such Manner as the Prisoners in the King's Bench are empowered to do by a Rule of that Court, 20 die post festim Sanctæ Trinitatis. 11 Anne."

Huggins replied to all the petition, but his answer to No. 6 was "The Warden saith, That so soon as the Fees were settled by this Honourable Court, he caused a Copy thereof to be framed and hung up in the Common Hall of the House, signed by Sir George Cook; also a Copy of the Rules and Orders of the House, which said copies the Prisoners were pleased to burn, tear to Pieces, and obliterate; and the Warden denies that he has taken or receiv'd, or any for him, to his knowledge, more, or greater, Fees than were contained in the said Copy of Fees hung up in the said Prison."

And as to the Eleventh prayer of the Petitioners "The Warden saith, that the Prisoners in general, are so very ungovernable, that they have tore up the Trees around the Bowling Green, and cut down several of the Trees in the back part of the Prison, set by the Warden some years since, for the better Accommodation of the Prisoners; also broke down the Stocks in the said Prison, and the Houses of Easement were fitted up lately by the Warden, they have torn it almost to Pieces, and committed other Outrages, and most of them, altho' two Years in Arrears of Rent to the Warden, refuse to pay him any Part thereof, and will by Force, and in defiance of the Warden and his Officers, keep in Possession of the Rooms and Furnitures, Swearing to stand by each other."

Petition after petition was sent from the Prisoners to the Lord Chief Justice about the oppressions of Huggins and his myrmidons, and duly answered in some shape by the Warden, but there was one, in which the fourteenth Charge is as follows. "That the Warden, on the Death of any Prisoner detains the Body from his Friends and Relations untill they will pay him, what Chamber Rent was due from the Deceased; and in the mean Time his cruel and unchristian like Practice, is to make the best Bargain he can with the poor Family of the Deceased, for the Purchase of the Dead Body, in order to give it Christian Burial, at their own Expence, by which means he often extorts large Sums of Money, for granting the Relations the Liberty of taking away and burying the Dead Body; which tho' a very natural and reasonable Desire, is nevertheless often frustrated by their Inability to purchase it at his Price, and, rather than accept what may be in their Power to give him, he often suffers the Dead Body to lye above Ground seven or eight Days, and often Times eleven or twelve Days, to the great endangering of the Health of the whole Prison, by the nauseous Stench, which being often times the Case, is very offensive all over the House; and when he has refused what he thought not worth his Acceptance, he buries them in the common Burying place for Prisoners, when the Body is often taken up by their Friends to be bury'd their own Way, and the Warden seizes to his own Use the Cloaths, Furniture, and what ever else there is for Fees and Chamber Rent, which he pretends to be due from the said deceased Prisoner."

Huggins' reply to this was diabolically insolent. "For Answer thereto, My Lords, the Deputy Warden saith, That scarcely a Prisoner hath died on the Masters-Side, that was not largely indebted to him; and therefore, possibly, he might have used endeavours to get what part of the Money was due to him, as he could fairly from the Deceased's Relations."

But the Cup of his iniquities was rapidly filling. He made one Thomas Bambridge "A Newgate Sollicitor, and a Person of abandon'd Credit" (as the petition in the case of Mr. Mackphreadris describes him) his deputy warden, and then, things came to a climax. As we have seen, Parliament took cognizance of the scandal, and issued a Commission to inquire into the matter, and their first sitting was on Feb. 25, 1729. Their report was presented to Parliament on March 20th of the same year – so that no time was lost in looking into the evils complained of.

It recites that Huggins by a gift of £5,000 to Lord Clarendon "did by his interest, obtain a grant of the said office (i. e., Warden of the Fleet) for his own and his son's life.

"That it appeared to the Committee, That in the Year 1725, one Mr. Arne, an Upholder, was carried into a Stable, which stood where the strong room on the Master's side now is, and was there confined (being a place of cold restraint) till he died, and that he was in good state of health before he was confined to that room."

Huggins growing old, sold his interest in the Wardenship of the Fleet, and his Son's reversion therein, to Bambridge and Cuthbert, for the sum he had originally given for the place; and then Bambridge, being his own master, went somewhat ahead, and the Committee found that he connived at escapes, sent his prisoners to Spunging-houses, or private prisons, not so long ago done away with, where they were well, or badly treated, according to the money at their disposal.

And we read of one shocking case, which can best be given in the very words of the Report. "That these houses were further used by the said Bambridge, as a terror for extorting money from the prisoners, who, on security given, have the liberty of the rules; of which Mr. Robert Castell was an unhappy instance, a man born to a competent estate, but being unfortunately plunged into debt, was thrown into prison: he was first sent (according to custom) to Corbett's, 111 from whence he, by presents to Bambridge, redeemed himself, and, giving security obtained the liberty of the rules; notwithstanding which he had frequently presents, as they are called, exacted from him by Bambridge, and was menaced, on refusal, to be sent back to Corbett's again.

"The said Bambridge having thus unlawfully extorted large sums of money from him in a very short time, Castell grew weary of being made such a wretched property, and, resolving not to injure further his family or his creditors for the sake of so small a liberty, he refused to submit to further exactions; upon which the said Bambridge ordered him to be re-committed to Corbett's, where the smallpox then raged, though Castell acquainted him with his not having had that distemper, and that he dreaded it so much, that the putting him into a house where it was, would occasion his death, which, if it happened before he could settle his affairs, would be a great prejudice to his creditors, and would expose his family to destitution; and therefore he earnestly desired that he might either be sent to another house, or even into the gaol itself, as a favor. The melancholy case of this poor gentleman moved the very agents of the said Bambridge to compassion, so that they used their utmost endeavours to dissuade him from sending this unhappy prisoner to that infected house; but Bambridge forced him thither, where he (as he feared he should) caught the smallpox, and, in a few days, died thereof, justly charging the said Bambridge with his death; and unhappily leaving all his affairs in the greatest confusion, and a numerous family of small children in the utmost distress."

He squeezed everybody, made what rules he liked, and introduced new and pernicious customs, for, says the Report, "It appeared to the Committee, that the letting out of the Fleet tenements to Victuallers, for the reception of Prisoners, hath been but of late practised, and that the first of them let for this purpose was to Mary Whitwood, who still continues tenant of the same, and that her rent has, from 32 l. per. ann. been increased to 60 l. and a certain number of prisoners stipulated to be made a prey of, to enable her to pay so great a rent; and that she, to procure the benefit of having such a number of prisoners sent to her house, hath, over and above the increased rent, been obliged to make a present to the said Bambridge of forty guineas, as also of a toy (as it is called), being the model of a Chinese ship, made of amber, set in silver, for which fourscore broad pieces had been offered her…

"And, notwithstanding the payment of such large fees, in order to extort further sums from the unfortunate prisoners, the said Bambridge unjustly pretends he has a right, as warden, to exercise an unlimited power of changing prisoners from room to room; of turning them into the common side, though they have paid the master's side fee; and inflicting arbitrary punishments by locking them down in unwholesome dungeons, and loading them with torturing irons."

According to the Committee's report, Jacob Mendez Solas, a Portuguese, was, as far as they knew, the first prisoner that was ever loaded with irons in the Fleet. He was thrown into a noisome dungeon, which is described as a place "wherein the bodies of persons dying in the said prison are usually deposited, till the coroner's inquest hath passed upon them; it has no chimney, nor fireplace, nor any light but what comes over the door, or through a hole of about eight inches square. It is neither paved nor boarded, and the rough bricks appear both on the sides and top, being neither wainscotted, nor plastered; what adds to the dampness and stench of the place is, its being built over the common sewer, and adjoining to the sink and dunghill where all the nastiness of the prison is cast. In this miserable place the poor wretch was kept by the said Bambridge, manacled and shackled for near two months. At length, on receiving five guineas from Mr. Kemp, a friend of Solas Bambridge released the prisoner from his cruel confinement. But, though his chains were taken off, his terror still remained, and the unhappy man was prevailed upon by that terror, not only to labour gratis for the said Bambridge, but to swear also at random all that he hath required of him: and the Committee themselves saw an instance of the deep impression his sufferings had made upon him; for on his surmising, from something said, that Bambridge was to return again, as Warden of the Fleet, he fainted, and the blood started out of his mouth and nose."

The upshot of this Committee was that the House petitioned the King to prosecute Huggins, Bambridge, and their satellites, who were all ordered to be committed to Newgate for trial. Huggins was tried, or rather the preliminaries of his trial were arranged on the 20th of May, 1729; but his trial for the murder of Edward Arne, a prisoner in the Fleet prison, by immuring him in the dungeon above described, from the effect of which confinement he subsequently died, did not take place until next day. After a long and patient trial, he was acquitted; and he managed, not only to survive his disgrace, but live to the age of 90.

Bambridge was also tried, at the Old Bailey, for the murder of Robert Castell, as before described, but he was acquitted by the Jury. Upon this acquittal, Castell's widow brought an appeal against Thomas Bambridge, and Richard Corbett, for the murder of her husband; but here their luck still stood them in stead, for they were both acquitted. Bambridge, some twenty years after, committed suicide by cutting his throat.

Hogarth, in 1729, received a Commission from Sir Archibald Grant of Monnymusk, Bart., who was one of the Committee, to paint a portrait picture of his brother Commissioners with Bambridge, and the irons used by him in the Fleet. Bambridge is decidedly nervous – and a poor prisoner is introduced into the picture, though I cannot find, from the Report, that he really was before the Committee of the House.

These prosecutions somewhat purified the atmosphere of the Fleet, but still there were grumbles, as there naturally will be when men are restrained in their liberty, and are left to brood upon their miseries, and incarceration; but the little pamphlet,112 which airs these grievances, deals principally with the hardships of fees, and the dilapidated state of the Common Side. The title-page prepares one for a not over cheerful ten minutes' reading.

"When Fortune keeps Thee Warm;Then Friends will to Thee swarm,Like Bees about a Honey pot:But, if she chance to frown,And rudely kick Thee down,Why then – What then?Lie there and ROT."

The writer says that after the reign of Huggins and Bambridge, the Chapel was adorned – and the great Hall adjoining, formerly for the Use of the Prisoners, "is now made into a commodious new Coffee House, and thought to be as Compleat a one, as any in Town (wherein one of the Warden's Servants is put, to be useful upon Occasion). Part of the Pews in the Chapel being taken into it to make it compleat, 113 and serves for a Bar and Bedchamber.