The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 27

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 27

This, perhaps, is the earliest mention of the treadmill, as a

punishment.

 

Still quoting Strype, (same edition):

 

"The Use of this Hospital now is for an House of Correction, and to

be a Place where all Strumpets, Night-walkers, Pickpockets, vagrant

and idle Persons, that are taken up for their ill Lives, as also

incorrigible and disobedient Servants, are committed by the Mayor and

Aldermen, who are Justices of the Peace within the said City; And

being so committed are forced to beat Hemp in publick View, with due

Correction of whipping, according to their Offence, for such a Time as

the President and Court shall see Cause."

 

Bridewell is well shown by Hogarth in the fourth picture of the

"Harlot's progress," where both men and women are seen "beetling"

hemp.[79]

 

In a very rare tract called "Mr. William Fullers Trip to Bridewell"

(1703) he gives a fairly graphic description of a prisoner's entry

therein. "As soon as I came there, the Word was _Strip, pull off your

Cloaths_, and with much intreaty, I prevail'd to keep on my Westcoat;

then I was set to a Block, a punny of Hemp was laid thereon, and _Ralph

Cumpton_ (a Journy Man in the Shop) presented me with a Beatle, bidding

me knock the Hemp with that, as fast as I could. This Beatle is of

Brazel,[80] and weigh'd about 12 pounds."

 

Previously to this, poor Fuller had to stand twice in the pillory, on

one of which occasions he was nearly killed by the mob, and when taken

to Bridewell, all black and blue as he was, he had a whipping:--"My

Hands were put in the Stocks, and then Mr. _Hemings_ the Whipper, began

to noint me with his Instrument, that had, I believe, about a dozen

Strings notted at the end, and with that I had Thirty Nine Stripes (so

that according to a certain Almanack Maker, who reckoned Dr. _Oates's_

Stripes by every String, I had twelve times Thirty Nine). I had given

the Rascal Half a Crown, but he afforded me very little favour, but

struck home at every stroak; I confess I could not forbear bawling

out, but good Sir _Robert_[81] knockt at last, and I was let out of the

Stocks."

 

The prisoners, if they chose, could find their own food, but they were

kept strictly at work as is quaintly put by Fuller--

 

"I had, in each Shop, the Thieves for my Fellow-labourers, and the

Journeymen, our Deputy Task Masters, were frequently calling to the

Prisoners, _Why don't you Work there, strike hard_: Then threaten,

and sometimes beat them with a small Cane. These Task-masters are so

accustomed to keeping their Prisoners hard at Work, that I have heard

themselves say, they have, frequently, (forgetting themselves) called

out, when they had no Prisoner in the Shop, as before, _Why don't you

work there_."

 

Ward (in the "London Spy") gives an almost too graphic account of this

prison, but expresses unmitigated disgust at the whipping of women,

which took place there, and solemnly protested against its continuance.

His description of a woman being flogged, is as follows:--

 

"My Friend Re-conducted me back into the first Quadrangle,

and led me up a pair of Stairs into a Spacious Chamber, where

the Court was sitting in great Grandeur and Order. A Grave

Gentleman, whose Awful Looks bespoke him some Honourable

Citizen, was mounted in the Judgement-Seat, Arm'd with a Hammer,

like a _Change-Broker_ at _Lloyd's Coffee House_, when selling

Goods by Inch of Candle, and a Woman under the Lash in the

next Room; where Folding doors were open'd, that the whole

Court might see the Punishment Inflicted; at last down went the

Hammer, and the Scourging ceas'd.... Another Accusation being

then deliver'd by a Flat-Cap against a poor Wench, who having

no Friend to speak in her behalf, Proclamation was made, _viz.

All you who are willing E----th T----ll, should have present

Punishment, pray hold up your hands._ Which was done accordingly:

 

[Illustration: WOMEN BEATING HEMP.]

 

And then she was order'd the Civility of the House, and was

forc'd to shew her tender Back and Breasts to the Grave Sages of

the August Assembly, who were mov'd by her Modest Mein, together

with the whiteness of her Skin, to give her but a gentle

Correction."

 

John Howard, in his "State of the Prisons in England and Wales" (ed.

1777) gives the following description of Bridewell:--

 

"This building was formerly a Palace, near St. Bridget's (St. Bride's)

Well; from whence it had the name; which, after it became a Prison,

was applied to other Prisons of the same sort. It was given to the

City by King Edward VI. in 1552.

 

"That part of Bridewell which relates to my subject has wards for men

and women quite separate.[82] The men's ward on the ground floor, is a

day room in which they beat hemp; and a night room over it. One of the

upper chambers is fitting up for an Infirmary.--The woman's ward is

a day room on the ground floor, in which they beat hemp; and a night

room over it. I was told that the chamber above this is to be fitted

up for an Infirmary. The sick, have, hitherto, been commonly sent to

St. Bartholomew's Hospital. All the Prisoners are kept within doors.

 

"The women's rooms are large, and have opposite windows, for fresh

air. Their Ward, as well as the men's, has plenty of water: and there

is a Hand-Ventilator on the outside, with a tube to each room of the

women's ward. This is of great service, when the rooms are crowded

with Prisoners, and the weather is warm.

 

[Illustration: PASS ROOM, BRIDEWELL, 1808.]

 

"The Prisoners are employed by a Hemp dresser, who has the profit

of their labour, an apartment in the Prison, and a salary of £14.

I generally found them at work: they are provided for, so as to be

able to perform it. The hours of work are, in winter, from eight to

four; in summer from six to six, deducting meal times. The Steward

is allowed eightpence a day for the maintenance of each Prisoner;

and contracts to supply them as follows:--On Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

and Thursday, a penny loaf, ten ounces of dressed beef without bone,

broth, and three pints of ten shilling beer; on Wednesday, Friday, and

Saturday, a penny loaf, four ounces of cheese, or some butter, a pint

of milk pottage, and three pints of ten shilling beer.... In winter

they have some firing. The night rooms are supplied with straw. No

other Prison in _London_ has any straw, or other bedding.... I found

there in 1776:--

 

March 13. Prisoners 20

May 1. " 7

Dec. 3. " 24."

 

It continued as a House of Correction for the City of London until its

abolition, with other Civic prisons by an Act of 40 and 41 Vict. cap.

21, entitled "An Act to amend the Law relating to Prisons in England."

But there was an exception made in its favour, and it still remains

a House of Correction in a mild way--thanks to the very kindly and

fatherly wishes and representations of the Civic Authorities.

 

The good old days of Apprenticing boys to some craft for seven years,

during which he was to serve his master faithfully, and in return, was

to be housed, fed, and taught his business, have all but passed away,

but not quite. There are still some refractory apprentices, as there

ever have been. We know the common saying of "Boys will be boys,"

which is applied in mitigation of juvenile indiscretion, but there is

also another apothegm, "Little boys, when they are naughty, must be

smacked, and sent to bed." Bridewell has always been a place where idle

or refractory City apprentices have had the opportunity of pondering

over the errors of their ways, and in passing this Act, a special

exemption was made, and there still exist six cells, which, I am sorry

to say, are frequently occupied by erring youths. It is all done in

the kindest, and most fatherly way. The City Chamberlain from the time

of the Indentures of the lad being signed, to giving him his Freedom,

acts as his guardian, to a great extent. Has the lad any complaint

to make against his master it is to the Chamberlain he must appeal,

and _vice versâ_. The Cause is heard _in camerâ_, and every effort is

made to reconcile the parties, but, as will sometimes happen with a

boy who is obstinate, sullen, or vicious, all attempts to bring him

to a better sense fail, then the Chamberlain, by virtue of his office

commits the boy to Bridewell, where he eats the bread, and drinks the

water, of affliction for a while, a treatment, which combined with

the confinement, hard work, and enforced sequestration from society,

largely aided by the good advice of the Chaplain, very seldom fails

to effect its object, and render that lad a decent member of the

commonweal. It just arrests him in his downward path, there is no

publicity, the thing is never chronicled in any Newspaper, as it might

be, supposing no Bridewell existed, and the case was brought before a

police magistrate--it need never be known outside his family circle,

and he escapes the taint of being a gaol bird.

 

Bridewell seems to have been long associated with apprentices, not all

of them "_Thomas Idles_," I am happy to say; and Hatton in "The New

View of London" (1708) writes, showing the tender care that the City of

London have always had for their poor:

 

"It is also an Hospital for Indigent Persons, and where 20

Art Masters (as they are called) being decayed Traders as

Shoemakers, Taylors, Flax-dressers, &c., have Houses, and their

Servants, or Apprentices (being about 140 in all) have Cloaths

at the House Charge, and their Masters having the Profit of

their Work do often advance by this means their own Fortunes,

and these Boys, having served their time faithfully, have not

only their Freedom, but also £10 each towards carrying on their

respective Trades, and many have even arrived from nothing to be Governors."