The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 33

The Fleet. Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages 33

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.... An^o 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 thowsand[108] 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 I^o 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."

 

[Footnote 108: Equal in our currency to about three times the

amount.]

 

[Footnote 109: Reports of Cases, &c., by Sir James Dyer (ed.

1794) vol. ii. p. 204 a.]

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

[Illustration]

 

 

 

 

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:

 

Warden. Legal.

For liberty of the House and Irons at first

coming in £2 4 4 1 6 8

Chaplain 0 2 0

Entering every Name and Cause 0 0 4

Porter's fee 0 1 0 0 1 0

Chamberlain's Fee 0 3 0 0 1 0

The Dismission Fee for every Action 0 12 6 0 7 4

Turnkey's Dismission 0 2 6

---------------

£3 5 4 £1 16 4