Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth centuryGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 1: From the twelfth to the eighteenth century
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
was taken off my horse, then was conveyed up to the old condemned hole,
handcuffed, and chained to the floor."
On Friday, the 15th October, the last day of Sessions, Malden was
called into court and informed that his former judgment of death must
be executed upon him, and he was accordingly hanged upon the 2d
November following.
Stratagem and disguise in some shape or other were, however, the
most favourite and generally the most successful forms of escape.
Extraordinary and quite culpable facilities for changing clothes
were given by the lax discipline of the prison. The substitution of
persons, devoted wife or friend, taking the place of the accused, as
in the story of Sydney Carton, as told by Dickens; or the well-known
exchange between Lord and Lady Nithsdale, which occurred at Newgate.
George Flint, an imprisoned journalist, who continued to edit his
objectionable periodical from the prison, got away in the costume of
a footman. His wife was suffered to live with him, and helped him
to the disguise. She concealed the escape for two or three days,
pretending that her husband was dangerously ill in bed, and not fit to
be disturbed; for which fidelity to her husband, who was now beyond
the seas, having made the most of the time thus gained, Mrs. Flint
was cast into the condemned hold, and "used after a most barbarous
manner to extort a confession." Another very similar and unsuccessful
case was that of Alexander Scott, a highwayman suspected of robbing
the Worcester and Portsmouth mails. Scott attempted to get out in the
"habit" of an oyster-woman, whom his wife had persuaded to favour their
design. The change was made, and the lodge bell rung to give egress to
Scott. Unfortunately for the prisoner the gatekeeper was dilatory.
Meanwhile, an assistant turnkey, missing Scott, conjectured that he
had escaped, and seeing the oyster-woman standing at the gate, began
to question her, and insisted upon looking at her face. Scott being
at once detected, he struck the turnkey a blow in the face, hoping to
knock him down. A scuffle ensued, the turnkey proved the strongest, and
Scott was secured.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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