[29:1] Sir Edward Coke derives the title of the court from the fact that justice was done in them as speedily as dust can fall from the foot. [31:1] Sheriff Hoare (1740-1) tells us how the names of the prisoners in each gaol were read over to him and his colleagues; the keepers acknowledged them one by one to be in their custody, and then tendered the keys, which were delivered back to them again, and after executing the indentures, the sheriffs partook of sack and walnuts, provided by the keepers of the prison, at a tavern adjoining Guildhall. Formerly the sheriffs attended the lord mayor on Easter Eve through the streets to collect charity for the prisoners in the city prison. Sheriffs were permitted to keep prisoners in their own houses, hence the Sponging Houses. The "Sheriffs' Fund" was started in 1807 by Sir Richard Phillips, who, in his letter to the Livery of London, states that he found, on visiting Newgate, so many claims on his charity that he could not meet a tenth part of them. A suggestion to establish a sheriffs' fund was thereupon made public and found general support. In 1867 the fund amounted to £13,000. CHAPTER II NEWGATE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY Prison records meagre—Administration of justice and state of crime—Leniency alternates with great severity—Criminal inmates of Newgate—Masterless men—Robbery with violence— Debtors—Conscience prisoners—Martyrs in reign of Henry VIII —Religious dissidents: Porter, Anne Askew—Maryan persecutions —Rogers—Bishop Hooper—Alexander, the cruel gaoler of Newgate —Philpot—Underhill the Hot Gospeller in Newgate—Crime in Elizabeth's reign—The training of young thieves—Elizabethan persecutions: both Puritans and papists suffered—The seminary priests—Political prisoners—Babington's conspiracy— Conspiracies against the life of Elizabeth—Gaolers of the period generally tyrants—Crowder, keeper of Newgate, called to account.