VIII. NEWGATE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 242 IX. LATER RECORDS 277 X. HIGHWAYMEN AND PIRATES 321 List of Illustrations ELIZABETH FRY READING TO THE WOMEN PRISONERS IN NEWGATE _Frontispiece_ THE SESSIONS HOUSE, CLERKENWELL GREEN, LONDON _Page_ 85 THE CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT, OLD BAILEY, LONDON " 178 THE PRISON OF NEWGATE " 246 CHRONICLES OF NEWGATE CHAPTER I MEDIAEVAL NEWGATE Earliest accounts of Newgate prison—The New Gate, when built and why—Classes of prisoners incarcerated—Brawlers, vagabonds, and "roarers" committed to Newgate—Exposure in pillory and sometimes mutilation preceded imprisonment—The gradual concession of privileges to the Corporation—Corporation obtains complete jurisdiction over Newgate—The sheriffs responsible for the good government of prisons on appointment— Forbidden to farm the prison or sell the post of keeper—The rule in course of time contravened, and keepership became purchasable—Condition of the prisoners in mediæval times— Dependent on charity for commonest necessaries—A breviary bequeathed—Gaol fell into ruin and was rebuilt by Whittington's executors in 1422—This edifice two centuries later restored, but destroyed in the great fire of 1666. The earliest authentic mention of Newgate as a gaol or prison for felons and trespassers occurs in the records of the reign of King John. In the following reign, A. D. 1218, Henry III expressly commands the sheriffs of London to repair it, and promises to reimburse them for their outlay from his own exchequer. This shows that at that time the place was under the direct control of the king, and maintained at his charges. The prison was above the gate, or in the gate-house, as was the general practice in ancient times. Thus Ludgate was long used for the incarceration of city debtors. To the gate-house of Westminster were committed all offenders taken within that city; and the same rule obtained in the great provincial towns, as at Newcastle, Chester, Carlisle, York, and elsewhere. Concerning the gate itself, the New Gate and its antiquity, opinions somewhat differ. Maitland declares it to be "demonstrable" that Newgate was one of the four original gates of the city; "for after the fire of London in 1666," he goes on to say, "in digging a foundation for the present Holborn bridge, the vestigia of the Roman military way called Watling Street were discovered pointing directly to this gate; and this I take to be an incontestable proof of an original gate built over the said way in this place."