Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 2: From the eighteenth century to its demolitionGriffiths, Arthur
History
Chronicles of Newgate, Vol. 2: From the eighteenth century to its demolition
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
On this female side, where the Ladies' Association still reigned
supreme, more system and a greater semblance of decorum was maintained.
But the separation of the sexes was not rigidly carried out in Newgate
as yet. We have seen that male prisoners visited their female relations
and friends on the female side. Besides this, the gatesman who prepared
the briefs had interviews with female prisoners alone while taking
their instructions; a female came alone and unaccompanied by a matron
to clean the governor's office in the male prison; male prisoners
carried coal into the female prison, when they saw and could speak or
pass letters to the female prisoners; and the men could also at any
time go for tea, coffee, and sugar to Mrs. Brown's shop, which was
inside the female gate. In the bail-dock, where most improper general
association was permitted, the female prisoners were often altogether
in the charge of male turnkeys. The governor was also personally
responsible for gross contravention of this rule of separation, and
was in the habit of drawing frequently upon the female prison for
prisoners to act as domestic servants in his own private dwelling.
Some members of the Ladies' Association observed and commented upon
the fact that a young rosy-cheeked girl had been kept by the governor
from transportation, while older women in infirm health were sent
across the seas. His excuse was that he had given the girl his promise
that she should not go, an assumption of prerogative which by no
means rested with him; but he afterwards admitted that the girl had
been recommended to him by the principal turnkey, who knew something
of her friends. This woman was really his servant, employed to help
in cleaning, and taken on whenever there was extra work to be done.
The governor had a great dislike, he said, to seeing strangers in his
house. This girl had been first engaged on account of the extra work
entailed by certain prisoners committed by the House of Commons, who
had been lodged in the governor's own house. The house at this time
was full of men and visitors; waiters came in from the taverns with
meals. Some of the prisoners had their valets, and all these were
constantly in and out of the kitchen where this female prisoner was
employed. There was revelling and roystering, as usual, with "high life
below-stairs." The governor sent down wine on festive occasions, of
which no doubt the prisoner housemaid had her share. It can hardly be
denied that the governor, in his treatment of this woman, was acting in
flagrant contravention of all rules.
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