The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 1/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
Those for Newgate brought up the rear. They were civilly and humanely
treated on arrival there. The officers received them under the gateway,
and no sooner were the prisoners alighted from their horses and their
names called over, than their cords were immediately cut from their arms
and shoulders, and refreshment of wine brought to them. “Their number
was about seventy,” says our author.[92] “And amongst them in particular
I could not but cast my eye upon one Mr. Archibald Bolair, who in the
sixteenth year of his age was said to have signalized his courage, and
have displayed as much skill and dexterity in feats of arms in the
battle of Preston as the oldest commander of them, Brigadier Macintosh
himself, though trained up in warlike affairs, not excepted. What
induced me to distinguish him from the rest was the fearless way of
expression he made use of when the clerk of the prison cut his cords.
‘By my soul, man,’ said he, ‘you should not have done that, but kept it
whole that I might either have been hanged with it, or have it to show,
if I escaped the gallows, how I had been led like a dog in a string for
twice two miles together.’ Mr. Bolair then enquired feelingly for his
followers, who had been brought so many miles from home out of
observance of his orders, and he was anxious that they should not want.”
Young Mr. Bolair was told off to the same room as our author, into which
two additional beds were placed, for the convenience of the keeper, who
by four beds in one room, filled each with three tenants, got £6 per
week, besides the sums paid as entrance money.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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