Earliest accounts of Newgate prison--The New Gate, when built and why--Classes of prisoners incarcerated--Of high degree, as well as all categories of common criminals--Brawlers, vagabonds, and ‘roarers’ committed to Newgate; also those who sold adulterated food--Exposure in pillory and sometimes mutilation preceded imprisonment--The gradual concession of privileges to the Corporation--Lord Mayor constituted perpetual justice of the peace--Corporation obtains complete jurisdiction over Newgate--The sheriffs responsible for the good government of prisons on appointment--Counted prisoners held keys, and the cocket or seal of Newgate--Forbidden to farm the prison or sell the post of keeper--The rule in course of time contravened, and keepership became purchaseable--Conflict of authority between sheriffs and Corporation as to appointment of keeper--Condition of the prisoners in mediæval times--Dependent on charity for commonest necessaries; food, clothing, and water--A breviary bequeathed--Gaol falls into ruin and is rebuilt by Whittington’s executors in 1422--This edifice two centuries later is 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.” Maitland in this conjecture altogether departs from the account related by Stowe. The latter gives a precise and circumstantial description of the building of Newgate, which he calls the fifth principal gate of the city. There is, however, every reason to suppose that a gate had existed previously hereabouts in the city wall, and the site of the new gate is identical with one which was long called Chamberlain’s Gate, because