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
1. Hall Ward. (Master Debtors.)
4. Drinking Cellar, below.
5. Gigger.
9. Stone Hall. (Common Side Debtors.)
11. Tangier. “ “
14. Stone Hold. (Common Side Felons.)
15. Lower Ward. “ “]
continued course of swearing, cursing, and debauchery, insomuch that it
passes all description and belief.... It is with no small concern,” he
adds, “that I am obliged to observe that the women in every ward of this
prison are exceedingly worse than the worst of the men, not only in
respect to nastiness and indecency of living, but more especially as to
their conversation, which, to their great shame, is as profane and
wicked as hell itself can be.”
These remarks, unhappily, are fully borne out by more modern experience.
Female prisoners are, as a rule, far worse than the male.
V. The one division remaining, and commonly called the Press-Yard and
Castle, was quite the best part of the prison. The entrance was at the
base of the stairs between the common debtors’ and the common felons’
sides. It was composed of “divers large spacious rooms,” on all three
floors: those on the ground and first floor faced towards east and
south; those on the second--the Castle so called--to the west. These
rooms were all well supplied with light and air, free from all ill
smells, and possessed all necessary appurtenances. A yard or place for
walking in the open air was attached to this side, and was situate
between the door or postern which entered from Newgate Street and the
fabric itself. This yard, which was fifty-four feet long by seven feet
wide, and was handsomely paved with Purbeck stone, could have been
little better than a narrow passage running the whole north side of the
prison between the building and its boundary wall. The Press-Yard was
for State prisoners, or great and opulent criminals who could afford to
pay such high premium at entrance as they and the gaoler might agree
upon, and also the weekly rent of their wards. This premium was fixed
according to the quality of the individual, and ranged from £20 to £500.
The weekly rent of tenancy of the rooms was 11_s._ 6_d._ per head, 1_s._
of which was paid to a woman called the laundress, who made the fires
and cleaned the rooms; the remainder went into the gaoler’s pocket. The
prisoners themselves provided their fires and candles, as also all other
necessaries, “save the beds, which were very good of their kind, and
which the gaoler found, sheets being always excepted.” A less
aristocratic section of this very select part of the prison was the
Castle, which comprised two wards above the Stone ward and King’s Bench
ward of the master debtors’ sides, and of the same dimensions, with the
same air and light, as the wards immediately beneath. In the Castle
wards were divers partitions for beds, for each of which a prisoner paid
2_s._ 6_d._ per week.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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