The prisoners of the sixteenth century must have suffered great hardships. No adequate means seem to have existed for their maintenance. Their friends supported them, and under certain regulations they were allowed to beg. Several statutes made in the reign of Elizabeth provided partially for their support as part of the relief of the poor[528]. By the statute of 1601 prisoners were to be relieved by a county rate. The County Treasurer, who was responsible for the relief of soldiers and hospitals, also disbursed a part of the funds to them, and every county was bound to pay at least twenty shillings a year to the prisoners of the King's Bench and Marshalsea[529]. Still the help given was very small; up to 1650 the allowance granted to the poor in the Norfolk prison was only a penny a day[530], and this sum could barely have sufficed to keep them alive. In Devonshire their allowance was increased in 1608 because "divers of them of late have perished through want"[531]. We must remember that incarceration in these prisons was the fate of debtors. Charitable people tried to help these people, and bequests were often made for the purpose of granting them some assistance. Thus in the reign of Charles I. George White of Bristol left a gift of five pounds a year to be used for the purpose of freeing or relieving some of the prisoners in the Bristol Newgate, and there are many other bequests of the same kind[532]. Still the amount of these legacies was wholly insufficient for the need. Certainly neither the legislators nor the administrators of the reigns of the earlier Stuarts made the criminal poor more comfortable than the unfortunate poor. If we realise the condition of the prisoners of this time we can understand why Houses of Correction were regarded as charitable foundations. We can also see how it was that whipping and stocking were so frequently inflicted and that they were comparatively merciful punishments. [528] 14 Eliz. c. 5; 39 Eliz. c. 3. [529] 43 Eliz. c. 2. [530] _Orders of the Norfolk Quarter Sessions_, 1650. [531] _Quarter Sessions from Queen Elizabeth to Queen Anne_, p. 91. A. H. A. Hamilton. [532] _Char. Com. Rep._, VI. p. 529. Richard Holworthy also in 1640 left £20 for the poor in the Bristol Newgate. At Oxford, Wardell in 1625 and Myles Windsor both left the profits of a small sum for the poor in Bocardo. _Rep._ VI., p. 403, 404. At Launceston by Connock's charity in 1611 a rent of 52_s._ a year was set apart for the poor felons in the county gaol. _Rep._ 32. 1, p. 406. Bequests in London for this purpose were very frequent. _Rep._ VI. p. 302. Sir T. Bennett in 1616 left £24 a year for redeeming twelve or more poor debtors. [Sidenote: 6. Provision of funds to provide work for the unemployed.]