The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and MarriagesAshton, John
History
The Fleet: Its Rivers, Prison, and Marriages
Ashton, John
Fleet Prison (London, England); Fleet, River (England)
Evidently great interest was made for this naughty Sir Geoffrey, for we
learn on Sept. 24th that "It was declared to the Lady Poole, the wife
of Sir Geoffrey Poole, that the King's higness had pardoned her husband
of his imprisonment," and the Lord Privy Seal was directed to release
him. But he seems to have been a very cantankerous knight, for we find
him in hot water again next year. April 8, 1541, "Whereas Sir Geoffrey
Poole, Knight, had violently and contrary to the King's Highness' peace
assaulted and hurt[101] Sir John Mychaill clerk, parson of Racton in
the County of Sussex," and he had to put in sureties to keep the peace
towards the said parson, and to answer the bill preferred against him.
But it seems that he had some provocation, for a letter was written to
him requiring him to remember, as far as he could, the "haynous and
traytorous woords spoken by S^r John Michaell."
On Nov. 7, 1540, Browne, the son and heir of Sir Matthew Browne
of Surrey, was committed to the Fleet, together with some of his
servants, for burning a certain stack of wood in Surrey. On Jan. 8,
1541, John Gough of London, printer, was sent to the Fleet for printing
and selling a seditious book. On March 18, 1541, there seems to have
been a riot among some of the servants of the Gentlemen of the Privy
Chamber, and three of them were committed to the Fleet. On April
24, 1541, a smuggler was put into ward here, one Giles Hasebarde of
Southampton, a "berebruer," who had put on board "a ship of Holland,
named the Mary of Dordroyt," five pockets of wool, without a licence,
intending to send them to Flanders. For this he was sent to the Fleet,
the wool confiscated to the King's use, and the Master of the ship was
mulcted in half the value of his vessel; but Hasebarde was not long in
durance, as he was liberated on April 30th. To thoroughly understand
the reason of this man's imprisonment in the Fleet, we must remember
that he was sent there as being a _Debtor_ to the King, and in the
fifteenth century it was a very common practice for delinquents who
were confined in other London prisons to confess themselves, by a legal
fiction, debtors to the King, in order to get into the Fleet prison,
which was more comfortable. But to show the variety of so-called
crimes, or misdemeanours, which were punishable by imprisonment here,
there is the case of John Barkley of Canterbury, innholder, who was
committed to the Fleet for having molested the King's Highness with
sundry troublous supplications, and it was found that he "appered
manyfestly to be a c[=o]men barrater[102] and a malicious [=p]moter
of false and injust mattiers to the gret vexa[=c]on of the Kings
faithfull subjects."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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