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122-579: The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark , just south of the River Thames . Although it housed a variety of prisoners—including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition —it became known, in particular, for its incarceration of the poorest of London's debtors. Over half of England's prisoners in the 18th century were in jail because of debt. Run privately for profit, as were all English prisons until

244-562: A 1571 plot to kill the Queen , Herle wrote of a network within the prison for smuggling information out of it, which included hiding letters in holes in the crumbling brickwork for others to pick up. Intellectuals regularly found themselves in the Marshalsea. The playwright Ben Jonson , a friend of Shakespeare , was jailed in 1597 for his play The Isle of Dogs , which was immediately suppressed, with no extant copies; on 28 July that year

366-581: A Marshalsea prison may refer to other prisons, one kept by the Knight Marshal at York and another at Canterbury. There is a reference to the Marshalsea prison in Southwark being set on fire in 1381 by Wat Tyler during the Peasants' Revolt . John Cope, esquire, is described as marshal of the marshalsea hospice in 1412; William Bradwardyn was described as marshal in 1421. Robert Fayrford is named as

488-590: A Month or two, by the assistance of the above-mentioned Prison Portion of Provision, and then dies. As a result of the Gaols Committee's inquiries, several key figures within the jails were tried for murder in August 1729, including Thomas Bambridge of the Fleet and William Acton of the Marshalsea. Given the strongly worded report of the Gaols Committee, the trials were major public events. Ginger writes that, when

610-672: A channel following a similar course was used to drain the Thames to allowing building work on London Bridge. Southwark and in particular the Bridge, proved a formidable obstacle against William the Conqueror in 1066. He failed to force the bridge during the Norman conquest of England , but Southwark was devastated . At Domesday, the area's assets were: Bishop Odo of Bayeux held the monastery (the site of modern Southwark Cathedral ) and

732-482: A coroner in the court of the Marshalsea Hospice, in 1433; Further, Henry Langton, as marshall, in 1452. Most of the first Marshalsea, as with the second, was taken up by debtors; in 1773 debtors within 12 miles of Westminster could be imprisoned there for a debt of 40 shillings . Jerry White writes that London's poorest debtors were housed in the Marshalsea. Wealthier debtors secured their removal from

854-634: A couple of rooms in a cellar. Before the Gaols Act 1823 ( 4 Geo. 4 . c. 64), then the Prisons Act 1835 and the Prison Act 1877 , they were administered by the royal household, the aristocracy and the bishops, and run for profit by private individuals who bought the right to manage and make money from them. My reader will judge of its malignity [the smell inside prisons] when I assure him that my cloaths were in my first journeys so offensive that in

976-588: A jail in Penzance, where Howard found a debtor in a room 11 ft × 11 ft and 6 ft high, with a small window. The door of the room had not been opened for four weeks. Before the Bankruptcy Act 1869 , debtors in England were routinely imprisoned at the pleasure of their creditors. Around 10,000 people in England and Wales were in prison for debt in 1641, often for small amounts. In

1098-416: A judge, an MP, his butcher, brewer, confectioner and solicitor—his coal merchant thought Acton "improper for the post he was in from his too great compassion"—and he was found not guilty on all charges. The Gaols Committee had managed to draw attention to the plight of England's prisoners, but reform had eluded them. Although most Marshalsea prisoners were debtors, the prison was second in importance only to

1220-659: A large number of buildings between Tooley Street and the Thames, including those around Hays Wharf (later replaced by Hays Galleria ) and blocks to the west almost as far as St Olave's Church . The first deep-level underground tube line in London was the City and South London Railway , now the Bank branch of the Northern line , opened in 1890, running from King William Street south through Borough to Stockwell . Southwark, since 1999,

1342-625: A link, having paid for a memorial chapel within Southwark Cathedral (his family's parish church), and where its UK-based alumni hold services. John Harvard's mother's house is in Stratford-upon-Avon . In 1836 the first railway in the London area was created, the London and Greenwich Railway , originally terminating at Spa Road and later extended west to London Bridge . In 1861, another great fire in Southwark destroyed

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1464-463: A post chaise I could not bear the windows drawn up: and was therefore often obliged to travel on horseback. The leaves of my memorandum-book were often so tainted, that I could not use it till after spreading it an hour or two before the fire: and even my antidote, a vial of vinegar, has after using it in a few prisons, become intolerably disagreeable. — John Howard , prison reformer, 1777 Prisoners had to pay rent, feed and clothe themselves and, in

1586-411: A printer, as prison governor, who in turn leased it to William Acton, a butcher (who was later tried for murdering three of its prisoners). Acton had previously worked as one of the prison's turnkeys. He paid Darby £140 a year (equivalent to £26,000 in 2023) for a seven-year lease, giving him the right to act as resident warden and chief turnkey, and an additional £260 for the right to collect rent from

1708-473: A replacement court room was built on the site and was in use from 1685. Its front was adorned with a statue of James II, just after his accession, the city's coat of arms and the Bridge House Mark. The court room was on the first floor, the ground floor was leased out as a tavern, 'The King's Arms'. The site is located at the fork junction of Borough High Street and Southwark Street, occupied now by

1830-498: A revolt, with prisoners pulling down fences and attacking the guards with stones. Prisoners were regularly beaten with a "bull's pizzle" (a whip made from a bull's penis ), or tortured with thumbscrews and a skullcap, a vice for the head that weighed 12 pounds (5.4 kg). What often finished them off was being forced to lie in the strong room, a windowless shed near the main sewer, next to piles of night soil and cadavers awaiting burial. Dickens described it as "dreaded by even

1952-585: A shared chapel that had been part of the White Lion. James Neild visited the Marshalsea again during the first year of the new building's existence, publishing a description of it in 1812. This was supplemented by reports from the Committees and Commissioners on the State and Management of Prisons in London and Elsewhere, published between 1815 and 1818. More material is available in a pamphlet, An Expose of

2074-434: A side room called the pound, where new prisoners would wait until a room was found for them. The front lodge led to a courtyard known as the park. This had been divided in two by a long narrow wall, so that prisoners from the common side could not be seen by those on the master's side, who preferred not to be distressed by the sight of abject poverty, especially when they might themselves be plunged into it at any moment. There

2196-481: A single parish in 1896. The ancient borough of Southwark, was traditionally known simply as The Borough – or Borough – to distinguish it from 'The City', and this name has persisted as an alternative name for the area. The medieval heart of Southwark was also, simultaneously, referred to as the ward of Bridge Without when administered by the city (from 1550 to 1900) and as an aldermanry until 1978. The local government arrangements were reorganised in 1900 with

2318-562: A state of decay, and a decision was made to rebuild it 130 yards south (119 m), at 150 High Street (now called Borough High Street), on the site of the White Lion prison, also known as the Borough Gaol. This was on the south side of Angel Court and Angel Alley, two narrow streets that no longer exist. Costing £8,000 to complete (equivalent to £700,000 in 2023) the new prison opened in 1811 with two sections, one for Admiralty prisoners under court martial, and one for debtors, with

2440-475: A sum equivalent to £4,502 in 2024. Twelve years old at the time, Dickens was sent to live in lodgings with Mrs. Ellen Roylance in Little College Street, Camden Town , from where he walked five miles (8 km) every day to Warren's blacking factory at 30 Hungerford Stairs, a factory owned by a relative of his mother's. He spent 10 hours a day wrapping bottles of shoe polish for six shillings

2562-472: A tailor who owed £9, Benjamin Sandford, a lighterman from Bermondsey who owed £55, and a Mr. Blundell, a jeweller. Women prisoners who could pay the fees were housed in the women's quarters, known as the oak. The wives, daughters and lovers of male prisoners were allowed to live with them, if someone was paying their way. Known as the castle by inmates, the prison had a turreted lodge at the entrance, with

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2684-480: A total debt of £16,442. The debtors' section consisted of a brick barracks, a yard measuring 177 ft × 56 ft (54 m × 17 m), a kitchen, a public room, and a tap room or snuggery, where debtors could drink as much beer as they wanted, at fivepence a pot in 1815. Philpotts reports that, by the early 19th century, most debtors spent only months in the prison; on 19 April 1826 it held 105 debtors, 99 of whom had been there for less than six months and

2806-590: A way that allowed his boats to avoid the heavily defended London Bridge. In so doing he hoped to cut London off from river borne resupply from upstream. The Dane's efforts to recapture London were in vain, until he defeated Ethelred at the Battle of Assandun in Essex later that year, and became King of England. It is thought that the section of the Kent Road, at Lock Bridge, was Canute's Trench . In May, 1016, In 1173,

2928-544: A week to pay for his keep. His mother, Elizabeth Barrow, and her three youngest children joined her husband in the Marshalsea in April 1824. Dickens would visit them every Sunday until he found lodgings in Lant Street, closer to the prison, in the attic of a house belonging to the vestry clerk of St George's Church. This meant he was able to breakfast with his family in the Marshalsea and dine with them after work. His father

3050-538: Is a well-developed visitor attraction and has grown in size. The adjacent units have been converted and form a gastronomic focus for London. Borough High Street runs roughly north to south from London Bridge towards Elephant and Castle . The Borough runs further to the south than realised; both St George's Cathedral and the Imperial War Museum are within the ancient boundaries, which border nearby Lambeth . Its entertainment district, in its heyday at

3172-520: Is also now served by Southwark , Bermondsey and London Bridge stations on the Jubilee line . Southwark is thought to have become a burh in 886. The area appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 within the hundred of Brixton as held by several Surrey manors . The ancient borough of Southwark, enfranchised in 1295, initially consisted of the pre-existing Surrey parishes of St George

3294-475: Is an accidental Allowance of Pease, given once a week by a Gentleman, who conceals his Name, and about Thirty Pounds of Beef, provided by the voluntary Contribution of the Judge and Officers of the Marshalsea, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; which is divided into very small Portions, of about an Ounce and a half, distributed with One-Fourth-part of an Half-penny Loaf ... When the miserable Wretch hath worn out

3416-585: Is born in the Marshalsea. Trey Philpotts writes that every detail about the Marshalsea in Little Dorrit reflects the real prison of the 1820s. According to Philpotts, Dickens rarely made mistakes and did not exaggerate; if anything, he downplayed the licentiousness of Marshalsea life, perhaps to protect Victorian sensibilities. Like the first Marshalsea, the second was notoriously cramped. In 1827, 414 out of its 630 debtors were there for debts under £20; 1,890 people in Southwark were imprisoned that year for

3538-510: Is in easy walking distance of the City and the West End . As such it has become a major business centre with many national and international corporations, professional practices and publishers locating to the area. London's tallest skyscraper , the Shard , is next to London Bridge Station . To the north is the River Thames , London Bridge station and Southwark Cathedral . Borough Market

3660-579: Is in reference to the City of London to the north, Southwark being at the southern end of London Bridge . In Old English , Surrey means "southern district (or the men of the southern district)", so the change from "southern district work" to the latter "southern work" may be an evolution based on the elision of the single syllable ge element, meaning district. Recent excavation has revealed pre-Roman activity including evidence of early ploughing , burial mounds and ritual activity. The natural geography of Southwark (now much altered by human activity),

3782-468: Is no record of when it was built. Historian Jerry White writes that it existed by 1300, but according to Ida Darlington, editor of the 1955 Survey of London , there is a mention of "the good men of the town of Suthwerk" being granted a licence in 1373 to build a house on Southwark's High Street to hold prisoners appearing before the Marshalsea of the King's household. Darlington writes that earlier mentions of

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3904-463: Is now Borough High Street . For centuries London Bridge was the only Thames bridge in the area, until a bridge was built upstream more than 10 miles (16 km) to the west. In February 2022, archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA) announced the discovery of a well-preserved massive Roman mosaic which is believed to date from A.D. 175–225. The dining room ( triclinium ) mosaic

4026-418: Is the area known as Borough , which has an eclectic covered and semi-covered market and numerous food and drink venues as well as the skyscraper The Shard . The Borough is generally an area of mixed development, with council estates, major office developments, social housing and high value residential gated communities side by side with each other. Borough Compter When the first Compter burned down

4148-471: The Fleet Prison closed in 1842, two debtors were found to have been there for 30 years. Prisoners would often take their families with them, which meant that entire communities sprang up inside the debtors' jails. The community created its own economy, with jailers charging for room, food, drink and furniture, or selling concessions to others, and attorneys charging fees in fruitless efforts to get

4270-453: The Prince of Wales 's bookseller presented his bill at the end of that year, two of the 41 volumes on it were accounts of William Acton's trial. The first case against Acton, before Mr. Baron Carter, was for the murder in 1726 of Thomas Bliss, a carpenter and debtor. Unable to pay the prison fees, Bliss had been left with so little to eat that he had tried to escape by throwing a rope over

4392-527: The Privy Council was told it was a "lewd plaie that was plaied in one of the plaie houses on the Bancke Side , contaynynge very seditious and sclandrous matter". The poet Christopher Brooke was jailed in 1601 for helping 17-year-old Ann More marry John Donne without her father's consent. George Wither , the political satirist, wrote his poem "The Shepherds Hunting" in 1614 in the Marshalsea; he

4514-650: The Tate Modern museum. The name Suthriganaweorc or Suthringa geweorche is recorded for the area in the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon document known as the Burghal Hidage and means "fort of the men of Surrey " or "the defensive work of the men of Surrey". Southwark is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudweca . The name means "southern defensive work" and is formed from the Old English sūþ (south) and weorc (work). The southern location

4636-636: The Tower of London . From the 14th century onwards, minor political figures were held there instead of in the Tower, mostly for sedition . William Hepworth Dixon wrote in 1885 that it was full of "poets, pirates, parsons, plotters; coiners, libellers, defaulters, Jesuits; vagabonds of every class who vexed the souls of men in power ..." During the Elizabethan era , it became the main holding prison for Roman Catholics suspected of sedition. Bishop Bonner ,

4758-523: The pillory (1830), the ducking stool (1817), joining the military, or penal transportation to America or Australia (1867). In 1774 there were just over 4,000 prisoners in Britain, half of them debtors, out of a population of six million. (In 2010 there were over 85,000 prisoners in England and Wales out of a population of 56 million.) Eighteenth-century prisons were effectively lodging houses. Poorly maintained and often filthy, they might consist of

4880-447: The 14th century at what would now be 161 Borough High Street, between King Street and Mermaid Court. By the late 16th century, the building was "crumbling". In 1799 the government reported that it would be rebuilt 130 yards (120 m) south on what is now 211 Borough High Street. Measuring around 150 by 50 feet (46 by 15 metres), with a turreted front lodge, the first Marshalsea was set slightly back from Borough High Street. There

5002-556: The 18th century debtors comprised over half the prison population: 945 of London's 1,500 prisoners in 1779 were debtors. According to John Wade , writing in 1829, in London in 1826–1827, 753 people were imprisoned for debts under £5, for between 20 and 100 days. In Southwark that year the debts of 1,893 prisoners amounted collectively to £16,442 (equivalent to £1,800,000 in 2023). Other European countries had legislation limiting imprisonment for debt to one year, but debtors in England were imprisoned until their creditors were satisfied. When

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5124-463: The 1920's. St Olaf House (part of London Bridge Hospital ), named after the church and its saint, stands on the spot. Tooley Street , being a corruption of St Olave's Street , also takes its name from the former church. Cnut returned in 1016, but capturing the city was a great challenge. To cut London off from upstream riverborne supplies, Cnut dug a trench around Southwark, so that he could sail or drag his ships around Southwark and get upstream in

5246-441: The 19th century, the Marshalsea looked like an Oxbridge college and functioned as an extortion racket. Debtors in the 18th century who could afford the prison fees had access to a bar, shop and restaurant, and retained the crucial privilege of being allowed out during the day, which gave them a chance to earn money for their creditors. Everyone else was crammed into one of nine small rooms with dozens of others, possibly for years for

5368-716: The Alderman was appointed by the Court of Aldermen and no Common Councilmen were ever elected. This ward was constituted of the original Guildable Manor and the properties previously held by the church, under a charter of Edward VI , latterly called the King's Manor or Great Liberty. These manors are still constituted by the City under a Bailiff and Steward with their Courts Leet and View of Frankpledge Juries and Officers which still meet—their annual assembly being held in November under

5490-590: The Borough Gaol) and eventually at Horsemonger Lane Gaol . One other local family is of note, the Harvards. John Harvard went to the local parish free school of St Saviour's and on to Cambridge University . He migrated to the Massachusetts Colony and left his library and the residue of his will to the new college there, named after him as its first benefactor. Harvard University maintains

5612-758: The Charity of his Friends, and consumed the Money, which he hath raised upon his Cloaths, and Bedding, and hath eat his last Allowance of Provisions, he usually in a few Days grows weak, for want of Food, with the symptoms of a hectick Fever; and when he is no longer able to stand, if he can raise 3d to pay the Fee of the common Nurse of the Prison, he obtains the Liberty of being carried into the Sick Ward, and lingers on for about

5734-581: The City freemen or by the Southwark electorate but appointed by the Court of Aldermen. The Borough and Bankside Community Council corresponds to the Southwark electoral wards of Cathedrals and Chaucer. They are part of the Bermondsey and Old Southwark Parliament constituency whose Member of Parliament is Neil Coyle . It is within the Lambeth and Southwark London Assembly constituency. Until 2022 Southwark

5856-469: The City, while other areas of the district were more loosely governed. The section known as Liberty of the Clink became a place of entertainment. By the 12th century Southwark had been incorporated as an ancient borough , and this historic status is reflected in the alternative name of the area, as Borough . The ancient borough of Southwark's river frontage extended from the modern borough boundary, just to

5978-482: The Clink manor, which was never controlled by the city, but was held under the Bishopric of Winchester 's nominal authority. This lack of oversight helped the area become the entertainment district for London, with a concentration of sometimes disreputable attractions such as bull and bear-baiting , taverns, theatre and brothels . In the 1580s, Reasonable Blackman worked as a silk weaver in Southwark, as one of

6100-477: The Clink , King's Bench , Borough Compter , White Lion and the Marshalsea—compared to 18 in London as a whole. Until the 19th century imprisonment in England was not viewed as a punishment, except for minor offences such as vagrancy; prisons simply held people until their creditors had been paid or their fate decided by judges. Options included execution (ended 1964), flogging (1961), the stocks (1872),

6222-566: The Duke of Devonshire, William Cavendish , on the ear. When the prison reformer James Neild visited the first Marshalsea in December 1802, just 34 debtors were living there, along with eight wives and seven children. Neild wrote that it was in "a most ruinous and insecure state, and the habitations of the debtors wretched in the extreme". There had been riots in the prison in 1749 and 1768. The government acknowledged in 1799 that it had fallen into

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6344-429: The Fleet on 27 February and the Marshalsea on 25 March. William Hogarth accompanied the committee on its visit to the Fleet, sketching it, then painting it in oil (left) . The painting was commissioned by Sir Archibald Grant , MP for Aberdeenshire, standing third from the right. The man in irons is thought to be Jacob Mendez Solas, a Portuguese prisoner. The committee was shocked by the prisoners' living conditions. In

6466-455: The Fleet they found Sir William Rich, a baronet , in irons. Unable to pay the prison fee, he had been burned with a red-hot poker, hit with a stick and kept in a dungeon for ten days for having wounded the warden with a shoemaker's knife. In the Marshalsea they found that prisoners on the common side were being routinely starved to death: All the Support such poor Wretches have to subsist on,

6588-416: The Marshalsea , of his 458-day incarceration from 30 May 1728 until 23 September 1729. The other two key sources are a 1729 report by a parliamentary committee, led by James Oglethorpe MP, on the state of the Fleet and the Marshalsea, and the subsequent murder trial that year of William Acton, the Marshalsea's chief jailor. By the 18th century, the prison had separate areas for its two classes of prisoner:

6710-454: The Marshalsea - O'Connor Faly was later moved to the Tower. Thomas Drury was sent to the Marshalsea on 15 July 1591, charged with "diuerse greate and fonde matters"; Drury was involved in 1593 with the allegation of atheism against the playwright Christopher Marlowe . In 1629 the jurist John Selden was jailed there for his involvement in drafting the Petition of Right , a document limiting

6832-607: The Marshalsea by writ of habeas corpus , and arranged to be moved to the Fleet or King's Bench , both of which were more comfortable. The prison also held a small number of men being tried at the Old Bailey for crimes at sea. The Marshalsea was technically under the control of the Knight Marshal, but was let out to others who ran it for profit. For example, in 1727 the Knight Marshal, Philip Meadows , hired John Darby,

6954-535: The Martyr , St Olave , St Margaret and St Mary . St Margaret and St Mary were abolished in 1541 and their former area combined to create Southwark St Saviour . Around 1555 Southwark St Thomas was split off from St Olave, and in 1733 Southwark St John Horsleydown was also split off. In 1855 the parishes came into the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works . The large St George

7076-637: The Martyr . William Hogarth depicted this fair in his engraving of Southwark Fair (1733). Southwark was also the location of several prisons , including those of the Crown or Prerogative Courts, the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons, those of the local manors' courts, e.g., Borough Compter , The Clink and the Surrey county gaol originally housed at the White Lion Inn (also informally called

7198-542: The Martyr parish was governed by its own administrative vestry, but the smaller St John Horsleydown, St Olave and St Thomas parishes were grouped together to form the St Olave District . St Saviour was combined with Southwark Christchurch (the former liberty of Paris Garden) to form the St Saviour's District . In 1889 the area became part of the new County of London . St Olave and St Thomas were combined as

7320-599: The Practice of the Palace, or Marshalsea Court , written in 1833 by an anonymous eyewitness. Although the first Marshalsea survived for 500 years, and the second for just 38, it is the latter that became widely known, thanks largely to Charles Dickens , whose father, John Dickens , was sent there on 20 February 1824, under the Insolvent Debtor's Act 1813. He owed a baker, James Kerr, £40 and 10 shillings,

7442-524: The Roman road from Canterbury. This ran into what is now Southwark's Borough High Street and from there north to old London Bridge . The area became known for its travellers and inns, including Geoffrey Chaucer's Tabard Inn . The itinerant population brought with it poverty, prostitutes, bear baiting , theatres (including Shakespeare 's Globe ) and prisons. In 1796 there were five prisons in Southwark—

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7564-664: The Rose. In 1599 the Globe Theatre , in which Shakespeare was a shareholder, was erected on the Bankside in the Liberty of the Clink. It burned down in 1613, and was rebuilt in 1614, only to be closed by the Puritans in 1642 and subsequently pulled down not long thereafter. A modern replica, called Shakespeare's Globe , has been built near the original site. The impresario in the later Elizabethan period for these entertainments

7686-408: The Thames in Roman Britain , it determined the position of Londinium ; without London Bridge there is unlikely to have been a settlement of any importance in the area; previously the main crossing had been a ford near Vauxhall Bridge . Because of the bridge and the establishment of London, the Romans routed two Roman roads into Southwark: Stane Street and Watling Street which met in what in what

7808-430: The actions of the King, regarded as seditious although it had been passed by Parliament. When Sir John Eliot , Vice-Admiral of Devon, was moved to the Marshalsea in 1632 from the Tower of London for questioning the right of the King to tax imports and exports , he described it as leaving his palace in London for his country house in Southwark. Colonel Thomas Culpeper ended up in the Marshalsea in 1685 or 1687 for striking

7930-407: The bridge making it all but impregnable to the modest Royalist force. On 26 May 1676, ten years after the Great Fire of London , a great fire broke out, which continued for 17 hours before houses were blown up to create fire breaks. King Charles II and his brother, James , Duke of York , oversaw the effort. There was also a famous fair in Southwark which took place near the Church of St George

8052-412: The bridge, but according to Snorri Sturleson's saga, Edgar and Olaf tied ropes from the bridge's supporting posts and pulled it into the river, together with the Danish army, allowing Ethelred to recapture London. This may be the origin of the nursery rhyme " London Bridge Is Falling Down ". There was a church, St Olave's Church , dedicated to St Olaf before the Norman Conquest and this survived until

8174-588: The building which is named 'Town Hall Chambers' being licensed premises at the ground floor and apartments above. It is commemorated by the alley-way behind named Counter Court, i.e. 'Compter Court'. The 'lock-up' or Compter was replaced by a new building off Mill Lane (now Hay's Lane) on the present site of Hay's Galleria hence the name of the small passageway 'Counter Street' (Counter/ Compter). This also held persons committed for trial for felonies and misdemeanors as well as debtors, and others tried and sentenced to imprisonment, but not to hard labour. Borough Compter

8296-517: The common side to act as their servants. The prison reformer John Howard visited the Marshalsea on 16 March 1774. He reported that there was no infirmary, and that the practice of " garnish " was in place, whereby new prisoners were bullied into giving money to the older prisoners upon arrival. Five rooms on the master's side were being let to a man who was not a prisoner; he had set up a chandler's shop in one of them, lived in two others with his family, and sublet two to prisoners. During Howard's visit,

8418-427: The common side, was directed instead to a group of trusted prisoners who policed the prison on Acton's behalf. The same group swore during Acton's trial in 1729 for murder that the strong room was the best room in the house. Ginger writes that Acton and his wife, who lived in a comfortable apartment near the lodge, knew they were sitting on a powder keg: "When each morning the smell of freshly baked bread filled ...

8540-436: The connection with the City of London. In 1327 the city acquired from Edward III the original vill of Southwark and this was also described as "the borough". In 1536 Henry VIII acquired the Bermondsey Priory properties and in 1538 that of the Archbishop. In 1550 these were sold to the city. After many decades of petitioning, in 1550 Southwark was incorporated into the City of London as the ward of Bridge Without . However,

8662-502: The country in the 1770s inspecting jails, and presented his research in The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777). In a jail owned by the Bishop of Ely , Howard wrote, prisoners had ten years earlier been kept chained to the floor on their backs, with spiked collars round their necks and iron bars over their legs. The Duke of Portland had a one-room cellar in Chesterfield that housed four prisoners, with no straw or heat, which had not been cleaned for months. Lord Arundel owned

8784-572: The creation of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark . It comprised the parishes of Southwark Christchurch, Southwark St Saviours, Southwark St George the Martyr and Newington . The Metropolitan Borough of Southwark was based at the former Newington Vestry Hall, now known as Walworth Town Hall . The eastern parishes that had formed the St Olave District instead became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey . In 1965

8906-414: The debtors out. Prisoners' families, including children, often had to find employment simply to cover the cost of the imprisonment. Legislation began to address the problem from 1649 onwards, but it was slow to make a difference. Helen Small writes that, under George III (reigned 1760–1820), new legislation prevented debts of under 40 shillings leading to jail (equivalent to £382 in 2023) but even

9028-475: The early versions of London Bridge , for centuries the only dry crossing on the river. Around 43 AD, engineers of the Roman Empire found the geographic features of the south bank here suitable for the placement and construction of the first bridge. London's historic core, the City of London , lay north of the bridge and for centuries the area of Southwark just south of the bridge was partially governed by

9150-462: The first people of African heritage to work as independent business owners in London in that era. In 1587, Southwark's first playhouse theatre, The Rose , opened. The Rose was set up by Philip Henslowe , and soon became a popular place of entertainment for all classes of Londoners. Both Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare , two of the finest writers of the Elizabethan age, worked at

9272-510: The indictments be read out in Latin, but his worries were misplaced. The government wanted an acquittal to protect the good name of the Knight Marshal, Sir Philip Meadows , who had hired John Darby as prison governor, who in turn had leased the prison to Acton. Acton's favoured prisoners had testified on his behalf, introducing contradictory evidence that the trial judge stressed to the jury. A stream of witnesses spoke of his good character, including

9394-590: The king. From 1530 to 1698 the verge was usually 12 miles around the Palace of Whitehall , the royal family's main residence, but the Marshalsea was an ambulatory court that moved around the country with the king, dealing with trespass, contempt and debt. Increasingly it came to be used by people not connected to the royal household. Settled by the Romans around 43 AD, Southwark served as an entry point into London from southern England, particularly along Watling Street ,

9516-455: The larger prisons, furnish their rooms. One man found not guilty at trial in 1669 was not released because he owed prison fees from his pre-trial confinement, a position supported by the judge, Matthew Hale . Jailers sold food or let out space for others to open shops; the Marshalsea contained several shops and small restaurants. Prisoners with no money or external support faced starvation. If the prison did supply food to its non-paying inmates, it

9638-410: The last Roman Catholic Bishop of London, was imprisoned there in 1559, supposedly for his own safety, until his death 10 years later. William Herle , a spy for Lord Burghley , Elizabeth I 's chief adviser, was held there in 1570 and 1571. According to historian Robyn Adams, the prison leaked both physically and metaphorically; in correspondence about Marshalsea prisoners suspected of involvement in

9760-407: The last decade. Declining wharfage trade, light industry and factories have given way to residential development, shops, restaurants, galleries, bars and most notably major office developments housing international headquarters of accountancy, legal and other professional services consultancies, most notably along London Bridge City and More London between Tooley Street and the riverside. The area

9882-401: The main settlement of London to the north of the bridge, had been more or less abandoned, a little earlier, by the end of the fourth century. {{{annotations}}} Southwark appears to recover only during the time of King Alfred and his successors. Sometime about 886, the burh of Southwark was created and the Roman city area reoccupied. It was probably fortified to defend the bridge and hence

10004-463: The master's side, which housed about 50 rooms for rent, and the common or poor side, consisting of nine small rooms, or wards, into which 300 people were confined from dusk until dawn. Room rents on the master's side were ten shillings a week in 1728, with most prisoners forced to share. John Baptist Grano paid 2s 6d (two shillings and six pennies ) for a room with two beds on the master's side, shared with three other prisoners: Daniel Blunt,

10126-423: The most dauntless highwaymen and bearable only to toads and rats". One apparently diabetic army officer who died in the strong room—he had been ejected from the common side because inmates had complained about the smell of his urine—had his face eaten by rats within hours of his death, according to a witness. When William Acton ran the jail in the 1720s, the income from charities, collected to buy food for inmates on

10248-405: The most modest of debts, which increased as unpaid prison fees accumulated. The poorest faced starvation and, if they crossed the jailers, torture with skullcaps and thumbscrews . A parliamentary committee reported in 1729 that 300 inmates had starved to death within a three-month period, and that eight to ten were dying every 24 hours in the warmer weather. The prison became known around

10370-477: The name because they squeezed the prisoner's last money out of him. When Castell arrived at the sponging house on 14 November he was forced to share space with a man who was dying of smallpox , as a result of which he became infected and died less than a month later. Castell had a friend, James Oglethorpe , a Tory MP who years later founded the American colony of Georgia . Oglethorpe began to ask questions about

10492-408: The other six for less than a year. Southwark Southwark ( / ˈ s ʌ ð ər k / SUDH -ərk ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames , forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark . The district, which is the oldest part of South London , developed due to its position at the southern end of

10614-654: The present High Steward (the Recorder of London ). The Ward and Aldermanry were effectively abolished in 1978, by merging it with the Ward of Bridge Within. These manorial courts were preserved under the Administration of Justice Act 1977. Therefore, between 1750 and 1978 Southwark had two persons (the Alderman and the Recorder) who were members of the city's Court of Aldermen and Common Council who were elected neither by

10736-413: The prison was demolished in the 1870s, although parts of it were used as shops and rooms into the 20th century. A local library now stands on the site. All that is left of the Marshalsea is the long brick wall that marked its southern boundary, the existence of what Dickens called "the crowding ghosts of many miserable years" recalled only by a plaque from the local council. "[I]t is gone now," he wrote, "and

10858-544: The prison, but his health deteriorated and he died in St. Thomas's Hospital. The court was told of three other cases. Captain John Bromfield, Robert Newton and James Thompson all died after similar treatment from Acton: a beating, followed by time in the hole or strong room, before being moved to the sick ward, where they were left to lie on the floor in leg irons. So concerned was Acton for his reputation that he requested

10980-545: The reemerging City of London to the north. This defensive role is highlighted by the role of the bridge in the 1014-1016 war between King Ethelred the Unready and his ally Olaf II Haraldsson (later King of Norway, and afterwards known as St Olaf , or St Olave ) on one side, and Sweyn Forkbeard and his son Cnut (later King Cnut), on the other. London submitted to Swein in 1014, but on Swein's death, Ethelred returned, with Olaf in support. Swein had fortified London and

11102-658: The regulation of the city's Livery Companies . In 1327 the City obtained control from King Edward III of the manor next to the south side of London Bridge known as the Town of Southwark (called latterly the Guildable Manor —i.e., the place of taxes and tolls). The Livery Companies also ensured that they had jurisdiction over the area. From the Norman period manorial organisation obtained through major lay and ecclesiastic magnates. Southwark still has vestiges of this because of

11224-399: The rooms, and sell food and drink. Much of our information about the first Marshalsea is about the prison in the early 18th century, courtesy of three sources. John Baptist Grano (1692 – c. 1748), one of George Frederick Handel 's trumpeters at the opera house in London's Haymarket , was jailed there for a debt of £99 (£17,000 today), and kept a detailed diary, A Journal of My Life inside

11346-490: The smallest debt would exceed that once lawyers' fees were added. Under the Insolvent Debtors Act 1813 , debtors could request release after 14 days by taking an oath that their assets did not exceed £20, but if a creditor objected they had to stay inside. Even after years in prison, the debt remained to be paid. The Marshalsea occupied two buildings on the same street in Southwark. The first dated back to

11468-525: The strong room was so clean; the "best room on the Common side of the jail", said another. This despite the court's having heard that one prisoner's left side had mortified from lying on the wet floor, and that a rat had eaten the nose, ear, cheek and left eye of another. Bliss was left in the strong room for three weeks wearing a skullcap (a heavy vice for the head), thumb screws, iron collar, leg irons , and irons round his ankles called sheers. One witness said

11590-421: The swelling in his legs was so bad that the irons on one side could no longer be seen for overflowing flesh. His wife, who was able to see him through a small hole in the door, testified that he was bleeding from the mouth and thumbs. He was given a small amount of food but the skullcap prevented him from chewing; he had to ask another prisoner, Susannah Dodd, to chew his meat for him. He was eventually released from

11712-406: The tap room, or beer room, had been let to a prisoner who was living "within the rules" or "within the liberty" of the King's Bench prison; this meant that he was a King's Bench inmate who, for a fee, was allowed to live outside, within a certain radius of the prison. Although legislation prohibited jailers from having a pecuniary interest in the sale of alcohol within their prisons, it was a rule that

11834-407: The tideway, which still exists as St Mary Overie dock; the King owned the church (probably St Olave's ) and its tidal stream (St Olave's Dock); the dues of the waterway or mooring place were shared between King William I and Earl Godwin ; the King also had the toll of the strand; and "men of Southwark" had the right to "a haw and its toll". Southwark's value to the King was £ 16. Much of Southwark

11956-501: The time of Shakespeare 's Globe Theatre (which stood 1599–1642) has revived in the form of the post-1997 reinvention of the original theatre, Shakespeare's Globe , incorporating other smaller theatre spaces, an exhibition about Shakespeare's life and work and which neighbours Vinopolis and the London Dungeon . The Southbank area, primarily in Lambeth but shared with Southwark also hosts many artistic venues. At its heart

12078-545: The treatment of debtor prisoners, and a group of debtors, perhaps at Oglethorpe's instigation, lodged a complaint about their treatment with the Lord Mayor of London and his aldermen, who interviewed the Fleet's warden on 21 December 1728. In February 1729 the House of Commons appointed a parliamentary committee, the Gaols Committee, chaired by Oglethorpe, to examine conditions in the Fleet and Marshalsea. The committee visited

12200-496: The two boroughs were combined with the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell to form the current London Borough of Southwark . A new Diocese of Southwark was established in 1905 from parts of the Diocese of Rochester ; the diocese serves large parts of south London and Surrey. Southwark was outside of the control of the City of London and was a haven for criminals and free traders, who would sell goods and conduct trades outside

12322-441: The wall, but his pursuers severed it and he fell 20 feet into the prison yard. Wanting to know who had supplied the rope, Acton beat him with a bull's pizzle , stamped on his stomach, placed him in the hole (a damp space under the stairs), then in the strong room. Originally built to hold pirates, the strong room was just a few yards from the prison's sewer. It was never cleaned, had no drain, no sunlight, no fresh air—the smell

12444-613: The west of the Oxo Tower , to St Saviour's Dock (originally the mouth of the River Neckinger ) in the east. In the 16th century, parts of Southwark near London Bridge became a formal City ward, Bridge Without . The urban area expanded over the years and Southwark was completely separated administratively from the City in 1900. Local points of interest include Southwark Cathedral , Borough Market , Shakespeare's Globe theatre, The Shard , Tower Bridge , Butler's Wharf and

12566-474: The world in the 19th century through the writing of the English novelist Charles Dickens , whose father was sent there in 1824, when Dickens was 12, for a debt to a baker. Forced as a result to leave school to work in a factory, Dickens based several of his characters on his experience, most notably Amy Dorrit , whose father is in the Marshalsea for debts so complex no one can fathom how to get him out. Much of

12688-599: The world is none the worse without it." Marshalsea or marshalcy referred to the office of a marshal , derived from the Anglo-French mareschalcie . Marshal originally meant farrier , from the Old Germanic marh (horse) and scalc (servant), later a title bestowed on those presiding over the courts of Medieval Europe . Marshalsea was originally the name of the Marshalsea Court . The prison

12810-577: The yard ... only brutal suppression could prevent the Common Side from erupting." The common side did erupt after a fashion in 1728 when Robert Castell, an architect and debtor in the Fleet prison , who had been living in lodgings outside the jail within the rules, was taken to a " sponging house " after refusing to pay a higher prison fee to the Fleet's notorious warden, Thomas Bambridge . Sponging houses were private lodgings where prisoners were incarcerated before being taken to jail; they acquired

12932-491: Was Shakespeare's colleague Edward Alleyn , who left many local charitable endowments, most notably Dulwich College . During the Second English Civil War , a force of Kentish Royalist Rebels approached London, hoping the lightly defended city might fall to them, or that the citizens would rise in their favour, however their hopes were quashed when Philip Skippon , in charge of the defence swiftly fortified

13054-429: Was a bar run by the governor's wife, and a chandler's shop run in 1728 by a Mr and Mrs Cary, both prisoners, which sold candles, soap and a little food. There was a coffee shop run in 1729 by a long-term prisoner, Sarah Bradshaw, and a steak house called Titty Doll's run by another prisoner, Richard McDonnell, and his wife. There was also a tailor and a barber, and prisoners from the master's side could hire prisoners from

13176-600: Was built to hold those brought before that court and the Court of the King's Bench , to which Marshalsea rulings could be appealed. Also known as the Court of the Verge, and the Court of the Marshalsea of the Household of the Kings of England, the Marshalsea court was a jurisdiction of the royal household . From around 1290, it governed members of the household who lived within "the verge", defined as within 12 miles (19 km) of

13298-411: Was completely ignored. Howard reported that, in the summer of 1775, 600 pots of beer were brought into the Marshalsea one Sunday from a public house , because the prisoners did not like the beer in the tap room. Prisoners on the master's side rarely ventured to the common side. John Baptist Grano went there just once, on 5 August 1728, writing in his diary: "I thought it would have kill'd me." There

13420-542: Was controlled by the city's officers—it was later removed in order to improve traffic to the Bridge, under a separate Trust by Act of Parliament of 1756 as the Borough Market on the present site. The area was renowned for its inns, especially The Tabard , from which Geoffrey Chaucer 's pilgrims set off on their journey in The Canterbury Tales . The continuing defensive importance of London Bridge

13542-564: Was demonstrated by its important role in thwarting Jack Cade's Rebellion in 1450; Cade's army tried to force its way across the bridge to enter the City, but was foiled in a battle which cost 200 lives. The bridge was also closed during the Siege of London in 1471, helping to foil attempts by the Bastard of Fauconberg to cross and capture the City. Just west of the Bridge was the Liberty of

13664-416: Was described as "noisome"—and was full of rats and sometimes "several barrow fulls of dung". Several prisoners told the court that it contained no bed, so that prisoners had to lie on the damp floor, possibly next to corpses awaiting burial. But a group of favoured prisoners Acton had paid to police the jail told the hearing there was indeed a bed. One of them said he often chose to lie in there himself, because

13786-641: Was held for four months for libel over his Abuses Stript and Whipt (1613), 20 satires criticizing revenge, ambition and lust, one of them directed at the Lord Chancellor . Nicholas Udall , vicar of Braintree and headmaster of Eton College , was sent there in 1541 for buggery and suspected theft; his appointment in 1555 as headmaster of Westminster School suggests that the episode did his name no lasting harm. Irish nobles Brian O'Connor Faly , Baron Offaly , and Giolla Pádraig O'More , Lord of Laois , were imprisoned there in November 1548. O'More died in

13908-452: Was mostly made up of a series of often marshy tidal islands in the Thames, with some of the waterways between these island formed by branches of the River Neckinger , a tributary of the Thames. A narrow strip of higher firmer ground ran on a N-S alignment and, even at high tide, provided a much narrower stretch of water, enabling the Romans to bridge the river. As the lowest bridging point of

14030-537: Was no need for other prisoners to see it, John Ginger writes. It was enough that they knew it existed to keep the rental money, legal fees and other gratuities flowing from their families, fees that anywhere else would have seen them living in the lap of luxury, but which in the Marshalsea could be trusted merely to stave off disease and starvation. By all accounts, living conditions in the common side were horrific. In 1639 prisoners complained that 23 women were being held in one room without space to lie down, leading to

14152-405: Was one of the prisons visited and described by prison reformer John Howard who described it as in a deplorable condition: "out of repair and ruinous, without an infirmary and even without bedding; while most of the inmates were poor creatures from the 'Court of Conscience,' who lay there till their debts were paid." Defects in the discipline and management of this prison were strongly criticised by

14274-465: Was originally owned by the church – the greatest reminder of monastic London is Southwark Cathedral , originally the priory of St Mary Overie. During the early Middle Ages , Southwark developed and was one of the four Surrey towns which returned Members of Parliament for the first commons assembly in 1295. An important market occupied the High Street from some time in the 13th century, which

14396-506: Was patterned with knot patterns known as the Solomon's knot and dark red and blue floral and geometric shapes known as guilloche . Archaeological work at Tabard Street in 2004 discovered a plaque with the earliest reference to 'Londoners' from the Roman period on it. Londinium was abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation in the early 5th century and both the city and its bridge collapsed in decay. The settlement at Southwark, like

14518-438: Was purchased with charitable donations—donations sometimes siphoned off by the jailers—usually bread and water with a small amount of meat, or something confiscated as unfit for human consumption. Jailers would load prisoners with fetters and other iron, then charge for their removal, known as "easement of irons" (or "choice of irons"); this became known as the "trade of chains". The prison reformer John Howard travelled around

14640-567: Was released after three months, on 28 May 1824, but the family's financial situation remained poor and Dickens had to continue working at the factory, something for which he reportedly never forgave his mother. Years later he wrote about the Marshalsea and other debtors' prisons in The Pickwick Papers (1836–1837), David Copperfield (1849–1850), and most extensively in Little Dorrit (1855–1857), whose main character, Amy,

14762-698: Was the location of City Hall , the administrative headquarters of the Greater London Authority and the meeting place of the London Assembly and Mayor of London . Since 2009, Southwark London Borough Council has its main offices at 160 Tooley Street , having moved administrative staff from the Camberwell Town Hall . In common with much of the south bank of the Thames , the Borough has seen extensive regeneration in

14884-490: Was the principal determining factor for the location of London Bridge, and therefore London itself. Until relatively recent times, the Thames in central London was much wider and shallower at high tide. The natural shoreline of the City Of London was a short distance further back than it is now, and the high tide shoreline on the Southwark side was much further back, except for the area around London Bridge. Southwark

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