The Fleet: Its River, Prison, And Marriages

The Fleet ITS RIVER, PRISON, AND MARRIAGES

BY JOHN ASHTON ( Author of "Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne," "Dawn of the Nineteenth Century," &amp;c., &amp;c., &amp;c. ) ILLUSTRATED BY PICTURES FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND ENGRAVINGS New York SCRIBNER AND WELFORD 1888...

28 minute read

Read Chapter

PREFACE.

THIS book requires none, except a mere statement of its scheme. Time has wrought such changes in this land of ours, and especially in its vast Metropolis, "The Modern Babylon," that the old land-marks are gradually being effaced—and in a few generations would almost be forgotten, were it not that some one noted them, and left their traces for future perusal. All have some little tale to tell; even this little River Fleet, which with its Prison, and its Marriages—are things utterly of the past, e

1 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER I.

ONLY a little tributary to the Thames, the River Fleet, generally, and ignominiously, called the Fleet Ditch , yet it is historically interesting, not only on account of the different places through which its murmuring stream meandered, almost all of which have some story of their own to tell, but the reminiscences of its Prison stand by themselves—pages of history, not to be blotted out, but to be recorded as valuable in illustration of the habits, and customs, of our forefathers. The City of L

15 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER II.

LONDON, for its size, was indeed very well supplied with water, although, of course, it was not laid on to every house, as now, but, with the exception of those houses provided with wells, it had to be fetched from fixed public places, which were fairly numerous. When the waters of the Fleet, and Wallbrook, in the process of time, became contaminated, Henry III., in the 21st year of his reign (1236), granted to the Citizens of London the privilege of conveying the waters of the Tye-bourne throug

14 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER III.

THE Fleet, as far as can be ascertained, owes its birth to an ornamental water, fed by springs—one of the numerous ponds in Highgate and Hampstead—in the park of Ken Wood, the seat of Earl Mansfield, now occasionally occupied by the fourth successor to that title; who, being keeper of the royal Castle of Scone, prefers, as a rule, his northern residence. In the No Popery riots of 1780, with which Lord George Gordon was so intimately connected, Ken Wood House was on the brink of being destroyed b

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IV.

THAT it was countrified about this part of London, is shown by the accompanying Copy of an engraving, by J. T. Smith, of a view "near Battle Bridge." [18] The etymology of Battle Bridge, which consists of only one arch, and now forms a part of the Fleet Sewer, is a much vexed question. At one time it was an article of faith, not to be impugned, that here, A.D. 61, was fought the famous battle between the Romans, under Suetonius Paulinus, and the Britons, under Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni, which

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER V.

AS the Fleet was "the River of Wells" it may be as well to notice the Wells, which, although not absolutely contributing towards swelling its volume, are yet closely adjacent—namely, White Conduit, and Sadlers Wells. Both of these, as indeed were all the other Wells about London, were first known as mineral springs, a fact which drew the middle classes to seek relief from real, or fancied, ailments, by drinking the medicinal waters, as at Bath, Epsom, Cheltenham, Harrogate, Brixton, and elsewher

17 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VI.

SADLER'S WELLS does not really feed the Fleet River, but I notice the spring, for the same reason that I noticed the White Conduit. A very fair account of its early history is given in a little pamphlet entitled "A True and Exact Account of Sadlers Well: or the New Mineral Waters. Lately found out at Islington: Treating of its nature and Virtues. Together with an Enumeration of the Chiefest Diseases which it is good for, and against which it may be used, and the Manner and Order of Taking of it.

10 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VII.

BETWEEN this house, and Bagnigge Wells, was Bagnigge Wash, or Marsh, and Black Mary's Wells, or Hole. The etymology of this place is contested. In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1813, part ii. p. 557, in an "Account of various Mineral Wells near London," is the following: "Lastly, in the same neighbourhood, may be mentioned the spring or conduit on the eastern side of the road leading from Clerken Well to Bagnigge Wells, and which has given name to a very few small houses as Black Mary's Hole . Th

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER VIII.

THE gardens were pretty, after the manner of the times; we should not, perhaps, particularly admire the formally cut lines and hedges, nor the fountain in which a Cupid is hugging a swan, nor the rustic statuary of the haymakers. Still it was a little walk out of London, where fresh air could be breathed, and a good view obtained of the northern hills of Hampstead and Highgate, with the interlying pastoral country, sparsely dotted with farmhouses and cottages. The Fleet, here, had not been pollu

9 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER IX.

A LITTLE farther on, it washed the walls of Cold Bath Fields Prison, the House of Correction , and we get a view of it in Hone's "Table Book," [41] p. 75. Here he says, "In 1825, this was the first open view, nearest London, of the ancient River Fleet: it was taken during the building of the high arched walls connected with the House of Correction, Cold Bath Fields, close to which prison the river ran, as here seen. At that time, the newly erected walls communicated a peculiarly picturesque effe

14 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER X.

COLDBATH FIELDS were, a hundred and twenty years ago, fairly rural, for (although it certainly is recorded as an abnormal occurrence) we find, in the Daily Courant , November 12, 1765, "Friday afternoon, about two o'clock, a hare crossed the New Road, near Dobney's Bowling green, ran to the New River Head, and from thence to Coldbath Fields, where, in some turning among the different avenues, she was lost. She appeared to have been hard run, by her dirty and shabby coat." These fields took their

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XI.

IT is almost impossible to write about anything connected with Spa Fields, without mentioning the famous "Spa Fields Riots," which occurred on Dec. 2, 1816. In every great city there will always be a leaven of disquietude: demagogues who have nothing to lose, but all to gain, will always find an audience for their outpourings; and, often, the ignorant, and unthinking, have only to be told, by any knave, that they are underpaid, downtrodden, or what not, and they are ready to yell, with their swe

12 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XII.

STILL continuing the downward course of the Fleet, an historical place is reached, "Hockley-in-the-Hole," or Hollow, so famous for its rough sports of bear baiting and sword and cudgel playing. The combative nature of an Englishman is curious, but it is inbred in him; sometimes it takes the form of "writing to the papers," sometimes of going to law, sometimes of "punching" somebody's head; in many it ends in a stubborn fight against difficulties to be overcome—but, anyhow, I cannot deny that an

21 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIII.

IN connection with the Fleet, I have omitted to mention one locality, in this immediate neighbourhood, which certainly deserves notice from its associations, namely Laystall Street and Mount Pleasant; for here it was, that a fort to command Gray's Inn Road, was built, when the lines for the protection of the City were formed by order of Parliament in 1643—at the time when it was feared that Prince Rupert was coming to attack it. For nearly, if not quite, a hundred years those lines of defence we

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIV.

CLOSE by Saffron Hill, and Fleet Lane, is Hatton Garden, or Ely Place, formerly the seats of the Bishops of Ely; which Shakespeare has made so familiar to us in Richard III. act iii. sc. 4. "My Lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there; I do beseech you, send for some of them." [66] In Queen Elizabeth's time an arrangement was effected so that her favourite Chancellor Hatton, who "led the brawls, the Seal and Maces danc'd before him," [67] should have

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XV.

THEN, close by (still keeping up its title of the River of the Wells) was Lamb's Conduit, on Snow Hill, which was fed from a little rill which had its source near where the Foundling Hospital now stands, its course being perpetuated by the name of Lamb's Conduit Street, where, according to the "Old English Herbal," watercresses used to flourish. "It groweth of its own accord in gardens and fields by the way side, in divers places, and particularly in the next pasture to the Conduit Head, behind

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVI.

HATTON, writing in 1708, says: " Fleet Bridge is even with the Str(eet); it leads from Fleet Street over the Fleet Ditch to Ludgate Hill ; is accommodated with strong Battlements which are adorned with six Peers and enriched with the Arms of London , and Supporters Pine-apples, &amp;c., all of Stone; and bet(wee)n the Peers are Iron Rails and Bannisters, on the N. &amp; S. sides of the Bridge." On either side of where the Bridge used to be, are two obelisks, one on the North, or Farringd

16 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVII.

THE Course of the Fleet is nearly run, but, before closing this account of the river, we should not forget the residence of the mighty King-maker, the Earl of Warwick, whose pleasant gardens ran down to the Fleet; and there, in Warwick Lane, after the great Fire, was built the College of Physicians, described thus by Dr. Garth, in his "Dispensary":— "Not far from that most celebrated Place, Where angry Justice shews her awful Face; Where little Villains must submit to Fate, That great ones may e

19 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XVIII.

BORDERING upon Bridewell, and almost part and parcel of it, was Whitefriars, which, westward, ran to the Temple, and eastward to the Fleet. It is so-called from a Carmelite monastery, established here in the reign of Edward I. Within its precincts was the right of sanctuary, and, like the Jewish Cities of Refuge, offenders against the law might flee thither, and be protected from arrest. Naturally, the very scum of London floated thither, to the Mint in Southwark, and the precincts of the Savoy

6 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XIX.

THIS prison was of great antiquity, and its genealogy, like all respectable ones, dates back to William the Conqueror, at least; for we find, under date 1197, [84] "Natanael de Leveland &amp; Robertus filius suus r.c. de LX marcis, Pro habenda Custodia Domorum Regis de Westmonasterio, &amp; Gaiolæ de Ponte de Fliete, quæ est hæreditas eorum a Conquestu Angliæ; ita quod non remaneat propter Finem Osberto de Longo Campo." Or, in English, " Nathaniel de Leveland and his son Robert, fined in

19 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XX.

THE Fleet was, evidently, a handy prison, elastic enough to suit all cases, for on Aug. 19, 1553, at the Star Chamber, "Roger Erthe, alias Kinge, servaunt to Therle of Pembroke, and William Ferror, servaunt to the Lord Sturton, were, for making of a Fraye, committed to the Charge of Warden of the Fleete." In September, 1553, the Fleet received a prisoner whose name is historical wherever the English language is read, for the Privy Council being held at Richmond, on the 1st of Sept. "This day app

13 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXI.

THE second count brought against him by his mutinous prisoners was "Remouing a prisoner out of his chamber, hauing 51 lib. 1 s. hid vnder his bed, which the prisoner required he might go to his chamber to dispose of, which was denied, and he thrust vp in another roome close prisoner, vntill the Warden and some of his seruants rifled his bed of that mony." Hear the Warden's defence:— "By this is pretended that one Coppin (who euer did beare the name of a poore fellowe) lost 51 li., with takeing w

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXII.

THINGS got so bad that Parliament ordered a Committee to inquire into it, and they began their sitting in Feb. 25, 1729. But, previously, the prisoners had petitioned the Lord Chief Justice and other justices without effect, and those petitions with Huggins' (who was the Warden) replies were published in a folio pamphlet, which contains much information. [110] The first petition was in 1723, and it was mainly addressed to the extortions of the Master, the sixth Article alledging that the fees ex

32 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXIII.

BUT enough of the miserables in connection with the Fleet Prison. We shall find that it is even possible for a prisoner to write pleasantly, nay, even somewhat humorously, upon his position, as we may see by the perusal of a poem entitled "The Humours of the Fleet. An humorous, descriptive Poem. Written by a Gentleman of the College" &amp;c., Lond. 1749. Under the frontispiece, which represents the introduction of a prisoner into its precincts, is a poem of thirty-two lines, of which the fol

2 hour read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXIV.

In the Criminal prisons, the prisoners themselves demanded Garnish from a new-comer, that is, a trifle of money—to drink. In 1708, at Newgate, this sum seems to have been Six shillings and Eightpence "Which they, from an old Custom, claim by Prescription, Time out of Mind, for entring into the Society , otherwise they strip the poor Wretch, if he has not wherewithal to pay it." [149] And in the old Play of the Lying Lover we are introduced to a Scene in Newgate where the prisoners are demanding

32 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXV.

"The Warden presents his compliments to the Editor of the Times , and begs to state, that a paragraph having appeared in the paper of this morning, stating that the Fleet Prison is very full, and that a guinea and a half a week is paid for a single room, and that four, five, and six persons are obliged to live in a small apartment. "The Warden, not being aware of this, should it in any case exist, and which is contrary to the established regulations against any person so offending, the prison no

27 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXVI.

THERE is no doubt that in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Marriage laws, as we now understand them, were somewhat lax, and it is possible that it was so long before that time, for in Edward VI.'s time an Act was passed (2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. 21, s. 3) entitled "An Act to take away all positive laws made against marriage of priests." Section 3 provides that it shall not "give any liberty to any person to marry without asking in the church, or without any ceremony being appointed by th

29 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXVII.

" John Hall. I saw her married at the Fleet to Robert Holmes; 'twas at the Hand and Pen, a barber's shop. " Counsel. And is it not a wedding shop too? " Hall. Yes, I don't know the parson's name, but 'twas a man that once belonged to Creed Church, a very, lusty, jolly man. " Counsel. Because there's a complaint lodged in a proper court, against a Fleet Parson, whom they call The Bishop of Hell." Some verses, however, absolutely settle the title upon Gaynam. "THE FLEET PARSON A Tale, BY ANTI MATR

27 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Peter Symson, who married 1731-1754, describes himself in his handbill, as "educated at the University of Cambridge, and late Chaplain to the Earl of Rothes." His "Chapel" was at the Old Red Hand and Mitre, three doors from Fleet Lane, and next door to the White Swan. As were most of his fellows, he was witness in a bigamy trial in 1751. He was asked, "Why did you marry them without license? " Symson. Because somebody would have done it, if I had not. I was ordained in Grosvenor Square Chapel by

11 minute read

Read Chapter

CHAPTER XXX.

THERE are several instances of Committal to the Fleet for meddling with Marriages. One or two will suffice:— 1731. "Thursday, the Master of the Rolls committed a Clergyman to the Fleet for marrying a young Gentleman about 17 years of Age at Eaton School, and intitled to an Estate of £1500 per Annum, to a Servant Maid: and at the same time committed the person who gave her in Marriage. His Honour had some days since sent as Prisoner to the Fleet, the Person who pretended to be the Youth's Guar

13 minute read

Read Chapter