The King’s Bench and the Marshalsea Prisons
The early history of Marshalsea Prison and the Prison of the King’s Bench are deeply intertwined as both were royal prisons and, to begin with, were associated with the royal court - wherever it was travelling in the country. However, after 1215, when Clause 17 of the Magna Carta Charter, stated that courts should be held in one place and not held wherever the king happened to be staying, both the King’s Bench and Marshalsea found permanent places on what is now Borough High Street in Southwark. However, it appears from the records that, not only did prisoners remain in the travelling prisons on occasion, but also that the King’s Bench and Marshalsea travelling prisons became interchangeable. For example, in 1324, John de Castello, a rebel, was mentioned as being held in the Marshalsea at York, and in 1339, John Gerard, a "chaplain," received a pardon for robberies and for escaping from the King's Bench's Marshalsea prison in Canterbury.1
Numerous entries in the Close and Patent Rolls reference a royal prison in Southwark during the 13th century, but there is no clear indication that a dedicated building for this purpose existed until 1373. That year, the "good men of the town of Suthwerk" were granted permission to construct a building on the high street, measuring 40 by 30 feet, to host the sessions of the Marshalsea Court and to house its prisoners.2 From this point forward, there seem to have been two prisons in Southwark: one for the Marshalsea Court and one for the King's Bench.
Initially, both the court and the prison of the Marshalsea were used exclusively for cases involving offenses committed near the King's Court. However, from 1430 onward, records also mention the Admiralty Court in Southwark and the imprisonment of sailors for piracy and other maritime crimes. References to debt-related imprisonment at the Marshalsea begin to appear around this same period. In later centuries, the Marshalsea became notorious for the inhumane conditions that many of the prisoners were kept in. Due to both the unsanitary, cramped and disease-ridden environment, and its dilapidated state, the original prison was closed in 1811 and prisoners transferred to a new prison built 130 yards to the south. The new Marshalsea though, was to have a short life: it was closed permanently in 1842 and mostly demolished (only a boundary wall now remains).
The King’s Bench Prison suffered from being burnt in the riots of 1381 and 1450 and was demolished in 1761. However a replacement prison had already been built in 1758 on a site nearby. By 1842, its name had been changed to the Queen’s Prison but this marked the steady decline of the place. Thirty years later it was closed and demolished – this time for good.
The Clink
Like many of London’s prisons, this one was built in the 12th century (1151 to be precise) and actually consisted of two prisons: one for men and one for women. It was situated in Southwark, in what was known as the Liberty of the Bishop of Winchester. The Bishops of Winchester, from one incumbent to the next, had owned that parcel of land since the early part of the 12th century - an area which not only included the prison and Winchester Palace (the residence of the Bishops of Winchester), but also the area’s notorious stews, brothels, inns and gambling dens.3 With such a reputation, it is hardly surprising that the prison’s main use was to hold those responsible for disturbing the peace.
During the Peasant’s Revolt in 1381, and also Jack Cade’s rebellion of 1450, The Clink suffered major damage and needed to be rebuilt, the latter rebuilding resulting in a new two-storey prison housing just men on the site of what is now The Clink Prison Museum.
During the reign of Mary I period, the prison was mainly used for religious non-conformists, and, a bit later, Royalist supporters during the English Civil War. It also housed some of the Puritans who later became the first Pilgrim Fathers to sail to the New World. The prison fell out of general use just after the English Civil War and was destroyed by fire during the Gordon Riots of 1780. Today a museum detailing life in the prison stands on the site.
Cal. Patent Rolls
Cal. Patent Rolls
One of the Bishop of Winchester’s duties was the licensing and regulation of the Liberty’s prostitutes, from which, it must be assumed, he made a good bit of money. This why another term for the prostitutes of Southwark was ‘the Bishop of Winchester’s geese’.
A fantastic account with well researched detail.