maye not be any wayes burthensome to the pishe ever afterwards. To
distribut and satisfye to the Creditor and Creditors pte and pte like

20 according to the quality and true some of their principall debte
that to cache Creditor is due in the said whole estate. And all
those prisoners whose estate by the said Justices haue byn examyned
and so ordred and decreed for the satisfying of their creditors as
aforesaid to be forthw*'' by them absolutly fFreed and sett at liberty

25 and never afterwards to be Impriso'ned againe for the said debts.
And that from hensforth no Goaler or Keep of any prison shall
deteyne or keepe any the said prisoner or prisoners for any ffee or
ffees or dutyes whatsoeu''. And whereas the prison"" or prisone''s
whose estate and meanes vppon due examynacion shall appere to be

30 nothing worth, they to be Absolutly fFreed and dischardged by the
said Justices and Comiss""^ p''sently out of prison. Whereas otlier-
wise his ma''' Loaseth his subiects and his service the Comon Welth
their members and many Thousands of wyves children and famelyes
shall and wilbe still in penury, missery and ppetuall beggery. And

CAMD. SOC. 2 A



178 APPENDIX.

the poore prison'' him self lead a misserable vnprofitable and dis-
contented life by their dollerous durance and Crewell Imprisom\

Be it also fiirther enacted by this p^'sent Parliament That frome
hensforth The Gustos rotturolu of euy Sheire and County w'''in this
Realme of England and Dominon of Walls, Or in his Absence 5
ffower of the Auncients Justices of the peace there in person at the
Sessions once euly yere shall haue full power and Aucthority by
tliis p''sent Acte of Parliament to nominate and appolnte 6. 4. or 3
of sufficient wyse discreet men of Understanding and Judgment
either Knights Esquiers Justices of peace or gent of good quallity 10
next or nere adioyning to any place or places where any Goales or
prisoii's are in, w^'' place or prison any prisoS or prisorrs are Im-
prisoned for any debte or debts aforesaid as well w*hin any liberty
or libertyes Burrowes or Corporacions wheresoeuJ w'^hin his ma*^
said Realme of England or Dominion of Walls. And then and their 15
the said Comissioras to call before them or any 6. 4. or 3. of them
all such prison! and p'"sori]s w'^'" doe or shall at any tyme hereafter lye
or remayne in prison for debte or debts vppon any execution, Judgm'
Statut, or by any of the aforesaid securityes aboue pticulerly declared
and specifyed And they the said Comiss'"^ or any 6. 4 or 3 of them 20
to haue all such full power and aucthority to examyne the debter
and debters, Creditor, and Creditors, wytnes and wytnesses and
pfes on either syde by oath in euly respecte for the satisfying of the
creditors. And releasement of the prisoner and freeing of his suertyes
in eujy respecte as fully lawfully and as Lardgly in euly respecte 25
as is by this p''sent Acte of Parliament geven and before declared
to all and euJy the said Justices of peace aboue said or any 6.
4 or 3 of them and to all intents and purposses as aforesaid.
And so to free any such prisonJ or p'soSs as before is specifyed
and declared. And also it is hereby further enacted that yf30
any Creditor or Creditors being sumuoned and warned bv warrent
from the said Justices of peace or ComissioSs or any 6. 4. or
3 of them shall refuse to come and to appere in pson before the
said Justices or ComissioSs or any 6 4 or 3 of them. That then



APPENDIX. 179

tlie said Justices or Comiss*"^ or any 6 4 or 3 of them shall by this
p'sent Acte haue full power & Aucthority hei'cby to free the said
p''soiij out of prison for the said dcbte. And sucli Creditor &
Creditors to stand to such order and decre as the said Justices or
5 Comiss''^ or any 6 4 or 3 of them shall in their discretion sett downe
and agree vppon, And that the said Justices for their pte and also
the said Comissions aforesaid be by this Acte enioyned to execut
& performe the Aucthority of this said Acte for the spedier deliiuy
and enlardgment of prison] s aforesaid at 4 seulall tynies in euJy

10 yere, or fouer or oftner (yf need shall requier) Viz the fFeast of St.
John Baptist, St. Mickhell Tharkeaungell the Birth of o'" Lord
God And the Anuciaclon of o*' Blessed Lady St JNIary the virgin
(or w^^'in Tenn dayes before euJy of the said seulall fFeasts). And
also the said ComissioSs in euJ sheire and County shall nominate and

15 appoint one sufficient Clerke to be Eegester in euJy seulall shiere and
County to Regester and record all such orders matters and agree-
ments as shalbe made decreed and sett downe by the said Justices
and Comissie'"^ at all tymes, or by any 6 4 or 3 of them where vnto
any of his mat^ sub^^ and Creditors maye repayer there to take

20 knowledge and see the pceedings orders and decres by the said
Justices or Commission''s sett downe and made for their satisfacion.
And that the said Regester may be by them sworne truly to sett
downe and Eegester the same, and so to keepe a true and pfecte
record theirof. And that they shall haue power to allowe the said

25 Regester such reasonable fFee for his paynes and attendance to doe
the same as they in their discretions shall thinke meete, And the
same to be equally payed by the Creditors and debtors Indifferently.
Provided allwayes that yf any Creditor or Creditors shall refuse to
stand to such order and decre as the said Justices or ComissioSs or

30 any 6 4 or 3 of them shall make and sett downe and by them ap-
pointed to be entred and Regestred by the said Clarke That then
the said Justices or ComissioSs or any 6 4 or 3 of them shall have
full power and Aucthority by this Acte absolutly to ffree and dis-
chardg the said prison] or prisoSs so by them the said Creditor or
Creditors Imprisoned. And whereas diu]se attornyes in his mal^



180 APPENDIX.

Courts doe apperc for diuJse his mat^ sub'^ w"'out warrant from the
ptye so to doe, to the great p^'iudiec and somtymes vndoing of
diulsc his mat^ said sub'^ Be it theirfore enacted from hensforth
that no attorny in any of his ma^ Courts shall hereafter appere for
any his mat^ sub'^ in any accion or siute whatsoeuj hereafter to be 5
brought or commenced against them or any of them \v"'out he hath
a Lawfull warrant vnder the Hand of the said ptye for whome he
is to appere or comence any suit vppon payne to Lease his practiz
eS after And to fforfitt to the Kings mat^*^ C' And the siut so
brought w^^out warrant as aforesaid to be voyde against these his 10
ma'^ sub*^ w'^^ shalbe their uppon sued. Provided allwayes that the
forinj acte for releasment of prisons nor any thing theirin Conteyned
shall not in any wyse bynd the Kings mat'® his hyers or successors
for any debte originally due to him or them, but that such order or
course shalbe taken for the recouling and Levying of his ma*^ said
debts his heyers and successors as were vsed and hadd before the
making of this Acte, any thing theirin Conteyned to the Contrary
theirof not w*'' standinffe.



APPENDIX VI. ^^

The Condition of the Eleet in 1691.

The following extract is taken from a rare little volume kindly
lent me by Mr. Thoms, entitled, 20

The Cry of the Oppressed.

Being A True and Tragical Account of the Unparall'd Sufferings
of IMultitudes of poor Imprisoned Debtors, in most of the Gaols
in EtKjland, under the Tyranny of the Gaolers, and other 25
Oppressors, &c.

^ ^ 5fC ^ -^

London, Printed for Moses Pitt, and sold by the Booksellers of
London and Westminster, 12mo. 1691.



APPENDIX. 181

A relation of some of the Barbarities of Richard Manlove Esq.
the present Warden of the Fleet, which has lately been found
guilty of Oppression and Extortion by a Jury of twelve men.

The said Warden lock'd up (till opend by the Worthy Mr.
5 Justice Lutioijche) threescore gentlemen and others, in a loathsome
Place called the Wards, for non-payment of excessive chamber-rent,
where was a noisome House of Office near their lodgings, not
allowing the King's beds, but forcing them to procure beds, or lie
on the ground: and keeping men dead amongs*^ them, for his prc-
10 tended Dues till they infected others. Witness. James Mott then a
Strangei", and of the Jury.

Richard Brockas Esq. was carried down thither, for not paying
Excessive Chamber-rent, and his wife and servants denied to bring
him victuals or physic: and when he died the jury summoned, covdd
1 5 not but find his death occasioned by cruelty and they were dismissed
by contrivance with the Coroner: and when he was buried, a new
jury summoned, he taken up again and an Inquisition returned
contrary to law. Witness Mrs. Elizabeth Brockas his widow.

Sir John Pettus of Suffolk, Baronet, for not paying extorting
20 dues, was forced from his Chamber; his books. Cloths, and jMonies
seized, and he turned into a little Room (now the Warden's Coach-
man's Lodging,) who being a learned studious person for want of
those necessaries, he melancholly died, and was kept many days
above ground: his friends being denied his body till they paid
25 the Warden's pretended dues. Witness Mr. John Warren, Air.
Briggs, Clerk of the Fleet, now Marshall of the King's Bench.

Sir William Ducy, Baronet, was kept by the Warden in his
Coachhouse till he was drawn out with Ropes, being so offensive,
that none could come near him. Witness Mrs. Anne Facey Cham-
30 berlain.

Symon Eclolph Esq. Seventy-Eight years of age, the son of Sir
Thomas Edolph of Kent, for not paying 42 pounds demanded of
him, when he proffered thirty pounds, which was for a little room
about twelve foot square, after the rate of Six shillings per Week



182 APPENDIX.

besides payment of the Chamberlain was dragged down to the Wards,
in the hard weather & there not allowed a bed, but must have lain
on the ground had he not (at his own charge) procured one, and is
now in the Wards. Witness, Richard Hare, William Higginson,
Waiters, Mr. John Machen, Mr. John Femberton, Mr. Planning, '^
Mr. Warren.

Walter Cowdrey Gaoler of Winchester, for about 2 or 3 months
Chamber Eent, kept above ground till it caused a sickness in the
next room, and his friends denied to take his body without paying
extorting Fees. ^ ^

By which, may be perceived the Inhumanity of this Gaoler, not
only to gentlemen, but one of his own trade & calling.

Sir George Putaay Serj: at Law, dying of a dropsie: and being
a very great fat Man, was kept (for extorting Fees,) till a judges
Warrant was procured for his delivery. 1 5

Moses Pitt of London. Bookseller, being committed Prisoner to
the Fleet, April the 20t'> 1689, lodged on the Gentleman's side in
a chamber which the Warden values at eight shillings per week,
tho of right its but two shillings and fourpence, the rest being ex-
action (and the said Moses Pitt, at the time of writing of this 20
has two Chambers within the rules of the Kings-Bench for one
shilling three pence per week, twice as good as the said Chamber)
he the said Pitt continued in the said Chamber from the said 20'
of April 1689 to the 26''^ of August 1690 which was seventy weeks,
and three days, in which time the said Pitt had paid the Warden 25
his commitment Fee, Two Pounds four shillings and sixpence,
where as there is but four pence due; Pitt also paid him fourteen
shillings for two day-writs, and was to pay him eight shillings,
fourpence at the going out of the Gate, (Every Prisoner there in
Execution pays eleven shillings and two pence a Day when he goes 30
abroad about his business) but the said Warden kept his said
fourteen shillings, and would not let him go out of the gates of
the prison by which the said Pitt lost his tryals, which was many
thousand poimds damage to him. The said Pitt also paid the said



APPENDIX.



[( UNIVERSITY )j



183



Warden for Chamber rent fifteen pounds, and the said Warden
had of ^^r. Stephen Upman, Fellow of Eaton College, and brother
to Pitt's wife (who was committed Prisoner upon a false oath sworn
in the open Court of the Common Pleas, by two of Pitt's adversaries,
5 on Nov. 15, 1689 an account of which is at large related in Pitts
Case herewith printed) and of John Pitt Son of the said Moses
Pitt, and of i/r. Lock, and Mr. Bland, the said Pitfs friends, £17.6. 8.
for one nio'hts lodging. Notwithstanding the said Warden of the
Fleet had received of the said Pitt and his friends (which was all
10 upon Pitt's account) £35. 5. 2. when there was due to him, and the
Parson of the Fleet, besides the one nights lodging for the said
Pitts four friends but £9. 8. 4. from the said 20"> of April 1689 to
the 26*'' of August 1690, upon which day he threw down the said
Pitt into the Wards or Dungeon of the said Prison and there
15 lock'd him up within the Door of the said Wards for five days
without allowing him any bed or any thing else to lodg on : and
altho' the said Pitfs wife came to see her husband in this miserable
place, he the said Warden would not permit the said Pitt to come
up into the yard of the Prison to speek with his wife, upon which
20 the said Pitts wife was forc'd to send him a bed to lodg on & there
the said Pitt continued and lodg'd in a room with twenty seven
more Prisoners most of which livd on the basket and beg'd at the
grate : one of which said Mendicant Prisoners after he had, in order to
take the benefit of the Act sworn himself not worth more than £10
25 died at the said Pitts bed head, (he was a Man full of Vermin, of
a corrupt body, and bursten), at 12 of the Clock at night. And
one day the said Pitt being at prayers in the Chappel of the said
prison, was taken with a Delirium or Apoplectic fit, and getting
into this noisome cell threw himself on his Bed, and so lay some hours,
30 upon which one of his friends goes to the Warden and acquaints
him in what condition the said Pitt lay & desired him_^that the said
Pitt might have a chamber till he was well, paying him for it. But
the said warden denied the said friend of Pitt that request. In
this same dismal place did the said Pitt continue from the 26th of



1 84 APPENDIX.

August 1690 to the 16tli of May 1G91 in all which time he was not
ahlc to keep himself clean from vermin, being forced to Louse himself
most commonly twice a day either in the open ward or in the house
of office : For at any time if the said Pitt had the \isc of any of the
Gentlemen's Chambers for his Devotions, study, and louseing him- 5
self, if the said Warden came to hear of it, both he and his wife
would be very angry with the said gentlemen, and would hunt him
thence as a partridge upon the mountains. And that the Eeader
may be satisfied that it was impossible for the said Pitt to keep
himself clean from Vermin, whilst he continued in the said wards 10
of the Fleet Prison he doth assure his readers that many of his
chamber fellows were so lowsie, that as they either walked or sat
down, you might have pick'd lice off from their outward garments.
But enough of this least my Reader scrubs and scratches at the
reading of it. The said Pitt was removed from the Fleet Prison
to the Kings Bench on the 16th May. 1691. 15



NOTES.



p. y, 1. 25. John C'/dton appears as Warden of the Fleet in 1584, and was certainly
Warden as late as 27 June, 1586. (Cal. Dom. Elh.. 1581-1590, pp. 170, 3:ir> )
About his death I have been able to discover nothing. Edward 2'irr, II yv&s
Warden in 1581 (21 June), n.s. p. 21. For Joachim Newton see App. p. 163.
For Brian Anslan-e and George livyncll see p. 115.

P. 9, 1. 31. But in this time . . . See Appendix p. 168.

P. 12, 1. 3. Soe the Lord Chauncellor moved his Majesty, J)-c. This was on the 26
July, 1618, as appears by the Privy Council Records.

P. 18, 1. 30. . . . they have not only paid [tahing nothing for it) but yet further
exhibited to the Warden, i.e. paid the fees, found themselves, and given the
Warden a dovcenv into the bargain (see p. 105, 1. 20). The Warden pro-
bably alludes to Dudley, Lord North, vf\io had recently been committed to his
custody : viz. on the 21 May, 1620 {MS. Records of Privy Council). The
cause of his committal seems to have been a quarrel with Lord Digby
mentioned in Birch, Court and Times of James I. vol. ii. p. 202.

P. 19, 1. 26 a certayne reverend bishopp .... Apparently Cuthbert Scott,

Bishop of Chester, committed to the Fleet in 1561 (Cal. Dom. Add. 1547-
1565, p. 524). He appears to have given a bond to remain within 20 miles
of Finchingfield in Essex {Cal. Dom. 1547-1580, p. 247). The bond must
have been forfeited, for he escaped and died at Louvain some time before
1564, for in a document of that date he is called " the late Dr. Scott." (See
Brady^s EjnscojJal Succession, vol. i. p. 106.)

P. 23, 1. 29. Mr. Leccester. George Leicester, see p. 120.

P. 23, 1. 29. Thrashe. This eccentric personage managed to attract much attention
to himself, as the following extracts will show:

" ^Master John Thrash, born in the county of Somerset and a schoolmaster
there, being about four and thirty years of age, came to London about the
year of our Lord 1617, where being zealously affected in the path of noncon-
foi-mity he fell into divers points differing from the way of the Church. One
was that he ranked men into three distinct estates: 1 of Nature. 2 of Repent-
ance. 3 of Grace. According to which three degrees was his order of
preaching. To recover men out of a state of nature he preacht repentance
so earnestly that he caused many of his Auditors to weep yea to roar in that
manner that inhabitants in several places of the city were disquieted many

times in the night season by his converts

CAMD. SOC. 2 B



186 NOTES.

" Now there being a young man named Hamlet Jaclmon a tailor, who
according to the former direction, supposing that he should walk by law in
everything, came at last to believe that the Word of God did prescribe him

wliat to eat and what to refuse He presented his opinion to Mr.

Trdsli and had the ill-luck to be too hard for his master, and to pervert his
judgment so far that Mr. 7Va.tJ,', instantly upon it, labours to persuade his

auditors to the same opinion

" Upon which came in a number of laws cei'cmonial, touching building,
planting, wearing of Apparel, and sundry other things as well as eating . . .
" So Mr. Traske elects from among those of his third estate four men . . .
. . On these four he in a Pontifical manner layeth hands, sends them tc
preach, and they take upon them to cure diseases by anointing with oil and
Mr. Traske to give the Holy Ghost by imposition of Hands .... John
Traslte for his Judaicall opinions was censui'ed in the Star-chamber to be set
upon the Pillory at Westminster and from thence to be whipt to the Fleet,
there to remain prisoner: three years after he writ a recantation of all his
schismatical errors." {Ej)hraim Pagitfs Heresingrajiluj, 4to. London, 1645>
p. 12.5, &c.)

" On Friday last the 19th of the month [1618], one Thraslw a minister,
who hath been long a prisoner for divers fanatical opinions by him maintained,
was censured in the court of Star-chamber, n-hcrc I mis preseni, besides the
Lord Chancellor \_Bacon'], the Lord Archbishop [^Lbb(it'\ and the Bishops of
London [A7«^] and Ely \_Andrcn-s] spoke much against the prisoner there
present. The Bishop of Ely was altogether in confutation of his opinions,
that especially of the Jewish Sabbath, and of different meats, and rather
theological than political. The Bishop of London was wholly narrative in
making a relation of his life, his secret and schismatical conventicles, his
making proselytes, his imprisonment and just proceedings against h:m. The
particulars would stuff a letter too much. His censure was, in a word, to
stand on the pillory, with his ears nailed, and branded in the forehead, so tha*-
he that was Schis7naticus might also be stiffmaHcus, it was the Lord Chan-
cellor's phrase, to pay a thousand pounds fine, and to remain a close prisoner
during life." (Sir Henry Bourgcliicr to AJ>]). Usshcr. Usslier's Works
{Elrington), vol. xvi. p. .359. Compare Birch, Court a?id Time of James I.
vol. ii. p. 63, and Spedding's Bacon. Letters, yo\. vi. p. 315.) The poor vsretch
seems to have been first thrown into prison in Feb. 1618, for in a letter
dated the 28th of that month {Dom.. J. I. S. P. O. vol. xcvi. No. 38) JVath.
Brent writing to Carleton says: " . . . . His Majesty makes merry with
the opinions of a new sect called Thrascists ; their leader TJirasco is in
prison, and the Ecclesiastical Commission has them in chase."

Three years after this in the Parliament of 1621 ..." Thursday, May 24.
.... At the Conference with the Lords,

" Their Lordships did desire to alter the Title of the Bill for the Obser-



NOTES. 187

vation of Sunday; and where it was expressed for the better observation of
the Sabbath Day, commonly called Stindinj, their Lordships would have the
word Sabbath day left out, and that it should be for the observation of the
Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday: their Reason was, because people now-
adays so much inclined to take hold of Words of Judaism; ff. 9 did lately

Trashe and his Adherents " {Proceedings and Delates of the

House of Commons in 1620 and 162L Oxford, 8vo. 1766, vol. ii. p. 97.)

P. 23, 1. 31. Moohwood. This is Edward, son and heir of Nicholas Rookwood, of
Euston, CO. Suffolk, Esq. He was born in the first year of Q. Mary, and ap-
pears to have lost his father when he was a child. He married EUzaljethy
daughter of William Bron-ne, of Elsing, Esq. and when Q, Elizabeth paid
her visit to Norfolk in 1578 she was entertained at Euston, on the 10th
August. What return Mr. Rookwood received for his hospitality at the
hands of the Queen may be read in my work. One Generation of a Norfolk
Ucuse, where (in the note to chap, iii.) I have given some account of this
unfortunate man. He spent the greater part of his life in prison, and was
subjected to continual fines and other annoyances for his nonconformity. I
find his name occurring again and again as summoned to appear at the
Bishop's court in Norwich, or before the Privy Council, wherever they chanced
to be sitting, and, even when permitted to return to his house, confined to a
circuit of five miles from his own door. He became more and more em-
barrassed by the expense to which he was put; but I have some reason for
believing that the occasion of his being committed to the Elect was a suit for
recovery of a debt for which he was surety, though it had been incurred ly
another. By his first wife he had a family of three sons and four daugh-
ters. The eldest son, who succeeded to the estates at Euston, was the Nicholas
of these pages ; the second was William, who appears to have been killed
while in the service of Charles I.; the third, Robert, became a Catholic priest
and died at Rouen in 1668, set. 82. Of the daughters, Elizabeth became a
nun and died at Brussels in 1621. Alice married Julins Zanchi, private
secretary to Gondomar. Susan and Dorothy were living at Euston unmarried
in 1605. When Ilobcrt Boohn-ood left England in 1620 his father was still
in prison, and he says (in the autobiographical account of himself, printed by
Mr. Foley) that his eldest brother \_Nic7tolas'\ was then the only member of
his family who was not a Catholic. This seems to explain the curious passage
at p. 130, 1. 18-21, and other expressions which Harris applies to him.
Edward Rookwood spent his last days at Euston, and was buried there 19
Jan. 1633-4, being then 79 years of age. {One Generation of a Norfolk
House. See the Index, MS. Becords of the Priry Council. Presentments
of Recusants in the Archives of Norwich Cathedral. Davy's MSS. Brit.
Mus. Foley's Becords, S. J. vol. i. p. 198, et scq. vol. iii. p. 785.)

P. 23, 1. 32. Peck. Askbnrnham- Peck, son and heir of .John Peck, of Winchelsey,
CO. Sussex, by Mary, daughter of .fames Bleckenden, of Aldington, co. Kent.
He had l)oen in prison for 19 years; p. 72, 1. 26,



188 NOTES.

P. 26, 1. 26. Chamhcrlaym . Edmond Chamhcrlayne, second son of Sir Thomas
ChamhcrJayne, of Prestbury, co. Gloucester. He was of Mangersbury House,
in that shire, where his descendants are seated to this day. He was High
SherifE of the county in 39 Elizabeth. He had been for at least six years
in the Fleet in Feb. 1620-1 (p. 127, 1. 8). Harris says he was in debt to the
extent of thirteen or fourteen thousand pounds, and yet lived at some ex-
pense in the Fleet and kept up a great deal of riotous hospitality (pp. 120,
121). He himself says he was in prison by being surety for his brother Sir
John Chamberlayue (612/. Bom. James I. 1611-1618, p. 561, n. .51).

r. 29, 1. 1.5. Sir John Whithroohe. He was the aowoiJohn Whitb)-oohe,oi Bridge-