Volume 1

[Letters on prisons].

  • John Coakley Lettsom
Date:
[1803-1813]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Letters on prisons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/240 page 25
    i8o4»] Mr, Neild’s Remarks on the Gaols at Penzance. 199 ber of debtors committed to this prifon is about 10 or 12 in the year. The lad wretched inhabitant was Thomas Hollcin^ farmer, of Madron parifh^ aged 645 he was committed the 25th of March 1803, ^or a debt of 20I. or thereabouts, and releafed the 6th of May following. There is no allowance even of bread, fo that, if his triends and fome neigh- bours had not been charitable, he mud have perithed with hunger. He never but once was let out for frefh air, and then only for half an . hour, to fpeak with his children. The gaoler lives half a mile off^ df that, in cafe of fudden illnefs or fire, he might have perithed before re- , lief could come 3 his provifions were given to him through the centre bars of the fmall iron-grated win- dow (which arefive inches afunder) fo the keeper had no occafion to come near. He had a bed fupplied him by his friends, but mud other- wife have dept on the fcanty pit- tance of draw on the floor, aiad,not- withdanding. his bed, the prifon was terribly cold even in April and May. The place in which it is fi- tuated is a yard for horfes, and where twenty horfes are crammed en market days : and T. Hoikin declares, that the damp of the floor, and the dench of the privies and horfe-yard, fo affeiled his health at the time, that he feels the fatal elfedts to this day. He complains of a cold, and oppreffion at the bread in breathing, fo that he can- not walk half a mile in an hour upon rifing ground without fre- quent flopping to take breath. Be- fore he was put in prifon he was as drong as mod men of his age ; but he verily believes that his con- finement there 'v^iW Jhorten his days. A refpeftable clergyman of the neighbourhood thus exprefles him- felf to me on this fubjedt; “■ This man, for a debt unavoidably con- * Mrs. Palcoe, ' —— tradled, an honed, working, good man, but unfortunate, was put in a worfe place than he would have been if by any crime he had de- ferved imprifonment in the county gaol. He is a man, to my know- ledge of good character ; and he is now^ pale and haggard, and ftrangely altered for the worfe.” Struck with compaflion for the fuderihgs of this unfortunate man, a benevolent lady * frequently fent him broth 3 but the fpace betwixt the bars ( 5 inches) was too fmall to admit of a middle-fized bafin. I cannot conclude my account of this prifon without exprefliug my grateful fenfe of the honour con- ferred upon me by the adting Ma- gidrates for this divifion, by their vote of thanks politely tranfmitted to me by their clerk, and for the great attention paid to my remarks on prifons and prifoners. Penzance Borough Gaol, (or as it is generalky and more properly call- ed, the Black Plole,”) is a dark room with a double door at the end of the corn market, a great part of which is not of liifficient height for the prifoner to dand upright in. Straw on the floor. The only light or ventilation it receives is from an aperture 12 inches by which opens to the daircafe, and, being a borrowed light, ferves jud to make darknejs vifihlc. The annoyance of the rats in this place is terrible 3 fo that the wretched prifoner, ever on the watch, may perhaps dole in feverifli anxiety, but never knows the balm of peaceful deep. A poor wretch, I was informed, died in it fome years ago 5 and that another had luffered very much from the rats. I cannot clofe this gloomy account without doing judice to the County Magidrates of Bodmin, Ex- eter, Wincheder, Derby, Dorcbef- ter, Shrewlbury, Plereford f, &c. which I have- vifited in this tour, f Hereford. The fick in this prifon are ■as well taken care of, as if in an hofpitaq the county Magidrates having liberally veded ample powers with the fm geoa (Mr. Cam) not only with lefpedl to medicine and diet, but iikewife cloathing ; and every page of the prifon books bears record to his attention and humanity, as well as to the zeal’and piety of the exemplary chaplain the Rev. Mr. Cnderwoad, the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3