Luminarium Encyclopedia: Fleet Prison

FLEET PRISON was a historic London prison, dating back at least to William the Conqueror and Norman days.¹ It was named after the Fleet stream, a tributary of the Thames. The Fleet Prison was situated on the east side of Farrindon Street. [Map]

Prisoners of Fleet Prison were those adjudged guilty by the Court of Star Chamber, which "exercised unlimited authority, and inflicted heavier punishments than by any law were warranted."² Originally, it was chiefly a "house of detention" for debtors and those who had committed misdemeanors, but later also came to house those found guilty of contempt of court and other offenses. In the early sixteenth century, the Fleet was a popular place to send anyone deemed troublesome by the lords of the Council. In fact, the Articles of Impeachment against Cardinal Wolsey recount many cases where he sent people to the Fleet without any due process.

The Fleet was also convenient for housing political prisoners and religious dissidents; in 1553, John Hooper and Miles Coverdale appeared before the Privy Council, and Hooper was sent to the Fleet for dissent; Coverdale left for the continent, and published the first English Bible. Hooper's description of his imprisonment was recorded by John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs. Even in Queen Elizabeth's time, the Fleet housed religious prisoners. By Queen Elizabeth's reign, prisoners were sent to the Fleet also by the courts of Chancery, Common Pleas, and Exchequer.³

The lodgings by modern standards would be considered terrible, but the Fleet Prison was better than many others, for example Newgate Gaol. However, already in the reign of Edward III, in 1355, an inquest was held to the conditions;⁴ the stream running near the prison was polluted by public latrines and waste to the point that the stench was unbearable, and infectious diseases were likely to sicken the prisoners. By 1381 and the Peasants' Revolt, the Fleet had already gained enough of a vile name that Wat Tyler's men rushed the prison, ransacked its stores of food, and burned down many of the buildings in the Liberty of the Fleet.⁵ In the reign of King Henry VIII, the poet Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, described the Fleet as a "noisome prison, whose pestilent airs are not unlike to bring some alteration of health."⁶

All prisoners had to pay fees for their lodgings and for favorable treatment. The wardens of the Fleet were notorious for charging exorbitantly high sums and abusing their posts. The first record of such abuses is from the reign of Henry IV in 1400.⁷ For minor offenders (and the noble and influential) in the Fleet, there existed the possibility of bail, which meant that said prisoners, for a certain sum, could reside within the Liberties of the Fleet, mansion houses near the prison. Here too, money could buy a certain amount of freedom; alas, for the debtors, such possibilities were few. Of ill treatment, or "tyranny", by the wardens, records are many. The abuses included aforesaid "squeezing" of prisoners, physical violence, sexual molestation, theft, endangerment by putting two prisoners hostile to each other in the same cell, and so on. Upon entry to the prison, an additional fee was charged not to put the prisoner in chains; the most unfortunate souls were put in the cellars, called sarcastically by the prisoners, "Bartholomew Fair",⁸ subterranean dungeons where perishing from illness was almost guaranteed. The conditions were deplorable; when ill-treated prisoners died, their deaths were chalked up to "jail-fever."⁹

Of the famous personages imprisoned within the Fleet, Surrey and Hooper have already had mention. Others included Bishop Stephen Gardiner; Edmund Bonner, Bishop of London, for refusing to take the oath of supremacy to King Edward VI; William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, patron of Shakespeare, for seducing one of Queen Elizabeth's maids of honour; Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton, one of Queen Elizabeth's favorites, for marrying without her permission; Ben Jonson for his part in writing the play The Isle of Dogs, considered seditious; Sir Walter Ralegh, imprisoned for treason, was moved there briefly from the Tower to escape an outbreak of the plague; John Donne after his secret marriage to Anne More; the playwright William Wycherley for debt; William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, for refusing to pay an artificially inflated debt to his steward; Daniel Defoe for bankruptcy; the list is neverending.

The Fleet was burned to the ground in the Great Fire of London in 1666. It was rebuilt very much like it had been, only to be destroyed in the Gordon Riots, 1780, after which it was again rebuilt. After several inquiries into the conditions of the prison, it was closed by an act of Parliament, in 1842, in Queen Victoria's reign. In 1844 the prison was sold to the Corporation of the City of London, who had the prison demolished shortly after.

¹ Ashton, John. The Fleet: Its River, Prison, and Marriages. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1889. 233.
² "Proceedings agains John Huggins, esq. Warden of the Fleet, etc." in Proceedings in the House of Commons, &c. A.D. 1729. A Complete Collection of State Trials. Vol XVII. T. B. Howell, ed. London: T. C. Hansard, 1813. 298.
³ Ashton. 265.
⁴ Ibid. 239-40.
⁵ Wheatley, Henry B. "London Episodes," The Antiquary, May 1885. in Antiquary. Vol XI. London: Elliot Stock, 1885. 203.
⁶ Ibid. 204.
⁷ Ashton. 237.
⁸ Wheatley, 208.
⁹ Ainsworth, William Harrison. The Star Chamber. Vol II. London: G. Routledge & Co., 1854. 162.

Article Citation:

Jokinen, Anniina. “Fleet Prison.” Luminarium.
17 Dec 2006. [Date when you accessed the page].
<https://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/fleetprison.htm>

Other Local Resources:

Location Map of Elizabethan London

Books for further study:

Ashton, John. The Fleet: Its River, Prison, and Marriages.
London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1889.

Brown, Roger Lee. A History of the Fleet Prison, London.
London: Edwin Mellen Press, 1996.

Fleet Prison on the Web:

The Fleet Prison - British History Online
Victorian London: Fleet Prison - victorianlondon.org

	to John Donne
	to Luminarium Encyclopedia