A Poet in the Gaol - Deaths of Debtors - Escapes of Felons

 

 

These petitions and statements of the Quakers and debtors in Horsham Gaol make the place appear very much in accordance with the descriptions given of other county gaols in the kingdom, but there is further testimony from Horsham Gaol to add to that of the Quaker and debtor, viz., that of Thomas Chaloner, exciseman and schoolmaster at Shoreham and Littlehampton, "Called the merriest poet in Christendom." " Writ about ten days after his confinement in Horsham gaol imprisoned through the treachery of villains."

 

Soon as to Horsham Gaol I came,
And saw the dreadful Place;
I trembled at the very Name,
A Paleness seized my Face:
When. ushered in with great Surprise
I viewed the Prison round,
Whilst pearly Drops trilled from my Eyes,
I fell into a Swound.
At length the Gaolkeeper came
With a kind Word or two,
His Spouse she also did the same,
But still all would not do.
I might have drank Ale superfine,
Likewise a dram of Nantz;
But 'twas not Brandy. Beer, nor Wine,
Was my immediate Wants;
My Liberty I wanted more
Than Bacchanalian Juice;
Freedom which I prefer before
All Things that Earth produce.
No sooner to my Room conveyed,
The Key was turned upon me:
Then in a Fright and quite dismayed,
I cry'd Have Mercy on me!
Just like a Bird that's newly caught,
I fluttered in my Cage;
Was mute sometimes with pensive Thought,
Then flew into a rage.
I cursed my Fate and scratched my Pate
At Things which came to Mind,
And strove in vain to quit my Chain,
But was too fast confined:
Up and in Bed like one half dead
I seemed a Ghost to view;
Stalked round the room,
Bewailed my Doom,
With Oh! What shall I do?
My fellow Prisoners round me came,
And every one would joake,
Declaring they were once the same,
Until their gaul was broke.
I knew not what they meant, alas,
Until next Garnish night,
Compelled to drink a full brimmed Glass.
My Sorrow's vanished quite.

 

" To a charitable and very worthy Justice of the Peace for the county of Sussex who sent him a guinea and a hare," the poet sent the following lines:-

 

With pity. Sir, behold my wretched Fate.
I A young Man left the most unfortunate.
My friends are absent and I am left alone,
Confined in Prison for to make My Moan,
Trepanned by Villains through whose Treachery
I've lost my Business and my Liberty.
Learning I have and can my Pen command,
Whenere I please to write the Fairest Hand.
In Figures likewise I can plainly show,
By Numbers how each true Proportion flew
But what does all avail if I must lie,
Hid and concealed in dark Obscurity?
Will knowledge of the Sciences or skill
In liberal Arts the hungry Belly fill.
Allay the Thirst or Ease the troubled Mind,
To him that is in Misery confined?
When Seas of Grief rush in upon the Soul,
As Wave o'er Wave perpetually Rowl.
Beats at the Heart and rage without Controul.
How grat's my Grief when every Day I view,
The little Birds and other Creatures too,
Search for their Food And get their daily Meat,
When I, alas! can nothing find to Eat,
But spend my Minutes ready for to Faint,
Making to Locks and Bolts my sad Complaint,
Till Day is spent and gloomy Night comes on,
When all my Comforts and my Hopes are gone.
In Darkness then I weep and wish for Morrow,
And still each Day adds but unto my Sorrow.
Oh! wretched that I am, why do I live
To see these Days wherein no one will give
Their Charity nor lend a small Relief
For to assuage my Sorrows and my Grief?
What shall I do or whither shall I fly?
'Tis Misery to live and hard to die.
For want of Succour in Eternity.

 

" To Squire Eversfield a very Honorable Gentleman Representative in Parliament for Horsham; who every Thursday sends the poor Debtors several stone of fine Beef. To support them in their unhappy confinement." " His Honour receiving the following lines was so generous as to give the Author his Liberty for his Pains."

 

Horsham be glad, in Eversfield rejoice,
Applaud his conduct and approve your Choice:
Well may you boast one of the best of men
To be your Member, resident at Denne.
A generous Soul who hates an Action mean
In what is sneaking scorns for to be seen.
His nobler thoughts are ever on the Wing
To serve his Country and oblige his King;
Courteous and free Abroad as well as home,
Beloved by all an enemy to none.
Oh: Eversficid, to Thee my Muse Address,
In rude impolished Strains her thankfulness.
Excuse the Verse tho' not the most polite,
'Tis free from Tincture of the Parasite.
Fain would we poor unhappy Prisoners show,
That Gratitude we to your Goodness owe.
Each Thursday brings our Duty fresh in Mind
When. from your Liberal Hand, Relief we find
How oft through th'iron Gates, our Eyes we cast
With wistful looks to'ards Denne to break our Fast,
Until the bounteous Feast at length arrive.
Gladdens the Heart and makes us all alive.
And shall we then so far ungrateful be.
Not to acknowledge such kind Charity?
Our Prayers will rather up to Heaven send.
For Blessing down upon so good a Friend.
May some good Angel as a guardian wait
Protect your Person, add to your Estate.
On Eversfield's Designs success depends
And our best Wishes always shall attend.
Including likewise in our pious Prayer.
That worthy branch we mean, good Sir, your heir;
May he tread in his Father's Steps and be
The good Example of Kind Charity.
Become at length your honors Effigy.

 

From a shorter, less poetic, effusion written by, or for, a poor Horsham labourer we get another glimpse of the inside of Horsham gaol.

 

Because I'd no money nor friends to give bail
For stealing two turnips they sent me to jail:
My jacket served both as a blanket and sheet
And I used my old waistcoat to cover my feet.
When I got to the jail I did not much admire
To see many rogues sitting round by the fire:
Some were a-drinking and some looking sad:
I thought sure 'twas Bedlam and all folks were mad.

 

Lucky for Thomas Chaloner that he was so entertaining and nimble with his muse and his pen that even in his squalid and unhappy situation he could so flatter and charm as to obtain his liberty thereby. Alas. for his non-poetic fellow prisoners, his companions of the garnish night. In the same year that he was liberated three of them died in their confinement, probably of gaol fever or starvation.

 

That a starving condition was common to debtor prisoners at Horsham is only too well evidenced. Among the many political begging-letters to the great Duke of Newcastle is one from Mr Charles Eversfield, of Denne, dated June 5, 1741.

 

"There is," he says. "in our Gaol an object deserving your charitable consideration, one Joseph Grant from Battell, who has been in gaol for 16 months and ever since last Michaelmas in a miserable starving condition. He was bail for one Edward Grayling of Catsfield under a capias out of the exchequer for smuggling, and all the endeavors that can be thought of have been used with the solicitor of customs, who at last promised that if Grayling, the principall, could be taken Grant, his bail, should be released which has been done and he in prison three months. But 'tis now said if a petition be preferred to the treasurey it might be done. But the poor soul has not a penny to pay anyone to solicitt it, and as he is a free-holder in right of his wife and may be wanted. as Things now stand, I could wish your Grace would speak to Sir Robert Walpole that he may be discharged. He is in upon an execution of £52.

 

I am. my Lord,

Your Grace's most faithful humble servant, C. EVERSFIELD.

 

Joseph Grant, the unlucky bail for the smuggler, owed his liberty, like Thomas Chaloner, to Mr Eversfield, not for writing poetry, but to the very material fact that a general election was due in a fortnights time and that his vote (by right of his wife) would be useful to the great Duke of Newcastle and his political servant and supporter, Charles Eversfield.

 

Other prisoners, unable to obtain their liberty, either through poetry or politics, but quite as desirous as any poet or politician of exchanging their severe prison fare for the sweets of freedom, sought other means, or took such opportunities as offered of effecting' their escape. In several of the earlier Gaol Delivery Rolls there is the plain entry "non est." or " not in gaol," or " at large." against the names of felons on the calendar of prisoners, showing that they had succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the gaoler, but there is, so far as we are aware, only one instace of a crowd of prisoners escaping all at the same time.

 

At the Assizes held at East Grinstead on March 19, 1739. the grand jury

 

"having considered all matters given in charge to us do present Thomas Brian, keeper of the Gaol for the County of Sussex, for letting Thomas Savage and (ten) other prisoners legally committed to the Goal above said escape out of the said Gaol by neglect or inadvertancy."

 

This interesting case sheds another light on the internal management of the Gaol. At about 8 o'clock in the evening of February 22, 1739, some of the prisoners called the turn- key, a debtor prisoner named Robert Neale, to fetch them some beer. For this he had only to go to next door, the " prison tap." Usually, it seems, the beer was fetched in quarts and was passed to the prisoners through the iron spikes on the tops of the doors of the wards. On this occasion the nectar was brought in a large jug which when filled would not go upright through the bars.

 

What was to be done in such a situation? The beer, of course, could not be wasted nor kept long from the eager throats of its purchasers. The simplest way, of course, was for the turnkey to unlock the door and hand the beer through. This he very obligingly did when, with a taste for freedom stronger than that for alcohol, one of the prisoners knocked him down. and with ten others rushed out of the prison, knocking down several other debtors who had come from the prison kitchen, to see what the noise was about, and bolted out into the darkness.

 

Four of the escaped prisoners were smugglers, five were felons and two were debtors. A hue and cry was sent out in all directions in order to effect a recapture of the prisoners but only one, Andrew Gatland, a felon, was caught. By this little piece of inadvertence King George II., lost ten of his not very grateful guests; the executioner lost the perquisites and fees for ceremoniously attending one or two prospective victims: and the gaoler nearly lost his job.

 

But Samuel Brian had some good and influential friends in the town. A petition in his favour signed by John Wicker and Edward Tredcroft, magistrates; J. Powell, vicar, and F. Osgood, curate: Joseph Thresh and John Weller bailiffs; and sixty of the leading burgesses, was presented to the great Duke of Newcastle, begging His Grace's forgiveness and intercession tor the gaoler. The petition was successful.

 

Of the only recaptured prisoner, Andrew Gatland, when in the following August he was tried at the Assizes held at Lewes for stealing a cask and a packsaddle value 4s. 6d., was discharged by proclamation. Had he not snatched at freedom in February it would in all probability have been given to him at the March Assizes, instead of waiting until August, he having then done five months extra imprisonment of his own making.

 

In 1765 there was another successful breakaway just after the Lent Assizes held at East Grinstead, when four condemned felons. William Swaine, Thomas Blackford, Thomas Shaw and Charles Churcher, reprieved and awaiting transportation, anticipated the official joy-ride on the ocean by transporting themselves on foot, all successfully (whither it was not known) except Swayne who was recaptured and sentenced to fourteen years' transportation. On December 21, John Dabbs and John Stacey, burglars, and John Parker, horse thief, all made their escape.

 

They were several days making a hole in the wall of their apartment, sawed off their irons and got away. Dabbs and Stacey were recaptured and subsequently transported. but Parker remained " at large." Two other prisoner's found to their disgust that the hole had not been made quite large enough for their wider shoulders, and they and the hole were discovered.

 

Twice in the year 1774 concerted attempts at escape were made. The first, on July 2. and the second at the end of September. On this latter occasion prisoners had undermined a wall and artfully conveyed the rubbish to the dungeon. It happened however, that this was the very time when John Howard had decided to visit Horsham Gaol. His method of inspection, as is well known, was thorough and it was he who discovered this attempt. " When I went into the Horsham Gaol with the keeper," he writes, " we saw a heap of stones and rubbish. The felons had been two or three days undermining the foundations of the room and a general escape was intended that night. We were but just in time to prevent it. for it was almost night when we went in. Our lives were at their mercy but I thank God they did not attempt to murder us and rush out."

 

 

In 1777, seven felons conspired together to effect their escape. They had sawn off their irons and were prepared with bludgeons to dispatch the turnkey at night and any other person who might obstruct them, but a knowledge of their plans by two other felons, whom it was not intended to benefit, was fatal to the enterprise. The plotters were overpowered in time and chained to the floor of the prison. Another concerted attempt was made on the 17th of April, 1780, when the felons again formed a plan for their escape.

 

They had also sawn off their irons and had wrenched off the pump handle with which they intended to murder the turnkey, whose body was afterwards to be thrown into the cesspit. To the gaoler they were more leniently disposed. He was to be gagged and bound only. Luckily he was warned of his danger in time. With the assistance of some soldiers who were quartered in the town the felons were all secured and chained to the floor of the prison.

 

Several other concerted attempts by felons to escape were made from time to time - in September, 1784. September, 1785. December, 1785, and February, 1792. The last attempt was made in February, 1814, when the ringleaders, assisted by some of the debtors, had relieved themselves of fetters by means of a saw made from a steel truss worn by one of the prisoners and made scaling ladders of slips torn from their blankets and fastened by wood squers. but in all these adventures those concerned were unable to keep the secret to themselves.

 

Their desperate intentions were anticipated, provided for and consequently defeated. A few single individuals who were wise enough to keep their intended enterprise to themselves were more lucky.

 

One Mary West, an insane felon, being allowed easier accommodation on account of her insanity, made her escape by jumping from an upper window into the courtyard and got away, but she was afterwards discovered hidden in a ditch on Horsham Common and taken back to the prison. A good many others, however, successfully cheated the gaoler and were heard of no more.

 

 

 

 

 

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