Here’s a story to really capture your imagination. Part 1 from our new series on the history of Ilchester.

Taking us back in time to Ilchester Jail – Execution – Escape – torment – real drama right here in Ilchester!

How did Ilchester become a focal point in the events leading to penal reforms that took place in the 19th Century?

Find out in our serialisation of Somerset historian, Mick Davis’ book, ‘Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt and the Ilchester Bastille’.

First, let us give you some background…

The life pathways of two key figures crossed in Ilchester in 1820. They were Henry Hunt, brought to serve a prison sentence at Ilchester Jail, and the incumbent Jailer, William Bridle.

Background

The Ilchester Bastille

Early History.

CIRCUIT COURTS HAD been held at Ilchester since 1166 following Henry II’s order known as the ‘Assize of Clarendon’ which required that suspected criminals be named so that the sheriff could have them brought for trial before royal judges in the courts of their particular counties. In mediaeval times jail was a holding pen for those awaiting trial or settlement of a fine, various forms of physical chastisement, execution, or the payment of a debt. It was not until the 19th century that a term of imprisonment became the usual punishment for those convicted of a crime. Initially the jailer received no income other than the fees that he was entitled to charge those in his custody and their misery was compounded by the fact that the jailer was also entitled to charge a fee before their release which could delay their freedom by some time. The jail at Ilchester would have been quite small and lay on the west side of the present High Street near the Market Place. It was moved to Somerton in the 1270s but returned in 1322 occupying a place on the west side of Ilchester Bridge. An Act of Parliament in 1576 supplemented the common jail by a, ‘house of correction’ or workhouse under direct administration of the local justices of the peace. Often known as Bridewells after the original in London, their purpose was the provision of compulsory employment with pay for beggars, vagrants and persons unemployed by a depression in a particular trade. As time went on the facilities were increasingly occupied by perry offenders.

By the early part of the 17th century the jailer was receiving £10 every three months for keeping the prisoners and a new building was begun on the north bank of the river at Northover probably used simultaneously with the lock-up remaining on the bridge. The new building seems to have been a disaster from start, built far too close to the river and continually flooded, sometimes putting the lives and health of the inmates in danger. The constant seeping of sewer water from the privies into the wells tainted the drinking water and spread disease throughout the prison, outbreaks of typhoid occurring with some regularity. During the civil war the house of correction was fortified by the Royalists but set on fire in 1645 before being quenched by the inhabitants of the town and restored in 1647 by order of the judges. At the Taunton Assizes in 1685 Judge Jeffreys sentenced 239 persons to death for their part in the Monmouth rebellion 12 were hanged at Ilchester. In 1685 there was an epidemic of typhoid during which many prisoners died, even at that early stage this was blamed on the seepage of sewer water from the privies into the drinking water.

In 1761 the following fees were approved,

Fees to discharge every debtor and felon 13/4d plus 1/- to the turnkey. Single debtors, including a bed and bedding 1/6d unless two lodge together in which case each pay 9d. The jailer is not to compel any debtor to lodge single and if they have bedding of their own they are to pay 1/- a weekly. If the bed is his own he should pay nothing for it.

Prisoners to be carefully shut up every evening at sunset; to be let out every morning between Michaelmas and Lady day at 8 o’clock in the morning and between Lady day and Michaelmas at six in the morning.

To have liberty to buy their own victuals and drink in or out of prison.

The felons to have 10 lb weight of clean dry wheaten straw every week.

Each felon to have a two penny loaf of household bread each day. Felons men and women to be locked up separately from each other every night.

A sick felon to be kept separate from the rest as conveniently as possible.

The whole prison bog house sinks and gutters to be kept as clean as possible.

 

Joseph & Edward Scadding (1757-1808)

FROM 1757 UNTIL 1771 the jail was run by Joseph Scadding a yeoman Farmer from Pitminster and sometime inn keeper; it was a strange change of occupation possibly the farm was not doing well. The jailer was appointed by the sheriff and the terms of his employment were that he had to be resident at the jail ensuring that no one escaped, he had to ensure that everyone appeared in court at the required time, pay the executioner’s fees and any other punishments unless he inflicted them himself. Under the cost of the terms of his contract Joseph had to indemnify the sheriff against anything that went wrong, taking the blame and consequences himself, and if any writs, actions, law suits etc. were delivered Joseph would have to pay the fine along with full responsibility for any business relating to the running of the goal and the safe keeping of the prisoners. The prison salary was poor but there were many compensations. Scadding’s reward for all this was that he, may take all such lawful fees, profits, and advantages during the time of his Shrievalty as to the place and Office of Goaler or Keeper of the Goal Ward or prison. Another bonus was that he was responsible for the quality and quantity of food and drink. Those who could afford it received the best but for others it was shared beds, overcrowding and inedible food. Aside from the fees the jailer was licensed to sell beer and wine to the prisoners and it has been estimated that this was in addition to around £54 obtainable from the prisoners by other means. A prisoner’s comfort depended on how much money he gave the jailer for food, clothing and probably protection from the other prisoners where necessary, indeed, if a prisoner paid enough he could stay in the jail keeper’s apartment in relative luxury compared to the hell holes below.

Joseph died in 1771 at the age of 57 and was succeeded by his son Edward who despite training as a goldsmith must have seen the advantages of the position. In 1774 the annual salary was increased to £25 and fees for the release of debtors were increased to 14/4d, 6/8d for felons with £3/12/0d for those under sentence of transportation. One way in which to increase profits was to remove the felon’s allowance of 2d per day and change it to 2d worth of bread. Debtors received no allowance but had to rely on charity. One unpleasant little custom was that of ‘gaol garnish’ whereby prisoners demanded money from a newcomer; ‘pay or strip’ was the command and those unable to pay 3/6d were forced to hand over their clothes to that amount.

The Execution of Mary Norwood 1765

During his tenure in the early summer of 1765, Mary Norwood, of Axbridge, was found guilty of poisoning her husband and sentenced to be executed at Ilchester. She was brought from the prison at about three o’clock in the afternoon – barefoot, her legs, feet and arms covered in tar and dressed in a tarred cloth made like a shift with a tarred bonnet on her head. The summer heat melted the tar and it ran down her face. After being dragged on a hurdle to the place of execution Mary spent some time in prayer and singing a hymn before the executioner fixed a rope around her neck. She adjusted it to the right position herself and then the barrel on which she was standing was rolled away. The executioner seems to have been compassionate as he was reported to have pulled the noose tight several times to ensure she was dead before the fire was lit. Executions were public entertainment that drew large crowds but it was reported that great numbers felt unable to look as Mary’s body burnt at the stake.

Prison reformer John Howard describes Ilchester after his visit of 1779,

The jail is near the river and has no offensive sewers. Departments roomy but the courts too little. They may be enlarged eastward. Women felons have no day room, a room which is fit and seems to have been designed for that use is taken by the jailer for a stable. Assizes never heard here. Prisoners are removed for trial to the Bridewell at Taunton or to Bridgwater where the prison is only one room or to Wells where there is no prison at all and yet at Midsummer Assize the prisoners were kept in that City eight days.

In the same year Ilchester had a total of 48 inmates compared to 12 in Bath, 19 in Shepton Mallet and 10 in Taunton. A new block was constructed in 1789 with 26 cells 8’8″ x 7’8″ with four staples and a ring fixed to the floor to which the prisoners were chained. It is reported that in 1784 30 prisoners died of the fever. Perhaps the jail’s most famous prisoner of the period was Jane Leigh Perrot an aunt of Jane Austen. She was at a haberdashers in Bath in August of 1799 where she purchased some black lace whereupon, either by accident or design she also left the shop with a card of white lace for which she had not paid. What today would be the most trivial of offences was at the time of the utmost seriousness. The white lace was valued at 20/- when theft of an article over the value of 5/- from a shop was a hanging offence or a slow boat to Australia. Being a woman of great wealth, she was able to pass t the seven months on remand in relative comfort by paying for a private apartment in the jailer’s house accompanied by her husband. Sir Abraham Elton said that there was a report that Mrs Leigh Perrot was frequently out of prison whilst under sentence there, which was denied. The Leigh Perrots had properties in Berkshire and Bath and were more used to hosting large dinner parties than eating with a gaoler and his family.

The Assize Courts were held twice a year; the Lent Assize at Taunton, and the Summer Assize alternately at Bridgwater and Wells; the Leigh Perrot trial was held in Taunton. The defence managed to discredit the shop assistant who had wrapped up articles in error previously and Mrs Perrot was cleared in front of a packed court. Mrs Leigh Perrot must have appreciated the care she received from prison governor Edward Scadding because, instead of sending the two guineas she owed on her prison account, she sent a cheque for £25.

Attempted Escape by Ward, Maggs and Others 1786

CONVICTS OFTEN HAD very little to do and spent their time either gambling or devising methods of escape. On one occasion in early October 1786, whilst Edward was at the Taunton Sessions, a number of them planned to get out together. A horse-stealer called Ward provided knives ‘to get off their irons’ so that they were free to sneak out whilst a party of them were

to be posted in the passage. The idea was that the stoutest prisoners would be at the front, to fight their way through any opposition leaving the weakest to follow at the back. The attempt was postponed because one prisoner warned them that a Mr Pitman, who was generally in the gaol when Edward was away, and a debtor named Griffin were in a room overlooking the back yard where they would have to pass. Pitman and Griffin had access to firearms and would probably have been able to kill half of them from the window as they tried to get away: Ward wanted to carry on because, he said, ‘If half escaped it would do, for the other half would die an honourable death.’ The plan was discovered, however, because two of the weaker prisoners, Maggs and Sherlock, decided to confess rather than die an ‘honourable’ death and so the plot was foiled.

Ilchester by WW Wheatley – 1840’s

In 1800 there were various complaints about Edward’s behaviour and conduct at the gaol. A Mr Gould asserted that a man committed under the game laws was in fact an employee on a farm owned by Edward and was freed ten days before his sentence elapsed. Edward admitted that this had indeed happened but that the man had been freed by the jail’s turnkey without his knowledge. The average number of prisoners in the jail at any one time for the years 1795-1801 was 78, a report of 1806 lists 18 people imprisoned for debt.

Edward Scadding retired in 1808 and died in 1811.

 

The 19th Century, Dr Lettsom

IN 1807 DR John Lettsom a Quaker and founder of The Medical Society of London visited various prisons, including Ilchester, and wrote a report describing the jail and its buildings the year before William Bridle took over as Gaoler following the retirement of Edward Scadding.

The jail buildings and yards covered about one and a quarter acre and the jailer’s salary had risen to £125pa. The jail itself was surrounded by a sixteen foot wall with the turnkey’s lodge facing the river to the left of the entrance. To the right were the baths and over the gateway lay the jailer’s house with a small garden and an area where the gaoler could grow vegetables. There were five courtyards one for petty offenders until they had paid their fines. The debtor’s apartments were reached from this yard and the water pump which supplied the whole prison was in a yard adjoining supplying plenty of clean water There were arcades for the prisoners in wet weather and over these, two stories reached by a stone staircase. Each story contained five cells 8′ x 7′ and 8’6″ high fitted with perforated iron bedsteads, straw, (for which the inmates were charged) a blanket and cover. Each cell had a double door, the outer iron grated with the inner made of wood which opened into a passage four feet wide. The cells each had a semi-circular window half glazed and half with wooden slats looking onto the keeper’s garden with apertures in the wall for light and ventilation. Adjoining the arcades was the keeper’s cellar with two storeys over it each containing six cells. The gaol was whitewashed at least yearly.

The woman’s court was 18 yards x 6 yards separated from the male felons by a single iron palisade to which they could see and converse with each other. On the upper story were five cells with six over the chapel used by the most orderly of criminals having boarded floors. The chapel was segregated between male and female convicts and attendance was not compulsory for debtors. The woman felon’s court was rather larger than that of the men and separated from it by a low wall with a single palisade. There was a pump in it but this was seldom used because the water was not good. On the ground floor were 14 cells 10′ x 7′ 6″ and 8’x 6″ with a day room on the other storey the 14 more cells and a lodge for a woman turnkey who attended to the female prisoners and was paid a weekly salary by the county.

Prisoners washed and shaved in the cold or warm baths near the main gate and had clean shirts each week. The county supplied clothing which was yellow with brown stripes but as it was not compulsory, few of the men wore it, preferring instead to wear their own clothes as far as possible. If needed they could have a blanket, coverlet or rug but presumably they paid more for these luxuries. There were also some larger day rooms for the prisoners to use, a cellar and an infirmary As Ilchester didn’t have a manufacturing industry to employ the inmates they occupied themselves with handicrafts or playing games-fives, skittles or tennis.

Although largely outside of the scope of this book it is worth making a few notes on the jail following Bridle’s dismissal and Hunt’s release. In 1822 it was recommended that £250 should be spent on improvements and that a permanent Sheriff’s jail should be built at Shepton adjoining the present house of correction. A good site was made available for £10,000 by a Mr Morgan. Writing in the following year the coroner Peter Layng commented that having visited Ilchester on many occasions during the occupations of Scadding and Bridle he had always found the rooms in the jail to be perfectly clean but the buildings too confined and he recommended building a new jail on two acres of ground at Salisbury for about £30,000.

From Michaelmas 1832 to Michaelmas 1834 397 prisoners were admitted. At this time the prison could properly hold 67 persons in separate sleeping cells and 162 where more than one occupied a cell. During the same period punishments consisted of six whipped, five in irons and 68 in solitary confinement. There were nine solitary cells. The total expenditure for the year 1837 was £2,347 out of which the Exchequer paid £55 for transports leaving at a cost to the county of £2,292, the cost of each prisoner per week came to a little over 8/- and the greatest number of prisoners at any one time during the year was 143.

In 1842 there was a particularly bad outbreak of typhus at the prison which had become too antiquated to continue in use and everything was moved to Wilton jail in Taunton. The last prisoners left Ilchester at the beginning of 1843 and the site was advertised for sale finally going to the Tuson family in 1848. They owned the mill and their house adjoined the north outer wall of the old jail. When it was demolished much of the stone was reused locally and the house of correction at Wilton became the county gaol from February 1843, when debtors were admitted. Shepton Mallet jail continued as a house of correction, serving the eastern part of the county including some debtors. In 1884, the civil part of Taunton prison was closed, most of the premises continuing to serve as a military prison leased to the War Department. Shepton Mallet prison then became the county gaol. Between 1810 and 1845 1,400 people were executed at Ilchester.

 

1808 William Bridle Takes Charge

ON 19 JULY 1808 at the age of 28 William Bridle took up his position as governor of Ilchester jail at the vastly increased salary of £500pa and set to work reforming the place which he found in complete disarray. The following details are taken from his book, A Narrative of the Rise and Progress of the Improvements Effected in his Majesty’s Jail at Ilchester between July 1808 and November 1821. This was published in 1822 some months after his dismissal in July 1821.

The total number of prisoners was 62 of all classes. There were just five wards, one for male prisoners under sentences less than transportation, for those awaiting trial from highway robbery to the simple country boy jailed for stealing a few apples, one for all classes of female prisoner and one for infirmary purposes. The remainder of the site was occupied as a garden, piggery, stables and cow house for the use of the governor. There was no system of labour nothing to prevent the prisoners from spending their time as idly and dissolutely as they liked, visitors were permitted into the wards taking with them anything they pleased resulting in drunkenness and gambling. There was no laundry or supplies of clean linen, the bedding and linen was washed by one woman in the kitchen. There were no firearms in case of mutiny and the prisoners could easily have broken out of the jail with the minimum of effort.

Having secured the agreement of the magistrates Bridle set to work employing carpenters, masons and tradesman. He began to reclassify the prisoners dividing the debtors into those who could support themselves, ‘gentlemen debtors’, in the upper ward, and those in receipt of county allowances to the lower ward. The exterior walls were raised, wells sunk, yards pitched and paved. All these endeavours were greatly helped by Sir John Acland who took a deep interest in the work. Constables and cooks were appointed to the respective wards selected from amongst the most orderly and best disposed inmates. Instead of the ‘squalid misery, idle inanity, frenzied drunkenness, licentiousness and vulgarity,’ that had prevailed, discipline and order ruled within six months. A new ward for boys was commenced to separate them from the men, and new drains were dug using prison labour resulting in a great saving to the county. By 1810 a laundry and a wash house had been built and work found for all the female prisoners in the jail some at sewing and knitting which produced articles that supplied the houses of correction in Shepton a Wilton. This was followed by the manufacture of gloves, mittens, worsted caps and eventually shoemaking. Bridle saw the opportunity for a business venture putting his own capital of £400 into it for two years until 1817 with many prisoners learning a trade for the first time and eventually weaving looms were introduced.

 

Sir John Acland in 1829

 

‘All our clothes and linen are worked in pattern stripes to prevent their being cut up by prisoners and taken out of the prison with a view to being converted to private use’.

Until 1811 executions had been held a half mile from the town on a common by Yeovil Road. Those to be executed were taken in open wagons traveling at about three miles per hour exposed to the jeers and taunts of large crowds. Execution days were known as ‘hang fair days’ many people would assemble from the surrounding parishes and after the execution many enjoyed drinking and dancing at the local pubs. Bridle put a stop to this by organising the executions within the prison having built a new ‘drop’ above the front lodge so that spectators had to watch from the bridge and river bank opposite which was occupied by a coal merchant who charged 1/- for admission to his land.

Sir Francis & The Loaf 1812

IN DECEMBER 1812 the jail was mentioned in the press when three people, ‘decent hard-working tradesmen’, were arrested during elections in Bath under the Riot Act.

Under the riot act. They had apparently demanded entry to the Guildhall which was refused and some windows were broken. They were denied bail, and dispatched to Ilchester where they were alleged to have been kept in solitary cells and heavily ironed. All offers of food, clothing and other articles from relatives were refused and despite excessively cold weather they were allowed no stove to warm themselves and had nothing to lie on but straw. Such were the conditions described by Sir Francis Burdett, a radical MP who brought a petition before the House protesting about the severity of their treatment. Burdett produced a small loaf from his pocket which he said had been sent to him as an example of the food that was provided at the prison, this he threw onto on the floor in dramatic protest proclaiming that it was disgraceful for any civilised country and asked that the House interfere in their favour.

However, it was pointed out once the riot act had been read that bail was not available and that they would have to wait for the judgement of the jury at the next Assizes. The following exchange took place in the House on 9 March.

‘Mr Dickinson MP for Somerset, recalled to the recollection of the hon. baronet, a petition which he had on occasion presented to the House, from some persons confined in Ilchester gaol, for a riot at Bath and who, in their petition, complained of ill-treatment. He also recalled the circumstance of his having produced a loaf in the House, which had been sent from the prisoners confined in the jail. He wished to know whether the hon. baronet meant to proceed any further with those complaints.

Sir F Burdett replied, that his time had been so much engaged by an election committee, that he had not been able to proceed further in the business of these petitions; and that he had no intention of pressing the matter any further the consideration of the House.’

Mr Dickinson wished to know whether the hon. baronet had inquired into the truth of the allegations in the petitions which he had laid before the House? Sir F Burdett replied, that the causes of the complaints preferred in the petitions had been removed.

The petition was ordered to lie on the table making it extremely unlikely that anything further would be done. However, the following May an article in the Taunton Courier stated that,

The loaf which Sir Francis, with indignation, threw on the floor of the House of Commons is now well known not to have been any one of those assigned by the rules of the jail. The Hon Baronet, agreed that it had been sent to him from

Bath not from Ilchester and thus in this particular, there was a miserable hiatus in his case, which, considered with the other unfound incidents of his dolorous story renders his interferences on the occasion almost ludicrous. The truth is that the petitioner palmed onto him for presentation to the House a complete tissue of inventive malignancy, base insinuation and groundless assertion which ought never have to polluted his hands… the Hon Bart. ought to have declared his conviction of the treachery and deceit practiced on him by the promoters of the petition or to have pressed it on the attention of the house… he has not, however, thought fit to do so…

What became of the rioters named as Hickwood, Taylor and Lovell is not known. In January of the following year a James Turle keeper of the prison at Wilton was dismissed from his office for misconduct and replaced by the head turnkey at Ilchester after investigations by John Acland Esq. There are no further details. Bridle’s renovations were certainly being noticed as the following brief report in the Bath Journal for June 1816 shows,

‘The excellent regulations adopted in the jail at Ilchester have so far attracted the notice of the magistrates in Wiltshire, that the jailer of Devizes has very recently visited with a view to the introduction of corresponding arrangement in his prison. After a minute inspection for three days, he returned home with the fullest conviction of the admirable and good system he had witnessed.

On 22 October 1814 Bridle’s brother-in-law Matthew Hobbs joined the Lodge of Brotherly Love 624 at Martock presumably introduced by Bridle himself. Hobbs was aged 34 and described as a Yeoman of Lymington. He and his wife were later to join Bridle’s staff at Ilchester before falling out in spectacular fashion.

Bridle Expands the Jail

ADVERTISEMENTS WERE PLACED in the local papers inviting tenders for A the supply of building materials and in November 1813 appeals were made for the following items, ‘blue quarry stone, building bricks, freestone, lime, pavement stone, oak for the roof, deal for the floor, partitions, stairs, slate, cast iron railings for gallery, ditto for grating for windows, ironmongery for lengthening one of the buildings 13 feet and raising the same 8 feet. Further particulars from Mr Robert Anstice the county surveyor Bridgwater. During 1816 a manufacturer in Frome was supplying cast iron the bedsteads to Ilchester and Wilton (carriage free) at £1/16/-per item. The building work continued throughout that year, with the jail requiring 12 wrought iron gates of various dimensions along with iron gratings for four windows. Other regular advertisements invited bakers to tender for the supply of wheaten loaves of three pounds each to be offered at prices per hundred weight, 700-900 loaves to be delivered three times per week for this period. During 1817 the price of bread supplied to the jail increased greatly, for the last quarter of 1816 it was 25/- per hundredweight and by Easter 1817 it had risen to 44/-. All goods and services seem to have been regularly tendered for with written bids. As the prison population increased more buildings were added, a matron’s lodge, a misdemeanour ward and a kitchen built entirely by prison labour an activity which Bridle contends astonished many visitors from other prisons. His efforts were greatly admired by select committee of the Commons in 1819 who commended his methods and the savings that prison labour meant for the county.

Bridle’s balance sheet of his improvements reads in summary,

‘Increased five wards to 13 now containing 266 prisoners Every prisoner willing to work is now able to do so.

Area formally occupied by the keeper now has new buildings.

The jail is now strong and secure.

Religious books are now available.

A caravan on springs constructed to transport the prisoners to and from court.

All building work carried out by prison labour.’

At the beginning of 1815 a ‘Steady Man’ was required, ‘capable of superintending the hemp and other manufactures and labour of the above jail. He must write a good hand, be conversant in accounts and well recommended.’

Bridle was rightly proud of his building work, and if he read a report in February 1819 that seven prisoners had escaped from the newly built part of Wilton jail by breaking through three walls constructed at great cost to the county he would probably have been even more pleased. When the magistrates inspected they asked the opinion of a very superior stonemason who remarked that, ‘there was nothing resembling mortar in the walls, it was literally mud, not a particle of sand amongst it that he could discover, with a common knife a man could affect his escape through the garden wall and it was by far the worst work he had ever beheld’.

 

EXPLANATION OF PLAN OF GAOL IN JULY 1808

See Illustration above No. 13.

From Bridle’s Narrative of the Improvements at Ilchester Gaol, 1821.

1. Passage, three feet and a half wide, leading to Gaol. N.

2. Gaoler’s Gardens, Walks and Shrubberies.

In 2. A ditch containing stagnant water, sometimes as deep as ten feet.

4. Hog-sties.

5. Sheds for carriages.

6. The Engine-house, for conveying river-water to the prisoners, usually stood here.

7. Part of Gaoler’s Garden.

X. In 7. Private gate of entrance. This was occupied by the lower debtors six days after my induction.

8. Stable for horses.

9. Cow-house.

10. Straw-room.

11. Debtors’ Apartments.

12. Debtors’ Court.

13. Turnkey’s Lodge.

In 12. This had also been a ditch containing stagnant water.

14. Carpenters’ Shop and Conversation-room.

15. A pump for all the Gaol usually stood here, there being no other water fit for drinking in the Gaol.

16. Time-men’s Kitchen.

17. Time-men’s Court.

18. Common Entrances for water to the Debtors’ Ward, etc.

In 18. Wall, erected as a temporary division, and to interrupt so improper a thoroughfare.

19. Time-men’s Arcade.

20. Intended for Time-men’s Day-room but used as Keeper’s Gellar.

In 20. Door of communication made by Keeper from Scullery.

21. Court for all Male Prisoners for Trial, for Convicts, Vagrants, Deserters, etc.

22, Their Arcades with a door leading into the Female Ward.

23. Their Kitchen looking into the Infirmary Court.

24. The Infirmary Court.

26, The Infirmary Arcades, very offensive from the smells of the privies.

27. Infirmary Stair-door.

28. Chapel-door, receiving all the effluvia and contagion of the rooms above and the arcade below.

29, Chapel, undivided, one common room or space.

30. Court-yard for Females of all descriptions.

31. Room for Female Turnkey.

32. Common Entrance to Female Ward.

33 Entrance Lodge, being the residence of the Principal Turnkey.

34 Warm and Cold Baths, used by the Keeper as a Laundry.

35. Keeper’s House.

 

EXPLANATION OF PLAN OF GAOL IN NOVEMBER 1821

See Illustration above No.14.

From Bridle’s Narrative of the Improvements at Ilchester Gaol, 1821.

1. House for containing the Gaol caravans.

2. Stable,

3. Entrance-Lodge.

4. Prisoners’ Visiting-room.

5. Manufactory.

6. Matron’s Lodge.

7. Female Felons’ Day-room.

8. Their Court-yard.

9. Female Convicts’ Day-room.

10. Their Court-yard.

11. Occasionally the Female Debtors’ or Infirmary Ward.

12. Twelve Refractory Wards.

13. Male Infirmary.

14. Laundry and Bakehouse.

15. Boys’ Ward.

16. Lower Debtors’ Ward.

17. Upper Debtors’ Ward.

18. Time-men’s Ward.

19. Misdemeanour Ward.

20. Felons’ Ward.

21. Convict Ward.

22. Chapel,

23. Keeper’s House.

 

Daniel Lake, Taskmaster 1815

HAVING A NUMBER of men in his employ it is quite reasonable to assume that bit all will be happy with their lot.

This curious tale begins with the sacking of Daniel Lake the ‘taskmaster’ whose job it was to supervise the prisoners maintaining order and making sure that everything ran smoothly. The exact reasons for his dismissal are uncertain but having complained to the visiting magistrates about Bridle’s behaviour he was requested to appear before the magistrates at the jail on 22 February and required to put his case in writing beforehand. His first statement, sent to Rev. Whalley one of the magistrates and presumably composed soon after the request is quite remarkable,

‘I Daniel Lake late of Ilchester jail, do most solemnly declare that in the absence of Mr Bridle the keeper, the jail is more like a common Bawd house than a Prison. I mean in the conduct of Mrs Bridle and Miss Culliford who admits men in their bedroom while they are in bed (about May 1813). Mrs Lake went to Exeter in the meantime Mr Bridle went from home one night. I was up at the house until late. Mrs B went up to bed and I was invited up by Miss Culliford but I did not go. Next morning I was in the front yard and Elizabeth Hillier, a transport, [ie sentenced to transportation] was at Mrs Bridle’s bedroom window she beckoned me to come up, I went up, Mrs B and Miss C was in bed together and invited me to come into bed with them. They said take off your clothes and come in. I did not go into bed but lay down on the bedclothes. Another evening I had been drinking some grog, Mrs B went to bed and rang her bell shortly afterwards which was for Miss C and me (having been invited) to come up. I went up, undressed myself and got into bed between them both. And all three got a sleep and did not awake until daylight and Mrs Lake had been about the jail to look for me. Another time, Mrs L went to bed. Mrs B and Miss C went to bed and afterwards I went up. was not invited up at that time that I can recollect, however I was in bed with them and Mrs I thought I stayed up late.

Another morning a young man named George Slade, an acquaintance, jumped into bed and Mrs B told me herself that she went outside the curtains to put her clothes on while he had connections with Miss C several times.

Several times I have been in my own lodge and have been sent for as if Mr Bridle wanted me, and only Mrs B and Miss C and sometimes only Mrs B was there. They began their jokes with me and have even unbuttoned my breeches. I am sorry to convict myself. I have been to blame I must confess and have been guilty of a great crime. It is almost impossible for any young man who fills that situation to do otherwise, Mrs B is of that disposition that she would get Mr B to find some fault to discharge him if he did not comply with her wishes and it is my firm belief that Mrs B has been the means of my being discharged as I have behaved very cool to them for several months past. At the time the connection was carried on in that disgraceful way this is being used to do her endeavours to set myself and wife at variance. She would give Mrs Lake strong liquors on purpose to make her abuse me. At one time in the office I was standing before the fire, them one each side. Elizabeth Hillier came to make up the fire, Mrs B took hold of her hand and endeavoured to rub it down over my thigh. A number of such lewd practices have I been witness to in such a manner as I never saw in my life before and had not Mrs B invited me should never have thought of taking the liberty.

There is not a woman discharged from the jail but what is worse and more corrupted than when admitted. Mrs B takes a pleasure in talking her obscene discourse. Mrs Adlam was visited by Mrs B and Miss C who began such a discourse as Mrs A did not think proper to join. Mrs B was offended and said that she was so modest that she could not join in a bit of fun but could have a child before marriage.

More than once Mrs B I said if our connection was found out she would take her oath that nothing of the kind had occurred. She was very aware that Mrs Lake was acquainted with the transactions and wanted me to send her out of the town. The day after we left the prison I was very ill and Mrs B offered to let me have some money as I said I went out so suddenly it was a great injury to me and I must send to Exeter for some cash and Mrs Bridle lent me some money.

Sir,

When I took up this paper it was not my intention to have troubled you on the subject. I merely meant it to live with my wife who is perfectly acquainted with the circumstances and is ready to be examined on both before you or any other magistrate. My wife will inform you, Sir that it is a life that I was never given to before. Mrs Bridle was jealous for fear I should tell of these transactions. Sir, I feel I am duty-bound to let the magistrates know what kind of people they have to deal with. This day I am bound for London but I am ready to prove every word by witness on oath before any person at any time at any place. I wrote a letter to Mr Acland in defence of the several charges. I never received any answers nor heard nothing of it,

I am yours etc

Daniel Lake’

At the same time, or very soon after, Lake writes in great haste to magistrate Moody informing him that at his lodge there is 62cwt of coal which he has not paid for. This is of course an oversight and not an attempt at fraud but he was rushed out so quickly that he did not have time to account for it which he values at £3/14/11d and which he will pay to the county.

What follows is a 14 page closely written ‘List of charges preferred by Daniel Lake against William Bridle and Mrs Bridle his wife’. It contained 25 charges starting with drunken behaviour amongst the staff and wine being stolen while the master was away leading to breaches of discipline being ignored. Prisoners complaints were not entered in the occurrence book as they should have been: Mrs Bridle was heard to speak of magistrate Moody in a very disrespectful manner; Mrs Bridle instructed Lake to prepare to take Mrs Adlam to Wells as she was to be executed on the following Monday. This was done because Mrs Bridle was jealous of her, she also told the debtors that this was about to happen causing much distress after which she had a great laugh at the fun she had had with it. Mrs Bridle gave a pregnant woman a pint and half of brandy and water the child afterwards died of, ‘lack of proper care’.

In 1813, claims Lake, Mrs Bridle and Miss Culliford were intimate with a man since transported. Whilst in the hulk the man told someone who knew Mrs Bridle and he in turn wrote to Miss Culliford to ask if it was true. When Mr Bridle took some prisoners to the hulks Mrs Bridle was afraid that he might meet the object of her attentions. Daniel Lake’s bedtime fun with Mrs Bridle and Miss Culliford was outlined briefly.

So far it is all been little but gossip and all occurring during Mr Bridle’s absence. It is not until towards the end of the statement that he is accused of misbehaviour himself, not accounting for a tenth part of the time that he is absent from the jail; using prison staff to look after his cows and fields: not paying the prisoners their wages regularly which were sometimes three or four weeks in arrears; many things charged against the county were not used in the prison, including saucepans and soap; magistrate Colston had apparently brought some charges against Bridle who then bribed a prisoner with £3 and an overcoat to contradict the evidence, after a successful outcome Bridle took the coat away again; Mr Bridle considered Lake to be a spy as the prison bills all passed through his hands and plotted to get rid of him. Everything was in place for a hearing on 22 February but Lake didn’t and it was said that he had gone to London. Enquiries there turned show up his brother, Samuel who explained that his brother had been waiting to hear about the case but nothing had arrived and so he had, ‘left town’. He had not left any forwarding address as he did not want to risk his wife finding out where he had and that he could no longer live with her due to her improper conduct, and there the matter could have ended but for the following account, published in the Taunton Courier and other county newspapers,

‘A short time since, one Lake, a man employed as task master at Ilchester Gaol, was dismissed from his appointment, in consequence of improper conduct. The charges against him were confirmed by Mr Bridle, the keeper of the Gaol. and this circumstance appears to have excited in Lake a determination to effect the ruin of Mr Bridle and his family. For this purpose, Lake addressed letters to several Magistrates of the county, containing a number of charges against Mr Bridle for misconduct in the execution of his office, and even Mrs Bridle was Included in the calumnious imputations.

‘Upon receiving these charges, Mr Acland (the Chairman), with his characteristic promptitude, immediately proceeded to institute an inquiry into the facts. For this purpose, a notice was left at the presumed residence of Lake, in London (his brother’s house), requiring him to attend on the day appointed. to give evidence. Instead, however, of making his appearance, he sent down a letter, containing a frivolous excuse for his non-attendance, and referring to several persons in the Gaol, whom he averred could justify his complaint. Although the specific charges adduced against Mr Bridle were thus abandoned, the Magistrates, having assembled for the purpose of effecting a plenary inquiry into them, very properly resolved on examining the referred to in Lake’s letter. A most minute examination of the different prisoners accordingly took place, but in no one instance did it appear that the accusations were borne out by the facts, on the contrary, it was satisfactorily shewn that the charges were wholly invented and the Magistrates, after a patient investigation, which lasted from eleven in the morning until five in the evening, unanimously declared their opinion, that the charges were malevolent and utterly destitute of foundation. Mr Bridle has in consequence instituted a prosecution against Lake for his atrocious conduct, but we hear that the latter has, or is about to quit the country, probably to avoid the legal consequences of the proceedings against him.

The care, the anxiety, and unwearied attention displayed by Mr Acland and his brother Magistrates in the administration of their duties, are as conspicuous as they are important, and in this instance reflect on them the greatest honour. Had the charges against Mr Bridle proved correct, their duty would have become imperatively obvious, but the reverse having appeared, the public mind is prevented nourishing a groundless calumny, and the integrity of a useful, though humble, public officer, is unequivocally certified by the result of their laudable investigation.’

The Typhus Outbreak of 1817-18

JAIL FEVER HAD existed in the Ilchester neighbourhood for about six months and first came to the prison in January 1817 when there were 240 inmates. Everything was fumigated constantly and all unaffected prisoners were daily bathed in tepid water with a quantity of bay salt. The cells were fumigated with a pan of newly slaked lime followed by nitrous acid gas. Vinegar was profusely burnt in court ‘and every necessary precaution to obviate the effects of this alarming circumstance have been judiciously adopted’, said one report. The judges at Exeter were informed and a house of recovery was procured, a cottage at Lymington about a mile from the jail and on 2 April 17 infected prisoners were moved, later increasing to 23. The looms were removed and the manufactory fitted up as a hospital. When taking prisoners to the hulks Bridle had to start at two in the morning as he could not find a nights lodging anywhere. As the number of jail inmates increased Acland managed to get an extra vessel fitted out at Portsmouth to take those sentenced to transportation. The prisoners could not be housed in the jail at Taunton and so 85 were taken by water to an unfinished house in the fields at Bathpool a few miles from town, Bridle stayed there with them as they took their turn in court. He was of course used to outbreaks of fever from his time in the hulks. During the epidemic there were 60 cases and only two deaths due to what was described as the admirable treatment of doctors Woodford and Bryer. Thomas Fowell Buxton was a prominent antislavery campaigner and brother-in-law to prison reformer Elizabeth Fry. He made a tour of various prisons around the country and abroad and in 1818 produced a book An Enquiry, whether Crime and Misery are Produced or Prevented by our Present System of Prison Discipline. He visited Ilchester in April 1818 and was very impressed by the reforms that Bridle had instigated in the previous ten years including much of the building and construction work being carried out by the prisoners themselves along with weaving, spinning and shoemaking. The laundry equals any of that institution in the kingdom and all the female prisoners are employed in washing the weekly changes of linen and bedding making all the dresses worn by themselves’. ‘If a prisoner cannot read he learns to do so, if he knows no trade he is taught one, there is no filth, no disorder, no tumult.’ Buxton did not meet Bridle but quotes the taskmaster as having said, ‘I look upon it that a man’s mind must be occupied with something if it is not taken up with a good thing it’ll be a bad one’.

The following notice appeared in the Bury Post during April 1819,

‘As proof of the admirable management and useful employment of prisoners in Ilchester jail the assize courts at Taunton afforded the pleasing exhibition of two cloth covers for the counsel and attorney’s tables in each court, entirely manufactured by the prisoners in this jail through the different processes of picking, sorting, combing, carding, spinning, weaving, dying to the greatest perfection. The cloths are dark blue, and the centre of each bears the following inscription, ‘Manufactured by the Prisoners in Ilchester Jail 1819.’

The General Election of June 1818

PARLIAMENT WAS DISSOLVED on 10 June 1818 and the new government assembled 4th August for a maximum term of  seven years.

Throughout the conflict between Bridle, Hunt and the magistrates there are numerous hints and obscure references to Bridle’s character and reputation being of an exemplary nature until he got caught up in politics during the election of this year. The electorate consisted of inhabitant householders and was often quite openly corrupt, candidates gaining power largely through a combination of threats and bribery. In 1811 the population of Ilchester was 745. Those entitled to vote during 1818 was 90 and the going rate for buying a vote was £30. The big landowners wishing to stand for Parliament expected their tenants to vote for them with eviction being the usual reward for not doing so. A large part of the town had been bought by Sir William Manners for £53,000 in the expectation that future elections would be secured. Manners main claim to fame is that on acquiring the land he took drastic action and had most of the houses demolished, thereby making the former occupants homeless and without a vote to sell, reducing the size of the electorate and the number of bribes he would need to pay. A workhouse was built in place of the houses and it is likely that many of his 163 former tenants ended there. Things were a lot simpler in those days. In the end John William Merest and Sir Isaac Coffin sponsored by the 4th Earl of Darlington were returned for Ilchester with 64 votes against 24 votes for Manners. The town, according to one newspaper, ‘was thrown into an enthusiasm of joy…’ by the revolt against Manners. Coffin, who had been advanced to full admiral in 1814 held Ilchester until 1826.

Bridle was a supporter of the yellow party or Whigs whereas Manners was a Tory and so he would have been very happy to see Merest and Coffin elected. James West a messenger at the jail, was dismissed by Bridle at this time, as he had once been a supporter of Manners, and replaced by one of the yellow party. John Treganzer, the principal turnkey and Bridle’s right-hand man until he left in 1819 gave evidence that there was a band of music with singing and dancing at the jail during the campaign. After the election the sheriff donated £10 and there was a large amount of meat, hams, veal, beef and bread leftover from the campaign donated by Henry Tuson the election agent. Treganzer made three trips in the trucks and Bridle said it needed some beer to go with it which he supplied. The meat lasted for almost three days and the Parliament about a year and a half, as King George III’s death on 29 January 1820 triggered the dissolution of that government and fresh elections.

Thomas Oldfield in his six volume History of the House of Commons 1822 says, respecting Ilchester, that, ‘this borough has been so imprudent in the exercise of its corruption, as to have had the whole system several times exposed before committees of the House of Commons. At the general election in 1802, a great part of the voters were bribed at £30 a man to vote against the proprietor. This caused the trial and conviction of Alexander Davison, Esq., and his agents, at the assizes for the county of Somerset in 1804; for which they afterwards received sentence in the Court of King’s Bench to suffer one year’s imprisonment’.

As well as the election in Ilchester there was one for the county of Somerset itself and this is where the problem arose. Bridle’s practical involvement is unclear if – he had any at all, but he was very close to Sir John Acland, chairman of the quarter sessions who had supported the campaign of Sir Thomas Lethbridge when he stood as a third candidate in opposition to the sitting MPs, William Davidson and William Gore Langton. This caused a huge conflict among the magistrates, sheriff and others with Bridle being blamed for supporting Acland and Lethbridge. Acland resigned as chairman sometime later and there was a campaign by a group of magistrates against Bridle with Hunt used as a pawn to attack him, but none of this emerged at the time and was not discussed by Bridle until much later as we shall see. Away from the prison, on 11 February 1819 Bridle now aged 31 was elected once more as the Worshipful Master of his Lodge of Brotherly Love at Martock, an appointment lasting for one year. In the lodge register he is described as a ‘gentleman’ of Ilchester. He took the chair and invested his officers the same evening. On 1 July 1819 the Lodge applied to move from its base at the White Hart Inn, Martock where it had been since 1810, to the Mermaid Inn at Yeovil. ‘for the convenience of our respective dwellings and other good reasons’, which was agreed.

Coming soon!

Next week we’ll take you to Chapter 1 in the book, set in Manchester in 1819 and the scene of the Peterloo Massacre

Mick Davis has had twelve books published, ranging from biography, criminology, prehistory and local history. He lives and works full-time as an historian and author in Frome, Somerset.

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