Wakefield Debtors Gaol

Wakefield Debtors Gaol

Halifax -
Debtor's Gaol for the Honour of Wakefield

Upon entering this prison, which is attached to a Public House, I observed certain prisoners in the tap-room. The keeper was absent, but, being sent for shortly made his appearance. The number of debtors detained at the time of my visit was 5; one had been there 15 months. The keeper was boarding them at rates of up to a guinea a week. It being a matter of public notoriety and some excitement in the vicinity that the keeper of the prison had refused to give up the dead body of one of the debtors to his friends for burial until a certain sum had first been paid to him, and had interred the corpse in the small yard attached to the prison, I considered it proper to inquire into the circumstances. Mr Forster the debtor who died came in on 7th June 1841. He was in the public house confined to his bed for a month and died on 28th October 1841. He came in for a debt of £32-12s-6d. There was a lodging account for £138-5s-9d. He died on Thursday and on Saturday Mr Sutcliffe the exor asked me if I would give up the body, but I said no, until the debt is paid. I got a shell on the Sunday, and a leaden coffin, into which he was placed and soldered up. Mr Sutcliffe came again on the Monday and offered me £50 to let him have the body, but I would not take it. On Wednesday I buried the body in the gaol yard about 4 feet deep. On Thursday a mandamus came from the Court of the Queen's Bench for the delivery of the body, and they dug it up and took it out of the coffin.
Mr Henry Foster was late of Slack in Heptenstall and was taken in execution by Francis Scott of Halifax, one of the bailiffs of the Lord of the Manor of Wakefeld. In the Queen's Bench - In the matter of Henry Foster deceased. Sworn evidence of William Sutcliffe of Hebden Bridge at Halifax 2nd day of November 1841.
Mandamus granted 3rd November, the body disinterred the 4th November. With reference to the general management of this discreditable gaol, the keeper states :-
There are no rules or orders sanctioned either by the magistrates or the officers of the Manor of Wakefield, for the regulation of the debtor's gaol in Halifax. There are no fees charges upon the prisoners. The only charges made are garnish money. 4s-6d out of which 1s is always deducted by the prisoners to purchase brushes, coal-skeps, or other necessaries required by them in their rooms, and the remaining 3s-6d is expended among themselves in drink or eatables, as they may think proper. The charge for chamber money is 2s per week, for beds and washing bed clothes etc, which beds and washing are found and provided for by the gaoler. There is no charge made for maintenance; each prisoner provides for himself, as he or his friends can afford and think fit. There is a sum of 40s a year charged and payable out of some property in Halifax, to be expended in the purchase of bread for the use of the prisoners, and which is distributed to them the last Friday in each month proportionately. There is no other allowance for the gaol or prisoners. I have in a former Report strongly animadverted upon the impropriety of ths combination of public house and prison, nor am I at all surprised at the outrageous circumstances of which it has been the theatre, seeing that the gaolers of these private jurisdictions are completely beyond the exercise of any direct superintendence or control. The treatment of this unfortunate man at the County Gaol of Appleby is a striking contrast with what he met with at Halifax. This case was specially reported by me to Secretary Sir James Graham.

Source: From PP 1842 Vol XX Vol 6 of 11 Volumes
Seventh Report of the Inspectors of Prisons
From PP 1842 Vol XXI Vol 7 of 11 Volumes
Reports from Commissioners - Prisons
Submitted by Alan Longbottom