{"id":22439,"date":"2023-03-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-15T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/?post_type=purple_issue&#038;p=22439"},"modified":"2023-04-24T16:48:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T14:48:56","slug":"debtors-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/2023\/03\/16\/debtors-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Debtors\u2019 prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"sans-serif article-full-subhead\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-ccp-pink-color\">Crime and punishment \/ <\/span><strong><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Debtors\u2019 prison <\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/h4>\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-color\" style=\"font-size:40px;color:#024091\"><em>\u201cCome and assist your loving mother. I am in prison for debt\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-right has-text-color\" style=\"font-size:40px;color:#024091\"><em>\u201cDear mother, so am I\u201d<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<h5 style=\"font-size:22px\">Debtors\u2019 prisons inflicted untold misery on families in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, writes <strong><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Alexander Wakelam<\/span>, <\/strong>England\u2019s credit-fuelled economy would have ground to a halt without them <\/h5>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image alignwide size-large article-in-image photo\"><img src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-1024x605.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22701\"\/><figcaption><strong><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"no-tts has-inline-color\">Straitened circumstances<\/span><\/strong> The debtors\u2019 exercise grounds at Newgate prison in 1809. \u201cThe debtors\u2019 prison was not a distant threat in 18th-century England but a feature of everyday life,\u201d argues Alexander Wakelam  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap article-full-body sans-serif dropcap\">In May 1728, the 36-year-old trumpet player John Grano discovered his luck had finally run out. Grano\u2019s debts had been piling up for weeks. Business had not been good of late but his spending on fine clothes and finer wines had not slowed. By Thursday 30th his creditors had finally had enough of Grano\u2019s empty promises and applied to the court for his arrest. He was seized by a bailiff in the street and instructed to pay up or face the consequences of his spending. Grano was not panicked \u2013 this was hardly the first time he had faced his creditors\u2019 threats. However, this time there was no deal to be done, no new extension to be found and, as he wrote in his diary that night, no \u201cbrother, relation or friend came nigh me\u201d to bail him out. Unable to pay, Grano was taken to \u201cthis Hell between 7&amp;8 at night\u201d \u2013 the Marshalsea debtors\u2019 prison. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">The debtors\u2019 prison was not a distant threat in 18th-century England but a feature of everyday life. Almost every town had a jail, and some maintained several \u2013 when Grano was arrested, at least 15 were operating in London. Prisons stood on bridges, on the edges of marketplaces, and in the middle of fashionable high streets. <\/p>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image article-in-image photo\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/09360cc1-7020-47a8-ac25-92a658d6f5c4.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22427\" width=\"421\" height=\"493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/09360cc1-7020-47a8-ac25-92a658d6f5c4.jpg 852w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/09360cc1-7020-47a8-ac25-92a658d6f5c4-257x300.jpg 257w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/09360cc1-7020-47a8-ac25-92a658d6f5c4-768x898.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 421px) 100vw, 421px\" \/><figcaption><strong><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"no-tts has-inline-color\">Pain barrier<\/span> <\/strong>A door from a Birmingham debtors\u2019 prison. As England\u2019s economy heated up in the late 17th century, these became common sights in the urban landscape counterfeits \u2013 meant that even circulating currency might not be accepted by traders.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">While some were grim dungeons, others were built in opulent style, looking more like palaces than prisons. York\u2019s debtors\u2019 prison \u2013 the only purpose-built jail still standing today \u2013 cost the town more than \u00a38,000 in 1705 and its fabulous baroque styling ensured it quickly joined the medieval walls and cathedral on the city\u2019s burgeoning tourist trail. Visiting shortly after it opened, the spy and travel writer John Macky described it as \u201cby much the finest, as well as the pleasantest [prison] in England\u201d. Many castles were converted into jails, meaning that in the countryside, debtors\u2019 prisons dominated the landscape for miles around. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>A credit epidemic <\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Debtors\u2019 prisons were not just an abstract reminder to look after your money, but a functioning system that processed thousands of men and women across the country every year. Many more faced a real possibility of their debts catching up with them, with as many as one in 25 adult men at risk of imprisonment in London by the end of the 18th century. Few people in cities would not have known at least one friend, relative or co-worker who had been arrested. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">It is easy to assume debtors\u2019 prisons were a cruel medieval hangover where the poor were sent to die, inevitably brushed aside by enlightened thinking and the rise of a rational capitalist society. However, while<span> imprisonment for debt had been introduced in the 13th century, it remained on a small scale and focused on the merchant class until the commercial explosion from the 1660s. As the law around arrest liberalised and the costs of obtaining a warrant collapsed, the debtors\u2019 prison entered its heyday.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large\"><p><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Few people in cities would not have known a friend, relative or co-worker who had not been arrested for debt <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">The prison was an integral part of the developing economy. Almost everyone in England was in debt. For most, this was not due to the carefree spending habits of the likes of John Grano, but simply the way people did business. Money was still based on the weight of the gold or silver it contained but, since the late 16th century, supplies of both had been insufficient to meet inflation or demand. Rampant counterfeiting and coin-clipping \u2013 the illicit practice of removing small pieces from the outer edge of a coin to use in forging <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">People regularly had the wealth to buy, but not the cash to do so (storing their money not in gold, but in land, goods or debts owed to them). Most buying was, therefore, done on credit, whether for everyday goods like bread, luxuries like a new watch, business supplies to make watches, or even paying the watchmaker\u2019s assistant\u2019s wages. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">The credit of merchants and the state was beginning to look like that of modern high finance, but most everyday credit was given without interest or even without specified terms of repayment. These were handshake agreements \u201cto pay\u201d when demanded without a written contract. The value of a buyer\u2019s credit \u2013 the amount they could buy on credit and, in some cases, the length of time allowed for repayment \u2013 was based on their reputation in the community, for example increased by regular church attendance or decreased by incidents of public drunkenness, rather than their physical wealth. As the person of the buyer determined the value of their credit, it was the person of the buyer that was at stake when they defaulted. <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"533\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig-1024x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22703\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig-1024x533.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig-300x156.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig-768x400.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig-1536x799.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/2E46H3Abig.jpg 1657w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>The Marshalsea in a 1773 engraving. Despite its formidable reputation, \u201cfashionable\u201d prisoners lived in cleaner cells with greater privacy, and were even able to employ servants <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml-825x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22704\" width=\"330\" height=\"410\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml-825x1024.jpg 825w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml-242x300.jpg 242w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml-768x954.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml-1237x1536.jpg 1237w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1227159474sml.jpg 1424w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px\" \/><figcaption>In this 1799 cartoon, a man tries to explain why he hasn\u2019t paid his rent. Creditors often sought rapid repayment because they, too, had debts to pay <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Liberal credit kept the wheels of commerce spinning at the pace of demand rather than the glacial movement of silver. Most people did pay when they had cash, or at least when asked to by creditors. Consumers were reminded of the importance of prompt payment by shopkeepers, in the books they read, and every Sunday from the pulpit. In 1718, the bishop of Ely preached to his flock that God commanded money should always be put \u201cfirst, to the payment of\u2026 debt, and secondly, to the sustenance of [your] children\u201d. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">But when polite reminders were not enough, greater pressure was needed to ensure money changed hands. Suing in court was expensive and slow \u2013 shopkeepers who had debts of their own could not wait. An arrest, by contrast, required only swearing to the reality of the debt and payment of a shilling. Once a bailiff caught up with the debtor, they could be held indefinitely until creditors were satisfied. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Shillings for sheets <\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">As Grano discovered when he reached the Marshalsea, being imprisoned without limit was far from a death sentence. Prison might even be comfortable. Arriving in the lodge, he was greeted by the Master Turnkey (the prison warden\u2019s second in command) who \u201cmade me set down &amp; offer\u2019d to treat me with something to drink\u201d. He was then asked \u201cif I was for the [more comfortable and private] Master\u2019s Side and if so wither I was provided with five shillings advance for a fortnight\u2019s Beding, a shilling for<span> sheets, and sixpence for the bedmaker\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignleft size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/coin-clipping.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22705\" width=\"252\" height=\"251\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/coin-clipping.jpg 894w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/coin-clipping-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/coin-clipping-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/coin-clipping-768x766.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/><figcaption>A clipped coin, its edge shaved to purloin some of its metal. Partly because of such practices, most people bought goods on credit rather than using coins <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">For debtors, imprisonment was not free. As well as having to pay fees for their own commitment (and their eventual release) they could also choose to pay rent on a room in the Master\u2019s Side. There were free Common Sides \u2013 though, as a visitor to one such in London\u2019s Wood Street prison discovered, there were good reasons to pay: \u201cWe entered a sort of dark hall, where we saw some people eating and drinking with little seeming concern. The smell of the place was almost intolerable. I observed, the beds of such as had any, were placed in ranges, as our shelves, over each other; and those who had none, were obliged to lie upon the boards.\u201d At the Marshalsea, those on the Common Side were kept behind a high wall, out of sight and out of mind of the wealthier debtors. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Master\u2019s Side rooms were cleaner, more comfortable, and offered greater privacy, even if you had to share a bed (a not uncommon situation in 18th-century renting), while rent was usually below market rates. One guidebook for imprisoned debtors recommended the third-floor rooms at the King\u2019s Bench prison due to the \u201cpleasing view of the Surry and Kentish hills\u201d. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Debt imprisonment did not end the rigid class structures of 18th-century Britain. Grano had no money on him but assured the Turnkey that he would by tomorrow and, given his fashionable status, was provided his first night\u2019s rent on credit. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Separate wards were also usually provided for female debtors. There were no women\u2019s prisons, and so jails were mixed spaces. Sometimes women in the prison were not actually imprisoned, but the wives of male prisoners. They lived there voluntarily, often with their children, and were thus able to leave each day to work or buy goods. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Married women were protected from debt imprisonment, though only because they could not own debt independently of their husbands. Single women and widows, however, had no legal protections against imprisonment and, if engaged in trade, were just as likely as men to be arrested. <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"596\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk-1024x596.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22706\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk-1024x596.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk-768x447.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk-1536x894.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/YORAG_R1944_cmyk.jpg 1904w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>A depiction of York\u2019s grand, baroque debtors\u2019 prison, once described as \u201cthe finest, as well as the pleasantest [jail] in England\u201d  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/81a9908a-8767-458e-a3ca-ae79389ec51d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"376\" height=\"395\"\/><figcaption>The \u201csick men\u2019s ward\u201d in the Marshalsea in an 18th-century engraving. Conditions for poorer inmates in debtors\u2019 prisons were often far from desirable at this time <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">In the 1720s, around one in three prisoners in London were female \u2013 though by 1800 that figure had plunged to around one in 20, due to higher rates of marriage. Despite women usually sleeping in their own ward within the prison, there was no rigid separation between the sexes and prisoners regularly mingled in communal yards during the day. Invited or not, Grano frequently visited the female ward. On one occasion, having barged into the room of a group of women during dinner, he noted how he was given<span> the cold shoulder: \u201cI had a very cold bow, not so much as how do you do or will you seat yourself.\u201d There was apparently little to prevent Grano from walking in or staying, as he \u201ctook my seat on the opposite bed\u2026 and as I was not spoken to, said nothing\u201d. Other debtors interacted more successfully and the comedic actress Mary Wells, during her imprisonment at the Fleet in 1797, actually married a fellow debtor in the prison, treating the other prisoners to a \u201cgreat feast\u201d reported extensively in the newspapers.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">\u201cAlmost starved\u201d Grano adapted to prison life \u2013 though perhaps not always as his creditors intended. He spent much of his time in the prison\u2019s coffeehouse, playing backgammon and flirting unsuccessfully with female prisoners. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Not all prisoners were as relaxed about the situation in which they found themselves as Grano. Unlimited imprisonment was an excellent motivator to find money as soon as possible \u2013 and so most inmates directed all of their energies towards achieving that, whatever the personal cost. The result is that more than 90 per cent of inmates managed to secure their release within a year. Many tasted freedom much earlier than that. When the explorer Henry Timberlake was imprisoned in the early 1760s, he actually had the cash on him, and so was released that same day. Paying, however, left him with \u201cbut two shillings left\u201d of his planned expedition fund. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Other prisoners sent word to friends and family for help, though not always successfully. Elizabeth Foote, confined in Truro prison from December 1742, wrote to her son in London: \u201cDear Sam, I am in prison for debt. Come and assist your loving mother\u201d, only to receive a reply from the Fleet prison: \u201cDear mother, so am I.\u201d <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Others began selling property. Some debtors parted with prized luxuries to regain their freedom, but others took more drastic courses of action. In 1738, Michael Dicq, apprentice to a Westminster jeweller, appeared before the city begging for assistance as his master had \u201csold all his tools and goods\u201d to get out of prison, leaving Michael unable to work and \u201calmost starved\u201d. <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk-1024x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk-1024x600.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk-300x176.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk-768x450.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk-1536x900.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/AY4GCB_cmyk.jpg 1919w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>An early 19th-century illustration by Thomas Rowlandson, depicting a family in a debtors\u2019 prison. The wives and children of many male prisoners joined their husbands in jail <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Length and light <\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Many prisoners accepted that freedom was not coming immediately and so threw themselves into work. Most debtors were middle-class dealers and craftspeople (few inmates came from the working poor, as they were rarely offered enough credit to be worth imprisoning) and often chose to practise their trade within the confines of the prison. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">When a parliamentary inquiry investigated life in the prisons in 1792, it spoke to John Stanley, a silk-weaver at the King\u2019s Bench prison. Stanley was keen to be moved to a different room as \u201cI can\u2019t carry on my trade here\u201d. He had recently been contracted to weave cloth within the prison but \u201cas the trade in which I was employed requires\u2026 much length and light\u201d, his current room was unsuitable. Though Stanley was frustrated, the only thing apparently stopping him from moving his loom into the prison was the ceiling. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">John Grano also eventually got to work, offering music lessons to the children of local craftsmen. Debtors\u2019 prisons offered cheap goods and services for those who would otherwise find them too expensive. Prisoners like Grano had to take what rates they could. At Wood Street the committee found \u201cone attorney, a carver, a taylor, a pattern drawer,<span> and a cabinet maker\u201d plying their trades on the Master\u2019s Side. This suggests that it wasn\u2019t uncommon for those in need of cheap legal advice, new shirts, or even furniture to pop into the local jail.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large\"><p><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"has-inline-color\">Grano spent much of his time in the prison\u2019s coffeehouse, playing backgammon and flirting with female prisoners<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n<figure class=\"no-tts wp-block-image alignwide size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"568\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml-1024x568.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22708\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml-1024x568.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml-300x166.jpg 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml-768x426.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml-1536x852.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/EG75APsml.jpg 1799w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>An 1823 engraving shows dandies visiting a friend in a Fleet prison gin palace. Jails offered some debtors opportunities to gamble and revel, and bars were often run from cells  <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Prisoners also sold among themselves. The keeper of Newgate prison waged a constant battle against the wives of debtors who smuggled in gin under their skirts for sale in the prison\u2019s black market. Others acted as servants to richer prisoners like Grano, who employed a maid from the Common Side and was shaved by an imprisoned barber. The Marshalsea\u2019s coffeehouse was run by a prisoner called Mother Bradshaw from her rooms. Upstairs, Grano occasionally dined at \u201cTitty Doll\u2019s\u201d, a restaurant run out of the rooms of Mr and Mrs McDonnell. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Such enterprises certainly helped some incarcerated debtors repay their creditors. Yet many prisoners had no hope of raising the funds to meet their creditors\u2019 demands \u2013 no matter how desperate those demands grew. They would never pay their way out of prison. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">This presented the authorities with the spectre of overcrowding, with hundreds of debtors potentially languishing in prison for years. To head off this prospect, parliament passed a series of amnesties releasing debtors if they turned over all their remaining assets to their creditors. Around 10\u201315 per cent of prisoners took up this option, though it was almost always a last resort: while those who paid their debts returned to society with their credit restored, those freed by parliament were shunned. John Grano, whose many money-making schemes (including organising a concert, writing new music and even being allowed to play in the lord mayor\u2019s annual parade) never seemed to bring success, was one of the latter. In September 1729, after more than a year at the Marshalsea, he walked free; we know little of his subsequent life until his death in 1746. <\/p>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image article-in-image photo\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-662x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-22709\" width=\"341\" height=\"528\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-662x1024.jpg 662w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-768x1188.jpg 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-993x1536.jpg 993w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-1324x2048.jpg 1324w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/BAL_352816sml-scaled.jpg 1654w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 341px) 100vw, 341px\" \/><figcaption><strong><span style=\"color:#024091\" class=\"no-tts has-inline-color\">Tale of woe<\/span><\/strong> A 1905 illustration shows Little Dorrit with the prison turnkey at the Marshalsea. Charles Dickens\u2019 novel was based on his father\u2019s grim experiences there  <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Almost 100 years later, another resident of the Marshalsea walked free. Unlike Grano, John Dickens spent just three months incarcerated in the south London prison. However, as his son Charles would later make clear, even this \u201cshort\u201d imprisonment was devastating to the family. In his novel <em>Little <\/em><em>Dorrit, <\/em>when William Dorrit (an analogy for the author\u2019s father) is told the release he has been dreaming of for 20 years is to be delayed by \u201cbut a few hours\u201d, the old man breaks into tears and, \u201cwith a sudden passion\u201d, dismisses the insignificance of the delay: \u201cYou talk very easily of hours, sir! How long do you suppose, sir, that an hour is to a man who is choking for want of air?\u201d The Dickens family had been ripped apart by John\u2019s imprisonment, Charles having to leave school and enter the bootblacking factory he would later immortalise in <em>David <\/em><em>Copperfield <\/em>to support the family. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">So why was debt imprisonment so common? The answer is that it worked. It meant creditors got paid and it helped commerce continue in an era of pre-modern credit. But while John Grano had a relatively pleasant time at the Marshalsea, the system shattered numerous families. Even those who returned to their lives and enjoyed commercial success were forever haunted, as was the young Charles Dickens, by their humiliating experience of imprisonment. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">By the time Dickens wrote <em>Little <\/em><em>Dorrit <\/em>in the 1850s, the economy had changed significantly. Credit had declined as a new reliance on wage labour took many out of the trade world, and the greater availability of coin meant people could actually pay for what they could afford. Most of the prisons closed out of a lack of business long before parliament finally abolished the practice of indefinite imprisonment for debt without trial in 1869. <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">Few lamented their loss. Charles Dickens certainly didn\u2019t. Writing of the closure of the Marshalsea (but maybe, also, of the system as a whole), he declared: \u201cIt is gone now, and the world is none the worse without it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\"><strong>Alexander Wakelam <\/strong>is a research associate at the University of Cambridge and author of <em>Credit and Debt in Eighteenth-Century England: An Economic History of Debtors\u2019 Prisons <\/em>(Routledge, 2022) <\/p>\n\n<h5 class=\"has-text-color\" style=\"color:#024091\">PODCAST<\/h5>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\"><strong>Debt\u2019s impact on Charles Dickens <\/strong><br>Alexander Wakelam discussed debtors\u2019 prisons on our podcast. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/period\/victorian\/debtors-prisons-podcast-alexander-wakelam\/\">historyextra.com\/british-prisons-qa <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n<h5 class=\"has-text-color\" style=\"color:#024091\">WATCH<\/h5>\n\n<div class=\"no-tts wp-block-image article-in-image photo\"><figure class=\"no-tts alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/BBC_One_logo_2021-1024x668.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"no-tts wp-image-14015\" width=\"100\" height=\"65\" srcset=\"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/BBC_One_logo_2021-1024x668.png 1024w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/BBC_One_logo_2021-300x196.png 300w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/BBC_One_logo_2021-768x501.png 768w, https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2022\/05\/BBC_One_logo_2021.png 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"article-full-body sans-serif\">A new dramatisation of Charles Dickens\u2019 <strong>Great Expectations <\/strong>is coming to<span>&nbsp;BBC One soon. <strong><a href=\"navto:\/\/index\/33\">TAP HERE<\/a><\/strong> for more details<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"footer\" style=\"font-size:12px\">GETTY IMAGES, ALAMY, BRITTANIACOINCOMPANY.COM, YORK MUSEUMS TRUST, BRIDGEMAN, TOPFOTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crime and punishment \/ Debtors\u2019 prison \u201cCome and assist your loving mother. I am in prison for debt\u201d \u201cDear mother, so am I\u201d Debtors\u2019 prisons inflicted untold misery on families in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, writes Alexander Wakelam, England\u2019s credit-fuelled economy would have ground to a halt without them In May 1728, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":22701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ub_ctt_via":"","purple_page_number":"36","purple_custom_meta_purple_page_number":"36","purple_seq_number":"1","purple_custom_meta_purple_seq_number":"1","purple_source_article":"article_36-1.xml","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_article":"article_36-1.xml","purple_source_issue":"April-2023","purple_custom_meta_purple_source_issue":"April-2023","purple_external_id":"April-2023-36-1","purple_custom_meta_purple_external_id":"April-2023-36-1","purple_issue_code":"|0000085643||","purple_custom_meta_purple_issue_code":"|0000085643||","purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.293","purple_custom_meta_purple_android_product":"com.im.historymag.293","purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.293","purple_custom_meta_purple_ios_product":"com.im.historymag.293","purple_web_product":"","purple_custom_meta_purple_web_product":"","purple_publication_id":"de2d4977-6998-4200-99aa-454f8dbebdf9","purple_migrated":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"2023-04-24T14:34:58Z","apple_news_article-theme":"","apple_news_api_id":"6aa0d53f-f5f4-43ff-8f80-396e2d8b8f4d","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2023-04-24T14:49:05Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/AaqDVP_X0Q_-PgDluLYuPTQ","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_article_theme":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\""},"categories":[73,17],"tags":[46],"apple_news_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"15","apple_news_title":""},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127.jpg",1068,715,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127-768x514.jpg",768,514,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127-1024x686.jpg",800,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-1536x907.jpg",1536,907,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/46\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-85122129big-e1678187415127.jpg",1068,715,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Crime and punishment \/ Debtors\u2019 prison \u201cCome and assist your loving mother. I am in prison for debt\u201d \u201cDear mother, so am I\u201d Debtors\u2019 prisons inflicted untold misery on families in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet, writes Alexander Wakelam, England\u2019s credit-fuelled economy would have ground to a halt without them In May 1728, the&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22439"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22439"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22981,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22439\/revisions\/22981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}