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The imprisonment of debtors in Britain dates back to the 13th century. Debtors who were not traders \u2013 which by the 18th century<\/a> included most skilled craftsmen \u2013 did not qualify to become bankrupt<\/a> but were given the status of \u2018insolvent debtors\u2019, although farmers were specifically excluded. Remaining responsible for their debts, but being unable to pay them, they remained subject to common law proceedings and, if their creditors so wished, could be imprisoned indefinitely. Not until 1861 were insolvent debtors allowed to apply for bankruptcy and the established imprisonment for debt came to an end. Although debtors were imprisoned throughout the country, London is the most infamous for its debtors\u2019 prisons. The Fleet, Marshalsea and King\u2019s Bench Prisons were the largest and best known and most important; but there were others: the City\u2019s own debtor prison in Whitecross Street, opened in 1815. Novelist Charles Dickens’ father John was imprisoned in the Marshalsea when Charles was a child. As a consequence, debtor\u2019s prisons feature in several of Dickens\u2019 novels: Mr Pickwick in The Pickwick Papers<\/a> <\/em>was sent to the Fleet and Mr Micawber in David Copperfield<\/a><\/em> was imprisoned in the King’s Bench, and most famously, Little Dorrit<\/a>\u2019s father spent much of his life in the Marshalsea. Life in London\u2019s debtors prisons was, to say the very least, unusual. Whitecross Street was close to a regular criminal prison but the Fleet, Marshalsea and King\u2019s Bench were another matter. Debtors were allowed extensive privileges compared to other prisoners, including being allowed visitors, their own food and clothing, and the right to work at their trade or profession as far as was feasible in prison. The records for the Fleet (1686-1842), King\u2019s Bench (1719-1862) and Marshalsea (1773-1861) are held at The National Archives<\/a> in Series PRIS 1-11. Genealogy website Ancestry<\/a> has details of over 700,000 criminals detained in the Marshelsea<\/a>, King\u2019s Bench and Fleet prisons<\/a> from 1734 to 1862, although these are only a small proportion of the records held at The National Archives. For those imprisoned for debt outside London, records are mostly going to be held locally within the records of the Quarter Sessions. <\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Paul Blake Published: Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at 14:02 PM The imprisonment of debtors in Britain dates back to the 13th century. Debtors who were not traders \u2013 which by the 18th century included most skilled craftsmen \u2013 did not qualify to become bankrupt but were given the status of \u2018insolvent debtors\u2019, although farmers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29629,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison.jpg",940,400,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison.jpg",800,340,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison.jpg",940,400,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2023\/11\/what-is-a-debtors-prison.jpg",940,400,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Paul Blake Published: Wednesday, 29 November 2023 at 14:02 PM The imprisonment of debtors in Britain dates back to the 13th century. Debtors who were not traders \u2013 which by the 18th century included most skilled craftsmen \u2013 did not qualify to become bankrupt but were given the status of \u2018insolvent debtors\u2019, although farmers…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29628"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Life inside London’s debtors’ prisons<\/h2>
How to find the records of inmates<\/h2>
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