THE REBUILDING OF NEWGATE
In 1762 Press-yard destroyed by fire—Two prisoners burnt to
death—It is decided to rebuild—Lord Mayor Beckford lays
first stone in 1770—The new gaol is gutted in the Lord George
Gordon riots—Origin of these riots—Lord George, at head
of procession, presents petition to House of Commons—Mob
attracted to Newgate—The gaoler, Mr. Akerman, summoned
to surrender, and release his prisoners—Rioters storm
Newgate—Sack Governor's house—Rioters, headed by Dennis the
hangman, rush in and set inmates free—Other gaols attacked and
burnt—The military called out—Lord George arrested, lodged
in the Tower, and tried for high treason, but acquitted, and
sentenced to fines and imprisonment in Newgate—Dies in Newgate
of gaol fever, 1793.
In 1757 the residents in the immediate neighbourhood of Newgate raised
their protest against the gaol, and petitioned the Corporation,
"setting forth their apprehensions from their vicinity to Newgate,
and from the stenches proceeding therefrom, of being subject to an
infectious disease called the gaol distemper." Upon receipt of this
petition, the Common Council appointed a fresh committee, and the
various allegations were gone into seriatim. They next surveyed the
gaol itself and the surrounding premises, examined the site with
a view to rebuilding, and had plans prepared with estimates and
specifications as to cost of ground and construction. The projected
design embraced a series of quadrangles, one for the debtors and
another for the felons, with an area for each. The probable expense
for the work which the committee were of the opinion was greatly
needed would amount to about £40,000, for which sum "they did resolve
to petition Parliament for a grant." This petition was, however,
never presented. Mr. Alderman Dickens, having spoken privately to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer on the subject, was informed that no public
money would be forthcoming, and the project again fell through.
It did not entirely drop notwithstanding. To the credit of the
Corporation it must be stated, that many attempts were made to grapple
with the difficulties of ways and means. Application was made to
Parliament more than once for power to raise money for the work by some
proportionable tax on the city and county, but always without avail.
Parties differed as to the manner in which funds should be obtained,
yet all were agreed upon the "immediate necessity for converting this
seat of misery and disease, this dangerous source of contagion, into
a secure and wholesome place of confinement." The matter became more
urgent, the occasion more opportune, when that part of the prison
styled the press-yard was destroyed by fire in 1762.
Some account of this fire may be inserted here. It broke out in the
middle of the night at the back of the staircase in the press-yard,
and in a few hours consumed all the apartments in that place, and
greatly damaged the chapel. Other adjoining premises, particularly
that of a stocking-trimmer in Phœnix Court, were greatly injured
by the fire. Worst of all, two prisoners perished in the flames. One
was Captain Ogle, who had been tried for murdering the cook of the
Vine Tavern, near Dover St., Piccadilly, but had been found insane on
arraignment, and had accordingly been detained in prison "during His
Majesty's pleasure." There was no Broadmoor asylum in those days for
criminal lunatics and Newgate was a poor substitute for the palatial
establishment now standing among the Berkshire pine woods. The fire
was supposed to have originated in Captain Ogle's room. Beneath it
was one occupied by Thomas Smith, a horse-dealer, committed to prison
on suspicion of stealing corn from Alderman Masters. Smith's wife
the night before the conflagration had carried him the whole of his
effects, amounting to some five or six hundred pounds in notes and bank
bills. When the fire was raging Smith was heard to cry out for help. He
was seen also to put his arm through the iron grating, which, however,
was so excessively hot that it set his shirt on fire. About this time
it is supposed that he threw out his pocket-book containing the notes;
it was caught and the valuables saved. A few minutes later the floor
fell in, and both Captain Ogle and Smith were buried in the ruins.
The fire had burnt so fiercely and so fast that no one could go to the
assistance of either of these unfortunates. About four o'clock in the
morning the Lord Mayor and sheriffs arrived upon the scene, and took an
active part in the steps taken to check the fire and provide for the
safety of the prisoners. By six o'clock, there being an abundance of
water handy, the flames had greatly abated, but the fire continued to
burn till two in the afternoon, and ended by the fall of a party wall
which happily did no great damage. This was no doubt the fire at which
Mr. Akerman behaved with such intrepidity, and which has already been
described.
After the fire it was admitted that the proper time had arrived for
"putting in execution the plan of rebuilding this inconvenient gaol,
which was thought of some time ago." Once more a committee of the
Common Council was appointed, and once more the question of site was
considered, with the result that the locality of the existing prison
was decided upon as the most suitable and convenient. The first stone
of the new gaol was laid on the 31st May, 1770, by the Lord Mayor,
William Beckford, Esquire, the founder of that family.
Within a year or two of its completion, the new Newgate had to pass
through an ordeal which nearly ended its existence. Its boasted
strength as a place of durance was boldly set at naught, and almost
for the first and last time in this country this gaol, with others in
the metropolis, was sacked and its imprisoned inmates set free. The
occasion grew out of the so-called Lord George Gordon Riots in 1780.
These well-known disturbances had their origin in the relaxation of
the penal laws against the Roman Catholics. Such concessions raised
fanatical passion to fever pitch. Ignorance and intolerance went hand
in hand, and the malcontents, belonging mainly to the lowest strata
of society, found a champion in a weak-minded and misguided cadet of
the ducal house of Gordon. Lord George Gordon, who was a member of the
House of Commons, showed signs of eccentricity soon after he took his
seat, but it was at first more ridiculous than mischievous. Lord George
became more dangerously meddlesome when the anti-Catholic agitation
began. It was to him that the Protestant association looked for
countenance and support, and when Lord North at his instance refused to
present a petition from that society to Parliament, Lord George Gordon
promised to do so in person, provided it was backed by a multitude not
less than twenty thousand strong.
This led to the great gathering in St. George's Fields on the 2nd
June, 1780, when thousands organized themselves into three columns,
and proceeded to the House of Commons across the three bridges,
Westminster, Blackfriars, and London Bridge. Lord George headed the
Westminster procession, and all three concentrated at St. Stephen's
between two and three in the afternoon. There the mob filled every
avenue and approach; crowds overflowed the lobbies, and would have
pushed into the body of the House. Lord George went ahead with
the monster petition, which bore some hundred and twenty thousand
signatures or "marks," and which the Commons by a negative vote of 192
to 6 refused to receive. After this the rioters, at the instigation
of their leader, hastened _en masse_ to destroy the chapels of the
foreign ambassadors. This was followed by other outrages. While some of
their number attacked and rifled the dwellings of persons especially
obnoxious to them, others set fire to public buildings, and ransacked
the taverns. The military had been called out early in the day, and had
made many arrests. As the prisoners were taken to Newgate, the fury of
the populace was attracted to this gaol, and a large force, computed
at quite two-thirds of the rioters, proceeded thither, determined to
force open its gates. This mob was composed of the lowest scum of the
town, roughs brutal and utterly reckless, having a natural loathing
for prisons, their keepers, and all the machinery of the law. Many
already knew, and but too well, the inside of Newgate, many dreaded to
return there, either as lodgers or travellers bound on the fatal road
to Tyburn. One wild fierce desire was uppermost with all, one thought
possessed their minds to the exclusion of all others—to destroy the
hateful prison-house and raze it to the ground.
On arriving at the Old Bailey in front of the stone façade, as grim
and solid as that of any fortress, the mob halted and demanded the
gaoler, Mr. Akerman, who appeared at a window, some say on the roof,
of his house, which forms the centre of the line of buildings facing
Newgate Street. When he appeared the mob called on him to release their
confederates and surrender the place unconditionally. Mr. Akerman
distinctly and without hesitation refused, and then, dreading what
was coming, he made the best of his way to the sheriffs, in order
to know their pleasure. As the front of the prison was beset by the
densely-packed riotous assemblage, Mr. Akerman probably made use of
the side wicket and passage which leads direct from Newgate into the
Sessions' House. The magistrates seemed to have been in doubt how to
act, and for some time did nothing. "Their timidity and negligence,"
says Boswell, helped the almost incredible exertions of the mob. And
he is of opinion, that had proper aid been given to Mr. Akerman, the
sacking of Newgate would certainly have been prevented. While the
magistrates hesitated the mob were furiously active; excited to frenzy,
they tried to beat down the gate with sledge-hammers, and vainly
sought to make some impression on the massive walls. A portion of the
assailants forced their way into the governor's house, and laying
hands upon his furniture, with all other combustibles, dragged them
out and made a great pile in front of the obdurate door, which still
resisted force. The heap of wood, having been anointed with rosin and
turpentine, was kindled, and soon fanned into a mighty blaze. The door,
heavily barred and bolted, and strongly bound with iron, did not ignite
quite readily, but presently it took fire and burned steadily, though
slowly. Meanwhile the rioters fed the flames with fresh fuel, and
snatching burning brands from the fire, cast them on to the roof and
over the external wall into the wards and yards within. The prisoners
inside, who had heard without fully understanding the din, and saw the
flames without knowing whether they promised deliverance or foreboded
a dreadful death, suffered the keenest mental torture, and added their
agonized shouts to the general uproar.
Through all this tumult and destruction the law was paralyzed. After
much delay the sheriff sent a party of constables to the gaolers'
assistance. But they came too late, and easily fell into a trap. The
rioters suffered them to pass until they were entirely encircled, then
attacked them with great fury, disarmed them, took their staves, and
quickly converted them at the fire into blazing brands, which they
threw about to extend the flames. "It is scarcely to be credited,"
says a narrator, "with what celerity a gaol which to a common observer
appeared to be built with nothing that would burn, was destroyed by
the flames. So efficient were the means employed, that the work of
destruction was very rapid. Stones two or three tons in weight,
to which the doors of the cells were fastened, were raised by that
resistless species of crow known to housebreakers by the name of the
pig's foot. Such was the violence of the fire, that the great iron bars
and windows were eaten through and the adjacent stones vitrified. Nor
is it less astonishing that from a prison thus in flames a miserable
crew of felons in irons and a company of confined debtors, to the
number in the whole of more than three hundred, could all be liberated
as it were by magic, amidst flames and fire-brands, without the loss of
a single life. . . . But it is not at all to be wondered that by a body
of execrable villains thus let loose upon the public, the house of that
worthy and active magistrate, Sir John Fielding, should be the first
marked for vengeance." In the same way, even before the destruction
of Newgate, the house of Justice Hyde, whose activity the rioters
resented, had also been stripped of its furniture, which was burnt in
front of the door.
Crabbe's account written at the time to a friend is graphic, and
contains several new details—"How Akerman, the governor, escaped,"
he says, "or where he is gone, I know not; but just at the time I
speak of they set fire to his house, broke in, and threw every piece
of furniture they could find into the street, firing them also in an
instant. The engines came, but they were only suffered to preserve
the private houses near the prison. As I was standing near the spot,
there approached another body of men—I suppose five hundred—and
Lord George Gordon, in a coach drawn by the mob, towards Alderman
Bull's, bowing as he passed along. He is a lively-looking young man in
appearance and nothing more, though just now the popular hero. By eight
o'clock Akerman's house was in flames. I went close to it, and never
saw anything so dreadful. The prison was, as I have said, a remarkably
strong building; but, determined to force it, they broke the gates
with crows and other instruments, and climbed up outside of the cell
part, which joins the two great wings of the building where the felons
were confined; and I stood where I plainly saw their operations; they
broke the roof, tore away the rafters, and having got ladders, they
descended. Not Orpheus himself had more courage or better luck. Flames
all around them, and a body of soldiers expected, yet they laughed at
all opposition. The prisoners escaped. I stood and saw about twelve
women and eight men ascend from their confinement to the open air, and
they were conducted through the streets in their chains. Three of these
were to be hanged on Friday (two days later).
"You have no conception of the frenzy of the multitude. This now being
done, and Akerman's house now a mere shell of brick-work, they kept a
store of flame for other purposes. It became red-hot, and the doors and
windows appeared like the entrance to so many volcanoes. With some
difficulty they then fired the debtors' prison, broke the doors, and
they too all made their escape. Tired of the scene, I went home, and
returned again at eleven o'clock at night. I met large bodies of horse
and foot soldiers coming to guard the Bank and some houses of Roman
Catholics near it. Newgate was at this time open to all; any one might
get in, and what was never the case before, any one might get out. I
did both, for the people were now chiefly lookers-on. The mischief was
done, and the doers of it gone to another part of the town. . . . But
I must not omit what struck me most: about ten or twelve of the mob
getting to the top of the debtors' prison whilst it was burning, to
halloo, they appeared rolled in black smoke mixed with sudden bursts of
fire—like Milton's infernals, who were as familiar with flames as with
each other."
It should be added here that the excesses of the rioters did not end
with the burning of Newgate; they did other mischief. Five other
prisons, the new prison, Clerkenwell, the Fleet, the King's Bench, the
Borough Clink in Tooley Street, and the new Bridewell, were attacked,
their inmates released, and the buildings set on fire. At one time the
town was convulsed with terror at a report that the rioters intended
to open the gates of Bedlam, and let loose gangs of raving lunatics to
range recklessly about. They made an attempt upon the Bank of England,
but were repulsed with loss by John Wilkes and the soldiers on guard.
At one time during the night as many as thirty-six incendiary fires
were ablaze. The troops had been called upon to support the civil
power, and had acted with vigour. There was fighting in nearly all
the streets, constant firing. At times the soldiers charged with the
bayonet. The streets ran with blood. In all, before tranquillity was
restored, nearly five hundred persons had been killed and wounded, and
to this long bill of mortality must be added the fifty-nine capitally
convicted under the special commission appointed to try the rioters.
It was in many cases cruel kindness to set the prisoners free. Numbers
of the debtors of the King's Bench were loth to leave their place of
confinement, for they had no friends and nowhere else to go. Of the
three hundred released so unexpectedly from Newgate, some returned
on their own accord a few days later and gave themselves up. It is
said that many others were drawn back by an irresistible attraction,
and were actually found loitering about the open wards of the prison.
Fifty were thus retaken within the walls the day after the fire, and
others kept dropping by twos and threes to examine their old haunts
and see for themselves what was going on. Some were found trying to
rekindle the fire; some merely prowled about the place, "being often
found asleep in the ruins, or sitting talking there, or even eating and
drinking, as in a choice retreat."
The ringleader and prime mover, Lord George Gordon, was arrested on
the evening of the 9th, and conveyed to the Tower. His trial did not
come on till the following February at the King's Bench, where he was
indicted for high treason. He was charged with levying war against
the majesty of the king; "not having the fear of God before his eyes,
but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil; . . . that
he unlawfully, maliciously, and traitorously did compass, imagine,
and intend to raise and levy war, insurrection, and rebellion," and
assembled with some five hundred more, "armed and arrayed in a warlike
manner, with colours flying, and with swords, clubs, bludgeons, staves
and other weapons," in the liberty of Westminster. It was proved in
evidence that Lord George directed the Associated Protestants to meet
him at Westminster in their best clothes, and with blue cockades in
their hats, and said he should wear one himself. He was also heard to
declare that the king had broken his coronation oath, and to exhort
the mob to continue steadfast in so good and glorious a cause. For the
defence it was urged that Lord George Gordon had desired nothing but to
compass by all legal means the repeal of the Act of Toleration; that he
had no other view than the Protestant interest, and had always demeaned
himself in the most loyal manner. He had hoped that the great gathering
would be all peaceable; that the mob "should not so much as take
sticks in their hands," should abstain from all violence, surrender
at once any one riotously disposed; in a word, should exhibit the true
Protestant spirit, and if struck should turn the other cheek. Mr.
Erskine, Lord George's counsel, after pointing out that his client had
suffered already a long and rigorous imprisonment, his great youth, his
illustrious lineage and zeal in parliament for the constitution of his
country, urged that the evidence and the whole tenor of the prisoner's
conduct repelled the belief of traitorous purpose. The jury retired for
half an hour, and then brought in a verdict of not guilty.
Lord George, unhappily, could not keep out of trouble, although
naturally of mild disposition. He was an excitable, rather weak-minded
man, easily carried away by his enthusiasm on particular points. Six
years later he espoused, with customary warmth and want of judgment,
the case of other prisoners in Newgate, and published a pamphlet
purporting to be a petition from them presented to himself, praying him
to "interfere and secure their liberties by preventing their being sent
to Botany Bay. Prisoners labouring under severe sentences cried out
from their dungeons for redress. Some were about to suffer execution
without righteousness, others to be sent off to a barbarous country."
"The records of justice have been falsified," the pamphlet went on to
say, "and the laws profanely altered by men like ourselves. The bloody
laws against us have been enforced, under a normal administration, by
mere whitened walls, men who possess only the show of justice, and who
condemned us to death contrary to law."
That this silly production should be made the subject of a criminal
information for libel, rather justifies the belief that an exaggerated
importance was given to Lord George's vagaries, both by the Government
and his own relations and friends. No doubt he was a thorn in the side
of his family, but the ministry could well have afforded to treat him
and his utterances with contempt. He was, however, indicted at the
King's Bench for publishing the petition, which he had actually himself
written, with a view to raise a tumult among the prisoners within
Newgate, or cause a disturbance by exciting the compassion of those
without.
The case against him was very clearly made out, and as his offence
consisted of two parts, Lord George Gordon was subjected to two
different sentences. For the first, the publication of the "prisoners'
petition," the judge awarded him three years' imprisonment in Newgate.
For the second offence, being "trespasses, contempts, and misdemeanours
against the royal consort of his most Christian Majesty," the sentence
was a fine of £500, with a further imprisonment in Newgate at the
termination of the other three; and in addition he was required to give
security for fourteen years for his good behaviour, himself in £10,000,
and two sureties of £2500 each.
Lord George Gordon remained in Newgate till his death, from
gaol-fever, in 1793. He made two or three ineffectual attempts to put
in his bail, but they were objected to as insufficient. It was thought
to the last that the government and his friends sought pretences to
keep him in confinement and out of mischief. His somewhat premature
death must have been a relief to them. But it can hardly be denied
that hard measure was meted out to him, and if he escaped too easily
at his first trial, he was too heavily punished at the second. It
is impossible to absolve him from responsibility for the outrages
committed by the rioters in 1780, although he was doubtless shocked
at their excesses. Lord George could not have foreseen the terrible
consequences which would follow his rash agitation, and little knew
how dangerous were the elements of disturbance he unchained. But it
can hardly be denied that he meant well. Had he lived a century later,
he would probably have found a more legitimate outlet for his peculiar
tendencies, and would have figured as an ardent philanthropist and
platform orator, instead of as a criminal in the dock.
The damages which Newgate sustained at this time were repaired at a
cost of about twenty thousand pounds.