Borough Gaol and Bridewell, Boston, Lincolnshire

This is also the bridewell. Two damp offensive rooms about 14 feet square, and over them two rooms for women (one the bedroom 9 feet 3 inches by 6 feet 4 inches, with only an aperture in the door 7 inches by 5); and two rooms adjoining for debtors. No court: no water. Clauses against spirituous liquors not hung up. Salary, as gaoler, £10; as keeper, £5. Fees, 2s. 6d.

Gaoler, William Vaux; a Gunsmith by trade, and his workshop adjoins the Felons' Gaol.

Salary, for both, 31l. Fees, on discharge, 2s. 6d.

Surgeon, when wanted, is ordered by the Mayor.

Number of Prisoners,

Allowance, to Debtors, none. To Criminal Prisoners, four-pence per day.

REMARKS.

This wretched Gaol seems to have been made under the arches of some old monastery.

For Felons here are, on the ground-floor, two damp offensive rooms, 14 feet square, with iron-grated windows, the bars of which are sufficiently set apart for a prisoner to put his head through, and they were conversing with their friends in the street. The Keeper told me they had liquors brought to them at all hours in the night, so that his life was in danger from their frequent intoxication. Their two rooms have wooden bedsteads, two blankets, and a rug each, and an offensive sewer in one corner. Over these are two other rooms, for Female Criminals, one of which is a bed-room of 9 feet 3 by 6 feet 4, dark, and without ventilation, the aperture, which was formerly in the door, having been stopped up: the other has an iron grated window, through which the Woman Prisoner, young and dressy, was nod ding to and conversing with her admirers in the street.

Close adjoining to the above are two rooms for Debtors, who are sent hither from the Court of Requests for the Borough of Boston, Skirbeck-Quarter, and the parishes of Boston and Skirbeck. Here is no clear ventilation. The Debtor whom I met with in August 1802, complained of excessive heat: he appeared as in the last stage of a consumption; and, being a medical man, said it was owing to the want of air. Hard-fated captive! His debt was one guinea: his commitment, for forty days, which were nearly expired when I came hither.

Here is no court-yard; no water accessible: The Keeper fetches it as wanted, for his own use, from the street adjoining. The Gaol did not look as if it had ever been white-washed; nor could its filthy state be a matter of surprise, when its communication with the street was considered.

The irons here used are excessively heavy, owing, as the Gaoler informed me, to the insecurity of his prison. Neither the Act nor the Clauses hung up.

This prison stands on ground the property of the corporation, known as the Dock Pasture. It is detached from other buildings, and is the most insecure place of confinement I have met with for prisoners under criminal charges, it being even without the protection of a boundary wall. It is a plain elevation of three stories, with the apartments for prisoners ranged on each side of central passages. On the ground floor are seven day-rooms, with airing-yard attached. First floor, chapel, and seven sleeping-cells, with arched roofs and brick floors. Second floor, seven cells, four with lath and plaster ceilings; from these upper rooms many attempts at escape have been made.

The drainage appears to be defective, the privies are offensively exposed in the centre of the yards, and the buildings are not fire-proof.

Diet.—The keeper is allowed sixpence a-day for the maintenance of the prisoners. He states, that if the price of provisions be low, there is a trifling profit to himself in providing the following diet.

Bread, 8 lbs. weekly.

Breakfast and supper, 1 pint of gruel.

Dinner, Sundays and Thursdays. ½ lb. of meat weighed after cooking, without bone, and 1 lb. of potatoes; Monday and Friday, 1 pint of soup, with onions and vegetables; Tuesday and Wednesday, 1 pint of gruel, and 1 lb. of potatoes.

Clothing..—No regular clothing.

Bedding.—Iron bedsteads, hemp mattress, 3 blankets and rug. The prisoners sleep two and three in a bed.

Fuel.—A peck of coals, from Michaelmas to Lady-day, is the daily allowance for each day-room.

Health.—The surgeon attends only when required by illness and at corporal punishments.

Moral and Religious Instruction.—The chaplain performs one service on the Sunday afternoon. besides making occasional visits. The prisoners are supplied with Testaments. The keeper states in evidence, "That a dissenting minister attends on Thursdays without being requested to do so by the prisoners, and has brought others with him; he distributes tracts, and addresses the prisoners; the tracts are those of the Religious Tract Society; the prisoners have not evinced any disposition to attend to him: the mayor gave me a verbal order to admit him whenever he requested it." The chaplain states, "No application of the sort was made to me."

Labour.—The tread-wheel for the males and females moves with the same velocity, and is on the same shaft. Before the tread-wheel for the males is a contrivance for keeping the prisoners at labour, which is a novelty to me. A pit or trough of water, about 3 feet deep, extends the whole length of the wheel to prevent prisoners jumping off. The keeper states, "That they have frequently in sport knocked one another off the wheel into this dyke, and that some under the pretext of exhaustion have dropped themselves into it."

Punishments and Offences.—Whipping is inflicted by the keeper, who receives a fee of 5s. on each occasion. The greatest number of lashes ever given were six dozen, but generally less. The surgeon and chief constable are invariably present.

Scourge.—Handle of hard wood, with nine lashes of small whipcord.

Irons.—For the refractory; 12½ lbs.; transports, 5 lbs.
Prisoners in solitary confinement receive 2 lbs. of bread only.

Visits.—order of a magistrate.

General Discipline.—The town of Boston not having received a grant of quarter-sessions, this prison, since the passing of the Municipal Act, has been neglected, and the marks of it were very apparent on the day of inspection. The drains and privies were in want of cleansing, the pumps were so out of order as to be useless, and no magistrate had visited for months. Books and newspapers were in the day-rooms. The prisoners ordinarily confined here are debtors from a local Court of Requests, those summarily convicted, and under examination. The insecurity of the building cannot be better illustrated than by the eight escape attempts between 1832 and 1837, and the five successful escapes over the same period.

Keeper.—Age 49; appointed 1820; salary 62l.; 18l. in lieu of fees; 5l. for lime-whiting the gaol; coals, candles, soap, and garden.

Chaplain.—Appointed 1825; salary 20l.

Surgeon.—Appointed 1836; salary 15l. for attendance and medicines.