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Ancestry UK

Court of Peverel Prison, Lenton, Nottinghamshire

The Court of Peverel (or Peveril) is said to have been created in around 1070 by William the Conqueror and granted by him to his natural son, William de Peverel. Its main business was the recovery of small debts. Letters patent of 1639 specified its jurisdiction as encompassing pleas of debt, detinue, covenant, account, trespass, trespass on the case and distraint of beasts, goods and chattels where the value of debts or damages demanded did not exceed £50 in value. From that date court's jurisdiction included the whole of Broxtowe and Thurgarton wapentakes in Nottinghamshire and, from 1672 to 1706, the manor of Worksop in Nottinghamshire and the parishes of Rotherham, Sheffield, Ecclesfield, Whiston, Handsworth and Treeton in Yorkshire. The court's stewardship was long held under royal grant by the Willoughby family.

The letters patent of 1639 provided for the court to meet on Tuesdays at a place of the steward's choosing. The warrant of 1672 mentioned the shire halls of various places in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, often with a long succession of meetings at the same place. The venues included Wirksworth, Ashbourne, Normanton and Glapwell in Derbyshire; Nottingham castle and shire hall, Mansfield, Lenton, Linby, Radford and Old Basford in Nottinghamshire.

In 1842, Court and prison transferred from its previous home at Lenton to occupy the former parish workhouse on St Peter's Street, Radford.

Following a visit in March 1848, the Inspectors of Prisons reported:

This miserable place can scarcely be called a prison. It is more properly a lodging house for debtors—a ruinous building, very old, the abandoned workhouse of the parish of Radford, within a mile and a half of Nottingham. None of the prisoners need remain, in point of fact, if they choose to go away, because there are really no means of detaining them. When I visited the place, about half-past seven o'clock in the morning, the keeper was in bed, and the house-door was opened by one of the prisoners. The accommodation, such as it is, consists of a sitting-room and a kitchen where the prisoners cook as they can, each his own food; a small room called the lawyer's room, where business is transacted: and four bed-rooms, dirty and dilapidated, in one of which were three beds, each occupied by two prisoners. On one side of the house is a garden, and on the other a yard, and adjoining this yard is an apartment which was occupied by a debtor and his family. The keeper has no fixed salary, but lives by perquisites and fees. Each prisoner pays him for lodging and the use of the kitchen fire 5s a week. The furniture belongs to the keeper, and he pays 10l annually towards the rend of the house, which is 30l a year, the remaining 20l being paid by the Prothonotary of the Court. There were 14 prisoners in this place on the day of my inspection, the longest confined having been there since the 7th of November preceding, and the greatest amount of debt for which any of them were imprisoned was 58l 6d.

The establishment is utterly bad.

In 1849, the Court of Peverel was abolished by Act of Parliament. The prison building, later known as Peveril House, survived until about 1970.

Records

Note: many repositories impose a closure period of up to 100 years for records identifying individuals. Before travelling a long distance, always check that the records you want to consult will be available.

Bibliography

  • Prison Oracle - resources those involved in present-day UK prisons.
  • GOV.UK - UK Government's information on sentencing, probation and support for families.

Except where indicated, this page () © Peter Higginbotham. Contents may not be reproduced without permission.