County Bridewell and Town Gaol, Devizes, Wiltshire

This is also the Town Gaol. It has two night rooms for men, and two for women: but the day-room and court-yard with water, common. — A small work-shop; I saw no body in it.—An Infirmary of two rooms.—Four rooms for Master's-side Debtors.—All clean at my last visit; lately white-washed &c.

Allowance to Offenders three-halfpennyworth of bread a day (weight in Sep. 1776, 18 ounces), and a pint of small beer. Straw a guinea a year.

There was a Debtor from the Court of Requests, he had a wife and four small children. Twelve weeks confinement clears fuch Debtors.

Two or three years ago the Gaol-Fever carried off many: but as the Infirmary and some of the other rooms mentioned above have been built since that time, there is now little danger of that distemper; provided care be taken to separate Prisoners in the apartments built for that purpose. Clauses of Act against Spirituous Liquors not hung up.

The Gaoler has a Salary of £10, and keeps a public-house.

A new prison with six separate courts, of which one only can be viewed by the keeper from his windows. The magistrates have improperly built on the old close and confined spot; a fault too common in such cases, when at no greater expense, a more healthy situation might have been chosen, out of the town. Employment, said to be making nets. Surgeon's salary now £15. No chaplain. Allowance to felons now three-pence a day in bread, a pint of small beer, and two pound of potatoes a week. Gaoler's salary £100.

1788, May 29, Debtor 1. Felons and Petty Offenders 29.

A prisoner, Thomas Platt, lately died in one of the solitary cells, and the verdict of the coroner's jury was, died by hunger and cold. Since this, the allowance was augmented as above.

Gaoler, Joseph Draper. Salary , 100l. Fees, none .

Chaplain , Rev. Mr. Leddiard . Salary , 20l. Duty , every Sunday.

Surgeon, Mr. Gibbs. Salary, 15l.

Number of Prisoners,

Allowance, to Debtors, none; unless certificated as Paupers. To Felons, &c. one pound twelve ounces of best wheaten bread, in loaves to that amount from the Baker's, and which I have always found of full weight.

The Debtors sent to this Prison are committed by the Court of Requests for the adjacent Hundreds of Bradford, Melksham, and Whorlsdown. The expence attending their commitment sometimes becomes highly aggravated; frequently it exceeds the original debt, and is such as almost to preclude the possibility of a compromise.

One of the commitments, which I copied in 1801, was as follows: Debt, 10s. 6d. Costs, 1s. 9d. additional Costs, 11d. Further Costs, if the Defendant is carried to Prison, are 10s. 6d. Now, as Debtors of this description are never enabled to pay the original debt, and costs, and charges, they must suffer confinement for 20 or 40 days, as prescribed by the Act;-to the injury of health, or the destruction of morals, or both.

They are not here, as in many County Gaols, confined amongst other Debtors; they ought not therefore to be sent to Bridewells; but, so long as this system of Imprisonment for Driblets of Debt, is cruelly permitted, they should be sent either to the County Gaols, or to one purposely built, with an allowance of proper society, food, and bedding. But here, there is no separate ward, nor a court-yard for Debtors; who therefore must associate (if at all) with Felons, and other criminal Offenders.

At my visit in October 1806, several, in the Women's ward, appeared to be of the most lewd, profligate, and abandoned sort: yet, confined to such association, I found a poor hard-working Woman-Debtor, and a Man who had been committed hither from the Court of Requests, both living in common with the Criminals.

In this Prison are six court-yards. The principal, or Felons', is 38 feet by 30: Their day-room, 18 feet by 17, and 7 feet high, lighted by one iron-grated window. Over this their sleeping-room, of the same size, 7 feet 6 inches high, with a chimney and ventilator; and good beds and bedding are furnished by the Keeper, at 2s. and 1s. 6d. each per week.

On a level with the Felons' day-room is a work-room, 26 feet by 14, and 7 feet high, with three iron-grated windows: The floor is excavated, and contains two hemp-blocks. Over this is their night-room, of equal size, 6 feet 9 inches high; supplied also with three iron-grated windows, inside shutters, and two ventilators, and containing fourteen beds.

From this court-yard you enter into a lobby, 21 feet by 10, and 9 feet 6 inches high; leading to twelve cells, six on each side of a passage five feet wide. The cells are 10 feet by 7; lighted by an iron-grated window, and each fitted up with two ventilators, a crib bedstead, straw-in-canvas bed, and one blanket. These cells are encircled by a narrow court-yard.

Adjoining the Women-Felon's ward is a court-yard, of 50 feet by 20, with a dayroom, 21 feet by 16 feet 9 inches, and 7 feet 2 inches high. In this ward were nine Women and two Children confined. Above it is their sleeping-room, of the same size, with two iron-grated windows, five beds, and a chimney-piece.

The Infirmary, 22 feet 6 inches by 16 feet, and 7 feet 4 inches high, consists of two rooms above each other; the higher one, with a boarded floor, appropriated to the Women, the other stone-floored, assigned for the Men: They have each a fire-place, with two iron-grated glazed windows, and are well-ventilated. In the Men's Infirmary was one poor Lunatick. The Infirmary court-yard is 23 feet by 27, The court-yard belonging to those committed for misdemeanors is 38 feet by 32, and has two hemp blocks, placed under the arcades. Their day-room, 38 feet by 16, is 7 feet 6 inches high: sleeping-room, 25 feet by 16, and of the same height as the former; each having three iron-grated windows, and two ventilators. The Chapel is small and neat. The Women have a separate gallery to themselves, opposite the pulpit.

There is a day-room in every court-yard, with a fire-place in each; but no fuel allowed. The sleeping-cells are well-ventilated, and fitted up with a wooden bedstead, straw-in-sacking case, and a blanket each, for every Prisoner, all laid on the boarded floors.

Notwithstanding the work-rooms and hemp-blocks above enumerated, decipimur specie recti: Appearance is the order of the place. There is seldom any employment in this County Prison of Wiltshire: and yet, the Keeper told me, that he had had, at one time, sixty-four Prisoners under his care. If they can procure work, they receive half of their earnings; and the County has the other half, deducting only one penny in every shilling, which is allotted to the Keeper for his trouble.

The Corporation provides no bedding for Debtors, nor is there any fuel allowed, even in winter.

Of the six court-yards, that only which is for the Felons can be viewed by the Keeper from his windows; the area of one of them is nearly occupied by sleeping-cells. Each court-yard has a sewer, and water.

The Prison is white-washed once a year. Here is a bath of stone, with a boiler for supplying water warm and cold. An oven also is provided, for purifying the Prisoners' clothes; but, according to the Keeper's account, it has never been used.

No Rules and Orders. The Act for preserving the Health of Prisoners is printed, not hung up; but the Clauses against their use of Spirituous Liquors are properly exhibited.

A palisaded fence was wanted before the back door of the Keeper's house. If a latticed partition and door were made in the Criminals' court, about six feet from the Keeper's door, it would prevent Prisoners from rushing out, of which, as he told me, he was sometimes apprehensive.

This ill-constructed Prison, however, is expected to be soon taken down; and as a new one is building, in a better situation, a more ample description of every particular is needless.