Debtors' Prison, Lostwithiel, Cornwall

is the property of the Duke of Cornwall, lord of the Stannaries. A vaulted room below; a large room on the first floor and three rooms over it. There are white-washed once a year. (There are several other rooms designed for confinement, and they were used one year as the Sheriff's ward for the county.) The rules extend over the whole borough. The keeper told me that he had a prisoner who was arrested for [a debt of] £6: the man had a large family, and not a bad character; yet the plaintiff paid him his groats for two years; and dying then, bound his estate for the continual payment of them: but the insolvent act freed the prisoner and the estate. Keeper no salary: fees, 13s. 4d. no table.

This is a Stannary or Tin-miner's Prison for Debtors; the property of His Royal Highness the Prince, Duke of Cornwall, and Lord of the Stannaries. It is a Prison for Debtors only. Adjoining to it are two court yards —, not supplied with water, which the Prisoners have from the Keeper's house. The room which is now, denominated "The Prison," is spacious, 42 feet by 18, and 7 feet 6 inches high; and has four iron-grated windows looking to the street, with inside shutters, a fire place —, and straw on a tarras-floor,for men. Above it are three rooms for Women Debtors. Besides these there are several small sleeping rooms, to which the Keeper furnishes beds, at is. per week. They were used one year as a "Sheriff's ward," for the County: Some of them have been since inhabited by the Keeper, and others are a deposit for wine. Over the old Prison is a board, on which is painted, "Dealer in Spirituous Liquors!"

A large vaulted room below is called The Dungeon, and has two iron-grated windows toward the street. At my visit in 1806, it was filled with lumber; and over it is a large room, in which Prisoners for the Midsummer and Christmas Session are detained for trial.

Five sleeping-rooms are in the upper part of the Prison; of which one is furnished with a wooden bedstead, and an old chaff bed, left by the late Keeper.

The last Debtor confined here was Salathiel Harris; committed the 16th of July 1805, and liberated the 14th November following, in consequence of his Plaintiff's being non-suited. During the period of his four months confinement, his Wife and Children were thrown for subsistence on his parish, of St. Agnes; and as no allowance whatever is granted to the Prison, this poor Man received the indulgence of being brought down from his room to an iron-grated window next the street; there to solicit the casual charity of passengers, by means of a shoe, suspended by a cord, which the Keeper had humanely provided for him! There formerly were, and I believe still are, certain Rules, or free boundaries to this Prison, somewhat like those of the King's Bench and Fleet; which are said to extend over the whole Borough, and a Prisoner was indulged with them, on giving security.

The Lord Warden of the Stannaries holds his Court here four times a year, and has his Office of Cuinage; explained to me, as signifying the Process of making up the Tin into Pigs or Blocks. This Prison is very dirty, not having been white-washed for near 20 years.